Middle Lagoon - Kooljaman - Cape Leveque

17 August 2017

The road up the Dampier Peninsula to Kooljaman, the aboriginal name for Cape Leveque, was worse in parts than the worst of the Gibb River Road. With lowered tyre pressures and a slow speed of between 40-60 kph the trip from Broome took us over six hours, although that did include a side trip to Beagle Bay to visit the shell Catholic Church, built in 1917 by a Father Droste, some pioneer Brothers and "with the help of the aboriginals". 

The altar.

Beagle Bay Catholic shell church.
In the grounds of the combined primary and secondary school was a grotto - but I'm sure that's not what it's called - my bad - apologies to Liz, Clare, and Jennifer!

The "grotto" in the school grounds.
We booked to stay two nights at Middle Lagoon - sadly not on the ridge as we'd been given the incorrect information at the Broome Information Centre that only tents could occupy the ridge. Vans are aplenty on the ridge. We could have had one night but not two so sadly opted for a second row site. 

Not too shabby a possie by the beach.
Sundowners up on the ridge after a swim watching the sunset over the Indian Ocean was magic with the sun setting on a 34 C day; winter in this part of Australia is truly beautiful. 

A nice spot for sundowners.
A cool breeze came in once the sun had set - no flies or mozzies to be found. Bliss. 

The days have been filled with swimming, reading, eating and drinking - lots of water!  The whales have come into the bay to bring their calves to suckle and learn the ropes of being a whale. They've breached and spurted to their hearts content tonight - and ours!  A fisherman told us he and his wife were out fishing in their boat last week and saw a cow with her calf suckling alongside their boat.  

Before heading out for our walk this morning I finished the book, "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed, that I'd bought back in an op shop in Kununurra.  It was a memoir; Cheryl hiked the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in west USA from California up to Oregon (there is a link here ...)

We have met some lovely people over the past seven weeks from all parts of the world and various parts of Australia. Earlier in the day we met Mark, Alby and Diane on the southern beach at Middle Lagoon.  Mark told us they'd been given the nickname, "the MAD family" by campers earlier on their trip, in an effort to help remember their names.

In the book, "Wild" - the PCT hikers were also given nicknames by other Trail hikers and I said to Diane and Mark, "That reminds me of the book I finished about an hour ago". It was about a girl who hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in the United States ... and Diane yelled, "Wild" -  we know that, we watched that video last night in our van!"  Now, how weird is that?!  

As with most nights, we enjoyed sundowners with a G&T - and the sun set on another beautiful day.

Sunset over Middle Lagoon.

19 August 2017

Forty years ago today my Mum died. I didn't think I'd ever get over it. I still miss her. 


We made our way back up the Middle Lagoon road to the main road that would take us to Kooljaman, Cape Leveque.  

The road in and out of Middle Lagoon is very tight in places with room for just one car.  It is advised to leave before 9 am and not go in until after 10 am - that way nobody has to back up for several kilometres!

Welcome to Kooljaman.

And again, the road into Kooljaman was rough with deep sand in places, corrugations and dips - and with room for only one car on the road, we were both concentrating hard.

The two surrounding indigenous communities, Djaridjin and Ardyaloon (One Arm Point), jointly own Kooljaman - it is 100% indigenous owned.  The camp has been developed, "in line with the community's aspirations and their inherent knowledge of the land".  We were impressed that Kooljaman is run entirely on solar power (with a backup generator).  

Before we left Broome, we booked "Ongoe" a beachside hut high on the ridge at Kooljaman for the next two days and nights and it is superb.  
Q+ and our beachside hut.

John getting organised to set the fire.
We saw whales spurting and breaching right in front of us ~500 metres off the beach.    
"Our" beach!
A virus has gone through the communities here and our tour with Bundy, a local aboriginal man who runs various tours: taking campers out to find wild food; making a spear; catching fish with the spear, etc has been cancelled - in fact he's had to cancel all tours for the week.  I was looking forward to making a spear - and hopefully catching dinner!

 In lieu, Raugi's restaurant beckoned and after a glass of white on the red pindan clifftops, we enjoyed "Bardi inspired, French fusion cuisine" .  
Sunrise over Eastern Beach.
Sunrise on the cliffs in front of our campsite.

Our two days and nights here have been magnificent - we have thoroughly enjoyed this part of the Dampier Peninsula.  Next time we will go to Whalesong, Djarindjin-Lombadina and One Arm Point.  As they say, "You've always got to leave something for next time"!





Sunrise was quite spectacular this morning - yes, I was up early and got these beautiful pictures of Eastern Beach, from our campsite.



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