Day 52/53 – 10/11th July – Broome

Nothing much to report.  We are in Broome once again battling the school holiday crowds.  Our task is simply to wash/shop/prepare for our stint on the Gibb River Road…

Day 51 – 9th July – Cape Leveque – Cygnet Bay

Bloody rain!  It’s not supposed to rain on our holiday!  Last night and the previous night we experienced rain up here… big fat drops and lots of it…   Our plan for today was a tour of the Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm with a boat ride out to the oyster farm… all of this was done in the rain…  Neither the tour nor the boat road would be called a highlight of the trip but as they say… “When in Rome”… 

Day 50 – 8th July – Lombadina – Kooljaman – Cape Leveque

Today was spent exploring the northern end of Cape Leveque.  First stop was Lombadina.  Again, we had heard several reviews about this place being pretty special… unfortunately we were a little underwhelmed.  There was a community there and a few non-descript accommodation buildings.  We let down the tyres and drove along the beach, but I suspect the combination of low tide and an overcast day meant the beach was nothing much to look at…

Next stop was Kooljaman at Cape Leveque.  As with most places up this way, Kooljaman is an aboriginal run operation.  Of everything we have seen of the Cape Leveque area, Kooljaman would be my pick of the bunch.  This is the beach on the eastern side… it’s a pity it was overcast as I think this would have been a stunning view if the sun was out. 

Looking back from the beach, you can see a couple of accommodation cabins overlooking the bay.   I would happily stay here for a period of time… 

Kids being kids on the beach… 

My quick wander up the beach netted a nice little stash of shells…  

The beach on the eastern side wasn’t quite as nice, however the red cliffs on top of the white sand was awesome.  Those pesky crocodiles are here too… 

We managed to time it well for a talk from the local aboriginal rangers.  The community up here is known as the Bardi Jawi Community.  Bardi refers to the land based people and Jawi includes the islands off the northern tip (I think we know one of the islands as Sunday Island).  The group of rangers spoke about their people, history, bush food and their role as rangers.  For any of you out there who are West Coast Eagles supporters, one of the rangers was Ashley Sampi’s dad and one was his uncle.  Ashley’s dad was a funny, funny man… he kept piping up with humorous comments throughout the presentation…

Day 49 – 7th July – Cape Leveque – Cygnet Bay

Our one night in Middle Lagoon done, we hit the dirt road again.  Here’s a photo of the track, even though this is a pretty good section the rest really wasn’t too bad at all… 

On the track out of Middle Lagoon we took a slight detour to find the Whalesong Café located at Pender Bay.  It was an unexpected piece of civilisation out in the middle of nowhere. 

 Aiden’s mango crush…

My view while enjoying a coffee… bliss! 

After our caffeine injection we hit the road again to travel up and around the tip of Cape Leveque to our camp site at Cygnet Bay.  On arrival we missed the sign indicating where Reception was and instead headed down the sand track with a big sign saying “Accommodation”.  We ended up driving willy nilly through a rabbit warren of camp sites and eco tents when you wouldn’t believe it… we came across someone we know  (Johan & Zandra) sitting out the front of their eco tent… we thought that was pretty freaky…  Anyway, we finally made it all the way back to Reception and got our camp site sorted.  We set up camp, then headed back to the infinity pool for a dip in what is the “Dampier Peninsula’s only pool”… 

Spidey “hanging out” at the pool 

Our camp site is nestled amongst trees and coconut palms (yes, we checked to make sure we were not camped under a coconut tree).  Not surprisingly, within the first ten minutes of setting up camp the kids had amassed a pile of coconuts… 

When beer o’clock struck we headed back to the main building for a drink and a game of Batman Love Letter with the kids… and to spend some quality time with Spidey ;) 

The day ended with a really nice dinner in the restaurant with Johan, Zandra and their daughter Francine.  It is surprising how much you appreciate coming across familiar faces while you are away ;)

Day 48 – 6th July – Cape Leveque – Middle Lagoon

Bloody school holidays!  Our plan of living schedule free has hit a bit of a snag… all because of school holidays…  We packed up and hit the road for Cape Leveque.  Not far up the Cape Leveque Road, the bitumen runs out and you hit the dirt… 100km later we turned off for an even rougher 40km of dirt into Middle Lagoon.  In hindsight the trip wasn’t so bad, just a few bumps and a few corrugations… However, our problem wasn’t the road in… when we asked to book a camp site for the night their response was they were fully booked because of school holidays and so was everywhere else in Cape Leveque, you idiot… OK, she didn’t actually say we were idiots but her look and tone of voice said she was thinking it… So, after 150km of rough-ish road we were looking at turning around and heading all the way back into Broome.  Thankfully she had a conscience and seeing our dilemma, said she could squeeze us in for one night only… PHEW!  We then borrowed her satellite phone to ring around Cape Leveque desperately looking for somewhere to camp our trailer.  Turns out Kooljaman was fully booked too… we could get in three days from now but for one night only… grrr.  I tried Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm next and hallelujah!  They were fully booked but had four brand spanking new caravan sites that hadn’t been completely finished so hadn’t been opened to the public yet… would I like one of those?  Hell yes!  Disaster averted… we had somewhere to stay for tonight then the next three nights…  We could now get back to exploring the sites of Middle Lagoon…

Middle Lagoon actually consists of a lagoon and a small bay.  This is the bay.  The primo camping spots are along the dunes overlooking this bay (no, beggars can’t be choosers so we didn’t get to park our camper along this ridge…) 

The lagoon is just around to the left of the bay…  it was a pretty spot however we had read many reviews that absolutely raved about this place.  Yes, it was nice but not sure it deserved all the hype… Maybe you need to stay here a few days to fully appreciate it.  Not sure how it would go with somewhere around 100 campsites and only 4 toilets and 4 solar showers…  

The kids having fun… 

Day 47 – 5th July – The adventures of Spidey

Today, after an anxious four weeks, we were joyfully reunited with Spiderman.  Spidey was last seen riding the mine tour bus in Tom Price... and then he vanished... We believe he chose a career change into the mining industry. However, he didn't last long and soon turned his hand instead to the tourism industry. His role in Customer Relations had him meeting and greeting people at the front desk of the Tom Price Visitors Centre.  Unfortunately, the BK family only discovered Spidey's absence when they were further down the road in Karijini National Park.  When Dave rang the Tom Price Visitors Centre he asked, "Have you seen Spiderman?".  Imagine his surprise when the response was, "Why yes, he is sitting here in front of me right now."  We then organised an internal transfer to have Spidey sent to the Port Hedland Visitor Centre. 

Two and a half weeks later, the BK family arrived in Port Hedland... full of anticipation of seeing Spidey again... However, the blank stare we received at the counter didn't bode well... apparently mail from Tom Price to Port Hedland goes via Perth, Woop Woop, then Timbuktu... so no sign of Spidey. Three days later it was time to leave and still no sign of Spidey. With heavy hearts we left town. The very next day, at Eighty Mile Beach,  we received a phone call... Spidey had arrived in Port Hedland.  So, once again we arranged for a transfer. Spidey would meet us in Broome.  Fast forward several days and déjà vu in the Broome Visitors Centre with blank stares when we asked if they'd seen Spiderman. Finally, on our second last day in Broome we got the phone call we had been waiting for. The following day, exactly three weeks and six days since last seeing him, we were reunited with our lost family member... all was right in the world again...

The last known sighting of Spidey 

Reunited!

Day 47 – 5th July – Broome

Today, we finally got some chill out time, but not until late afternoon… geez, who’d have thought it was such hard work being on holiday?

We were up at the crack of dawn to go dinosaur hunting… There are some genuine dinosaur footprints (thought to be about 130 million years old) embedded in the rocks just off Gantheaume Point but you need a really low tide to be able to see them.  Low tide was at 6.45am so we were at Gantheaume Point at 6.30am.  There are three sets of prints and unfortunately, the tide was only low enough for us to find two of them.  Apparently these are the prints of a theropod, which is like knowing the class of dinosaur but not the exact one.  

Our prints could have been made by any one of these... it's anyone's guess which one...

Remember the photo from yesterday with the girls jumping off the rocks at Gantheaume Point?  Here are the same rocks at low tide… completely different landscape… 

A different perspective… looking back at the same rocks 

We’re packing up and driving up to Cape Leveque tomorrow so the rest of the day was spent shopping and washing before we finally managed some down time this arvo.

Day 46 – 4th July – Broome

There were mumblings at the start of the day about having a quiet, relaxing day… however, today turned out to be a monster of a day!  We started with a very touristy thing to do – a ride up Cable Beach on the famous camels.  After seeing our friends do it a couple of days ago, the kids were eagerly anticipating this…  Apart from a slight panic attack from the boy when the camels got up and down from the ground, it was a nice leisurely stroll up the nudie beach (thankfully there were no bare bums out at that time in the morning…). Megan and I even scored a free pair of pearl earrings! (Lucky I hadn’t already spent thousands of dollars on a pair in one of the squillion pearl shops in town) 

We discovered after the ride the red camel group are marched up to the grass area where they hand out carrots to the kids to feed them… this was an unexpected bonus to our ride. 

I posted an overcast picture of Cable Beach a couple of days ago… that was our first visit to the beach and at the time I took it, I thought the beach was overrated… this morning, in the bright sunshine with the water a dazzling turquoise, I now admit Cable Beach IS a pretty spot… 

The only problem with a popular tourist spot like Cable Beach, it was near impossible to get a spot in the café… so we headed to a little café right on the Town Beach to get some coffee.  

From Town Beach we drove toward the port facility and jetty.  The jetty was a nice walk out to the end passing loads of fishermen… not one of them had caught anything nor looked like they were about to… Apparently the boat all the way down the end on the right hand side ferries supplies out to one of the offshore oil rigs… 

The drive from the port facility around to Gantheaume Point took us past some stunning landscape.  This is the view along Reddell Beach.  The red cliffs along the turquoise water was a sight to see. 

We stopped at Gantheaume Point for a quick look, knowing we were coming back the next day to go hunting for dinosaur prints.  While the tide is up this is apparently the spot to jump off the cliffs…  No photos of us jumping, just some random trio who were there at the time… 

By the time we got back to camp and had some lunch, it was time to jump in the car again to head out to the Malcolm Douglas Wildlife Park.  The main feature of the park are lots and lots of crocodiles as well as some native Australian animals and birds.  Every afternoon they do a feeding show in the main croc pen then they walk you through the park feeding and talking about the other crocs. 

Pffft… the kids don’t even know who Malcolm Douglas is… OR Alby Mangels… We tried to explain that Malcolm Douglas was Steve Irwin before Steve Irwin was around… 

We were surprised at how big the park was and there was a really nice collection of native Australian birds.  Here’s Megan with a Barking Owl. 

This is the main crocodile pen with a whopping 70 crocodiles in there.  Watching them climb out of the water covered in that green algae was like watching a horror film… something from your worst nightmares…  They knew it was feeding time so they were all slowly making their way up to the fence.  

They bought out some baby salt water crocodiles and a python for us to hold.   I usually refuse to touch or hold any creature that is slimy, scaly or cold-blooded… so I had to include photographic evidence that I actually held one… 

Megan proved she is well and truly fearless… she was always front and centre at each of the croc pens.  The crocodiles were jumping and snapping and banging into the fence but she didn’t flinch once… when this croc was fed she was even splattered by whatever poor creature it was given… and no, this didn’t deter her… 

After all this excitement, you would think our day was done... but  wait, there’s more… We headed back into town to Matso’s Brewery, another touristy thing to do.  Matso’s is well known for their exotic flavoured beers and ciders.  You can get mango, lychee and chili beer among their selection.  I tried a wild lime and ginger cider while Dave had a go at their tasting platter.  

Dave showing off his ginger beer to Cass, a friend who has a soft spot for the Matso’s ginger beer… 

Finally, one last destination for the day.  At the Wildlife Park we had run into some friends who were previously from home, but are now living in Karratha.  Fate would have it we crossed paths in an entirely random spot in Broome… Anyhow, they were heading to the Mangrove Hotel to sit and wait for the staircase to the moon.  So, after our drinks at Matso’s we picked up shop and headed to Mangrove’s for a drink and some company other than our own…