Cape Leveque

We decided to kill another windy day with a day trip to the most northern part of the Dampier Peninsula visiting Cape Leveque and One Arm Point.

Our first appointment was with Barry the tour guide at the trochus farm (aka Ardyaloon Trochus Hatchery & Aquaculture Centre) at One Arm Point. I forgot to ask him how it got its name (we would like to assume croc related)!

Ellen's account:

Today we drove to a trochus shell place. They had lots of barramundi and a couple of sea turtles. They had some clownfish, bluebones and some barramundi cod. We fed all of them. There was a tiny turtle that was only 21 days old. It was so cute and it bit Tom!

Here are two of Ellen's turtle pictures

The Tom-biter!

A highlight is the crowd reaction when the large barramundi take the trochus flesh from the hands of the unwitting! We had some idea of what to expect as we had seen video from when Harry & Helen, Richard, Annie, Ruby, Banjo and Moses had visited two years ago. It was still dramatic as you can see from this year's video!....

Hannah bought this beautiful trochus shell at the hatchery

On the way to Cape Leveque we dropped in at the Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm. Aside from the industrial looking bits there is a very classy little display area with some of those perfectly round pearls carrying triple-figure price tags.We then paid our way to be day visitors to the Kooljaman at Cape Leveque resort, found ourselves a delightful beach shelter and raced off for a swim ..... or a play in the sand ...... or some snorkelling ...... or fishing ....... or a bit of birding!

The bird list looked promising!

A really interesting depiction of the seasons

Whalesong

Today there was a stiff breeze (read – “it was windy enough for us to not want to hang around our lovely ridge”). We were aware that there was a similar campground to our own called Whalesong only 10-15 minutes away and fellow travellers had spoken fondly of it while we were in Kununurra.
We found that the Whalesong campground was perched atop a small beach cliff (a lovely red colour due to the pindan sands) some 200m from the closet campsites. The bay (Pender Bay) didn’t quite have the same cosy feel as our lagoons and bay at Middle Lagoon. There was some good beachcombing to be done though!


Pete looking forward to a cafe coffee.

Here we are at Middle Lagoon earlier in the day.

Middle Lagoon whales

I was trying to get a photo of Ben fishing but these show ponies kept wanting to steal the show. We could also hear the whales slapping during still moments at night. These photos are from our first full day at Middle Lagoon. All are taken from our camp site!

Ben’s golden trevally caught on a fly.

Room with a view!


A sunset wander across to the headland – again looking back to the vans.

The road to Middle Lagoon

Here are some pictures from our drive from Broome to Middle Lagoon.

The unsealed part of the road to Cape Leveque – a truly miserable road in sections! In this bit if you meeting an oncoming vehicle you each mount the angled shoulder to pass! Freaky!! We stopped at Beagle Bay and visited the famed mother-of-pearl decorated church there.

Proof that the kids have been to church!

Now we have left the main road and turned left towards Middle Lagoon – another 30km of corrugations and sand. In this picture the Shanavan is up ahead - now there's really no room for passing! The end result is another van full of dust!

Settling in to Middle Lagoon. The kids explore the beach at low tide (our vans can be seen on the ridge in the background)! Ben has a fish & Pete meets the locals.

Cable Beach

Note: Please check later for as yet unprepared “retro” posts which will detail the good times had at Geikie Gorge, Tunnel Creek and Windjana Gorge.

Yes we have arrived at Broome (for the first time) and this post just by way of letting people know this before we head off in to the wilderness again!