Broome - Cape Leveque

(Photo: Beachfront accomodation @ Quondong Point)

Kathy - Well what fun we’ve had since our last blog only days ago. We’ve taken our Dutch friends, Derek and Irene, on lots of adventures. We set out for the Dampier Peninsula on Wednesday morning and headed to Quondong Point. After telling them that the four wheel driving would be fairly tame we ended up on some very sandy tracks and they almost got seriously bogged. We had a cliff top campsite overlooking the water which was very special, particularly since we were able to watch the whales and dolphins jumping in the water below us.

Next day we headed up to Middle Lagoon via. Beagle Bay. The influence of the Catholic missions is still very strong up here with churches being central to the communities up here. The aboriginal communities seem to have much more pride in themselves and purpose up here and, it seems, are not nearly as affected by alcohol abuse as other communities we have seen. We feel the centrality of the church in the communities contributes to this. At Beagle Bay we visited a lovely, active Catholic church. The altar was decorated in mother of pearl and was quite beautiful. Rhys decided to take a “short cut” from Beagle Bay to Middle Lagoon through the back tracks. This resulted in Derek and Irene getting bogged in the sand and Rhys getting bogged in trying to free them. I must say that Rhys enjoyed every moment of it as he was able to use all his recovery “accessories” to get us going again.

Middle Lagoon was beautiful. Lovely sandy beaches. Great shell. Nice snorkeling. What more could you ask for? We even had some early morning entertainment when at 6.00 am we were woken by calls of “is anyone in there? You need to get out quickly there is a bushfire coming through!” Well we did the quickest pack up yet and escaped to the beach to watch the fire go through for most of the day. Derek and Irene got an authentic Australian experience they weren’t counting on.

Next we traveled up to Kooljaman at Cape Leveque. The beaches here are beautiful. The Western Beach has white sand and amazing red cliffs. We have some sensational photos of the sunset from this beach. Again we enjoyed watching the whales. We hoped to do some snorkeling and fishing but we have had incredible winds up here. So much so that there have been wind warnings by the bureau of meteorology from the Queensland coast virtually all the way to Perth. Last night we met an aboriginal guy called Ashley whose family runs a private camp, Gambanan, about 10 kms from here. We went and visited the camp and found it would give us a much more authentic experience of this area. The boys can even make spears and then use them to catch fish so you can imagine they are very excited! Considering we weren’t going to come to Cape Leveque at all we are now finding it is one of the most interesting and beautiful parts of Australia we have seen.

(Photo: Beagle Bay Church)

Pippa - We have been having fun. It is so relaxing being on holidays it like 20 C and its cold. But its night so we can expect it. We have been to Quondong point it is nice there. We have been to Middle Lagoon we went snorkeling there. Also swimming. We experienced a fire but we didn’t get harmed. We had a fun day. We do lots of interesting things. I like to go on the beach. We have lots of shells and rocks we have so much that we have to send some home!

(Photo: Bushfire at Middle Lagoon)

Lachlan –at derby we went to a hollow boab tree used as a prison cell. In the tree were 2 green parrots. We went to the jetty and had some fresh barramundi. The water in the sea was brown and the tide was quick. Then we went to Broom and our Dutch friends booked us. We went into town and tried to find lunch. We ended up in Macers because all the stuff was so expensive. Then we went to the boat ramp. The sea was blue and the sand was white. At our caravan park I went and saw what people had caught. Then our Dutch friends have us badminton rackets so we played till tea. The next day we drove down the beach and collected shells. Then we went down the beach a second time and there were people with nothing on all down the beach! Then we headed up cape leviuec. We went down the wrong track and our Dutch friends got bogged. The one good thing about it was that I found some interesting stuff to send home. We ended up at Quogdon point. We collected shells and found crabs but they were under size to eat. In the afternoon we saw whales jumping and we also saw dolphins. We headed of to Middle lagoon. We went to a church at Beagle bay. Then we went down a supposed “ short cut” but our Dutch friend got bogged so we tried to help them but we got bogged. We ended up getting to Middle lagoon (Just). After we set up we went and had a snorkel we saw some fish and a stingray. Then we collected shells.” There a bushfire coming pack up quick” was the first thing we heard the next morning. So we packed up in 15min and went to the beach. Derek and I went to see the fire nearly burn reception down. We saw the fire jump the road and saw bird lizards and insects we wouldn’t normally see. Like tawny frogmouths, stick insect and frilled neck lizards. I also saw some campsite burn to the ground. Then I helped back burn. The fire was at least 10m high at points. After the fire I saw all of the devastation. Then we went snorkeling. We saw fish of all colors and lots of stingrays. They had blue days. I found a really good shell. Then I saw a big black shark. That’s when we got out. The next day we went to cape leviuec. On the way we went to Lombadena and tried to by some fresh bread from the nuns. But they didn’t have any. So we went to our campsite and played cards. 2 days later we went to 1 armed point. We went to an aquarium thing. It had coral and fish. We got filmed by channel 10. today we are going to an aboriginal community. We will make spears and hunt fish, crabs and squid.

(Photo: Sunset at Kooljaman Western Beach - note the colours reflected on the sand, beautiful)

Rhys – I was not so sad to be leaving Broome, nice beach but to busy EXPENSIVE and commercial. We headed off north up the Dampier peninsular with Derek & Irene in their hired Navara. First night had our own private beach at Qunondong Point, having a bit of fun collecting firewood, exploring rock pools and watching the countless whales offshore. We meet our mascot here, a certain Mr. Wilber McRude, he has no shame. We headed towards Middle lagoon via strict instructions to “stay left” on the tracks towards Beagle Bay. In the many meandering tracks we thought we had stayed left long enough. This was not the case in the soft deep sand. We had a little experience there that helped prove we had carried some of the correct recovery gear, so we used it. Bit of fun for all in the hot sun and good practice for Derek and Irene prior to them traveling from south to North Africa.

At middle lagoon we enjoyed snorkeling among the coral, walking around near deserted beaches. In the middle of the night we were “evacuated” due to one of the North’s ever-present bushfires. After packing up our camp and moving the boys enjoyed being among the insects and reptiles that the fire flushed out. They also enjoyed helping back burn and set up some firebreaks.

From Middle Lagoon to Kooljaman (Cape Leveque) we had hopes of more snorkeling and some boat fishing, these hopes did not eventuate as we had some very severe wind. We had to put up some beautiful sunsets on a full moon at the beach, playing cards and visiting local sights, very hard to handle.

Met a bloke called Ashley from Gambanan, which is a campsite that the local community is orginisining. To me it appears more appealing it is smaller and has some activities for the kids like spear makings, dancers, catching fish etc. I hope the wind drops so we can go out to see the waterfall reef! Will keep you posted if our hopes are met on this one.

Campbell – we went to quondong point. We saw whales. we went to middle lagoon. We went snorkeling and saw lots of fish and a couple of sea cucumbers and stingrays and coral. But only brown coral. I saw one of my friends. I went snorkeling with him. There was a bushfire at Middle Lagoon. We went to Kooljaman. There is a lighthouse on the hill and there is a beach curving around us but no sea to cross. I met a friends who is going to the same place as us. It is Gambanan, Gambanan is nice. We can make spears and boomerangs there for $25. There is an Aboriginal kid there. We met an Aboriginal man who told us about Gambanan.