The Dampier Peninsula

Just on sunset we pulled up at Barred Creek along the Dampier Peninsula. It was a lovely spot beneath a twisted Gum with the river nearby. It was slightly disconcerting that it was low tide, so we weren’t quite sure how high the river would go and if it would eventually allow crocs to come over the bank, but we decided we’d be ok and set up and had dinner whilst providing a banquet for the local mozzies.

The next morning the tide was high and the river was flowing, but thankfully there were no crocs in sight! Eager to discover the coastline we hopped in the Hulk and continued down a 4x4 track. We ambled through some trees and bushes, through sand, soil and rock and eventually came out on a rugged cliff top overlooking some pristine water! Absolutely stunning.  We soaked in the sights for a while then decided it was time to continue on and find our campsite at Quondong Beach.

View from a cliff top.

It wasn't long before we were in the water!

Turns out Quondong was breathtakingly beautiful. We found a spot beneath a large shady tree and it wasn’t long before we were swimming.  Now that we were in potential croc territory swimming became a little different – you never go into the deep, you always keep your eyes open and everyone seems to swim together (safety in numbers or something like that) – but even the slight anxiety that comes with your first swim in such waters could not stop us from enjoying the moment. Earlier in the week I had also given in to buying an underwater camera, so we spent the afternoon swimming, fishing, exploring the rock pools and taking many happy snaps. We spent the next day enjoying the sights and the water again. We watched humpback whales dance in nearby waves, so close we could see their tales splashing in the water and occasionally one would leap into the air only to come crashing back into the water. This place was truly magical.

A whale playing nearby.

Our Tree at Quondong.

Michael and I love the sun!

About 2 weeks ago Michael went on Gumtree and stumbled upon an advertisement for another Rollavan, and that they were trying to sell it in Broome! Eager for the Hulk to make a new friend, we sent an email asking if they wanted to catch up (knowing it wasn’t what they were looking for, but hey, why not try and these things are rare). With a similar mindset to us they were keen to catch up, the only hard thing was organising a meeting, with both of us in and out of reception and no solid plans. In the end chance worked out for us and they stumbled upon the Hulk at camp and wandered down to the beach where we had just finished swimming. We had a wonderful long chat, compared rigs and stories and had a great time. With plans to keep heading north, they continued on their way, however we were glad that the Hulk made a new friend – Bob.

The Hulk and Bob.

The next day it was time for us to head north on the peninsula as we had booked into Middle Lagoon for a couple of nights, the closest camping spot we could get to the tip that suited our time frame (who said you need to preplan months in advance, as long as you are flexible). The road north was rough and come to think of it was probably one of the worst we’d been on. It was dusty, sandy, rocky, full of odd angles and packed with other cars that made navigating obstacles difficult at the best of times, but when you want to go to these far out and remote places you have to be willing to rough it! After what seemed like forever we finally found tar again – I think if they didn’t put tar in eventually everyone would be too scared to tackle the road – we had a welcome break at Beagle Bay where we inspected the Sacred Heart Church, a historic church that on the outside is lovely to look at, but on the inside was marvellous as the pictures within, the alters and pretty much every artefact within the church was made of mother of pearl shell or heavily incorporated the shiny coloured shell in the designs. It was beautiful and I can only imagine how long it took to construct!

Sacred Heart Church.

Then it was time to head on to Middle Lagoon, which meant another 40 minutes of rough sand driving, luckily the Hulk was up to the challenge and before too long we were camped under another shady tree with beach views and lovely neighbours to chat to. Again we were soon in the water, however stayed very much in the shallows due to all the croc warning signs and signs talking about recently sighting a crocodile in the nearby creek. That night we had a wonderful campfire and enjoyed staring at the stars with no city lights around to ruin the view. The next day we thought we’d try our luck at fishing, we didn’t take the bucket down because we didn’t think we’d catch anything, however we ended up with two flatheads in as many minutes. They were slightly undersized (well we also didn’t have a ruler so had to guess) and we had nowhere to put them so threw them back. We spent the afternoon enjoying the sun and also taking the winch apart after earlier discovering that it was no longer working. Turns out the motor had gotten some water into it and was corroded beyond repair. We spent some time chatting to the neighbours, who rewarded us with some Golden Trevally that they had caught earlier and I swapped them a recently baked damper scone for a fresh lemon. We were soon excited for dinner! I cooked fresh fish for the first time that night, and it was delicious.

Flat Head!

So we still went swimming - woops!

The next day it was time to visit the tip, Cape Leveque, which meant a bit more sand, some tar, sand again. On the way out there was a weird rattling noise from under the dash, which turned out o be the headlight relay. Not sounding that great, Michael decided to leave the lights off as this stopped the noise and we continued on. The stunning views of the ocean against red cliff tops at Kooljaman were a welcome sight after the long drive. We explored the camp area, decided that Middle Lagoon was probably a nicer spot with easier beach access and water views from camp. However when we did reach the beach it was beautiful, and crocs be dammed we swam in the deep because the water was a wonderful temperature and when else would we get the opportunity to be up here and enjoy it?! We did try our hand at fishing, but the winds on the fishing beach proved too much, to make up for that disappointment we decided to order lunch at the café, yep that’s right even this remote you can still stumble across well cooked food. We enjoyed a wood-fired pizza, sitting on a balcony overlooking the ocean. This wonderful moment was eventually eclipsed by the realisation that we had a long drive ahead and needed to get on the road to avoid driving at night. We said goodbye to the cape and started south, again some wonderful tar and then eventually the rough road. This time there was a few less cars, which made the journey a bit more enjoyable and we knew what to expect so were not as tired come the end of the road.

We had decided to return to Quondong for a night, or so we thought. We arrived just on sunset (luckily, as the headlights were on the fritz) and as the sun slipped away we found ourselves enjoying tea and star gazing yet again. I heard some weird scratching noises coming from the nearby bush, a little worried I grabbed out the mag torch and Michael and I went looking for the offending critter. This turned out to be a hysterical find, turns our hermit crabs love to climb trees and the giant tree covering the camper was full of these little creatures. We watched them for a while then fatigue hit in and it was time to get some much needed shuteye.

Noisy little hermit crabs!

We left Quondong in the morning as we wanted a swim at high tide, which was not until 2.30 (tides have never been that important to us before , but with up to 8 metres of variation, the beach landscape changes a lot) so we needed to be settled in time for a swim and fish! Before heading back to Broome we heard that Prices Point was well worth a look as the striking blues of the ocean and the reds of the cliffs made for a great sight. This belief was well founded and we stopped to marvel at the colours of nature. However the camping here didn’t quite suit, so we decided to head a little further up the track to Coulomb Point.

Our Campsite at Coulomb Point.

The moment we pulled into Coulomb Point we knew this was where we wanted to stay the night, with a great sea scape, a couple of pre-existing fire places and flat open ground – sometimes it’s the simple things. The beach access also appealed to us and was first on the agenda after setting up camp on a cliff top site. Whilst doing this we watched a couple that we had spoken with earlier start fishing off the beach, no sooner had the bait hit the water he was reeling in a good sized Golden Trevally. Spurred on by his success we knew we needed to get down there quick. Before long Michael had half a mullie on a hook thrown into the water, similar luck ensued with a 30-40 cm Trevally on the line in no time. Having not caught a fish that we planned to keep, it was time to chat with our fishing neighbours about what to do next.  We spotted a giant loggerhead turtle cruising along a few meters offshore – what a sight! The next couple of hours saw a couple more undersized fish caught by both fishing parties, but with the bites all but gone it was time to call it lunch time. We were roughly 5 metres from the surf break packing up our gear when we glimpsed something in the shallows, we went for a closer look then decided a more distant approach was necessary as we could see a six foot hammerhead shark right up by the shore in the breakers presumably chasing fish. We watched from the safety of the rocks as two adult sharks and a baby shark repeatedly swam through the breakers almost beaching themselves in the pursuit of lunch. This was an amazing sight, completely unexpected and slightly scary, as only minutes before we were standing where these beasts patrolled. Spine-tingling.  The sharks made cleaning the fish more interesting, as no one wanted to go more than ankle deep in the swell, I was designated look out whilst the boys braved the seas (yes I’m talking ankle deep water, but the sharks seemed quite happy at that depth earlier!). I didn’t spot any sharks, however did see a green sea turtle bobbing along.

Hammerheads in the Breakers!

With dinner now catered for we could splurge and have snags for lunch. I think we were also postponing our high tide swim, quite disturbed by what we had seen earlier. So much for only being afraid and vigilant of crocs, stingrays and jellyfish now we have to contend with shore loving sharks?!? Love it!

We ended up going a lot further down the beach and ‘swimming’ (dunking ourselves one at a time in knee deep sea water) near some fisher folk, figuring they’d somehow magically save us should something go wrong. Luckily fate was with us and we survived our ‘swim’ and even had one more on the way back to camp.  We had seen several schools of fish passing by in the deep, so decided to try fishing off the rocks, no way were we going back to the breakers. We didn’t catch anything, this time the ocean only felt like taking our bait, but we still had fun.

Happy hour with our travel buddies!

We went back to camp and had cold showers and then enjoyed happy hour with the crew. Before long the fire was blazing and we had the fish wrapped in foil over the coals. We gorged ourselves on the fish, not wanting to waste any, and eventually went inside when we were sick of the mozzies biting.

We were up with the sun and were in Broome before long as we decided we wanted to beef up the suspension on the Hulk – the rough roads of Cape Leveque were a wakeup call.  We found exactly what we needed for the car, but unfortunately this meant waiting a week for the parts to come in. Devastated that we might have to spend the week in paradise again we decided that it was worth it and we’d just bunker down at Quondong again – this place was starting to feel like home. We also booked the Hulk in for a service, because we had already managed to rack up the k’s. We went for another adventure on Cable Beach, utilised the reception by making a lot of phone calls to say hi and then headed back for Quondong just in time for the sunset.

Lesson of the Week: Fish is great, but self-caught, cleaned and cooked fish is even better!