Broome - Dampier Peninsula

BROOME – DAMPIER PENINSULA

It’s been 30 years since we were last in Broome. There have been a few changes! It has greatly increased in size – both in the size of the town itself and the suburbia surrounding it. When we were here last, pearl viewing/sales was done in tin sheds. Now there are large fancy stores to sell them. There are also a number of galleries displaying and selling a large number of artworks in the form of paintings and photography – all very beautiful and expensive. We spent some time driving around and just familiarizing ourselves with the town. Sonja had her hair cut, a pedicure, and bought a pair of bathers. David made a quick trip to the dentist to have a broken filling fixed. We went for a drive along the brilliant red sand of Murakami Road out to Gantheaume Point where we saw the spouts (at a long distance away) of a couple of whales. 

Sonja at Gantheaume Point

Sonja discovered the delight of the nasty little midges arrival around sunset! We sat and watched a brilliant sunset at Cable Beach We had a trip to the movies a couple of times – one of which was to the Sun Pictures Garden, an open-air cinema that is celebrating it’s 100^th year of operation this year. Half of it is covered and the rest in the open. A small grassed area  below the screen had some families on blankets, with pillows.  We sat in the front row and watched the bats flying past the screen at different times and then had the highlight of an aeroplane coming in to land over our heads.

Sun Cinema

Front row, ready for all the fun!

We did a tour of the Willie Creek Pearl Farm. This involved firstly, a drive along the Cape Leveque Road (14kms of bitumen, then RED corrugated sand) and then over the white floodplains before we arrived at the farm. 

Red coloured roads and tracks

Across the mudflats

Here we had an explanation of what was involved in the farming of different types of pearls and of the Willie Creek establishment. An oyster was opened and one of the visitors cut out the pearl that was later valued at about $350! Following this, we had an excellent morning tea and then a boat ride around a couple of the long lines where they farmed the oysters for their pearls. The tide difference here (like most of the north west) can be over 9 metres, and the speed of the water is over 35kph!

 

$375 pearl from this oyster

After the tour, we took a drive north along a track following the coast to have a look at a number of free camping spots. Found a couple of spots for self-sustained camping that would have been really nice if we had had time – wouldn’t dream of taking our caravan out there though, as they are definitely in 4WD territory. (Surprisingly, some people did take caravans into each spot).

Not much room for error on rough sandy tracks

Lunch spot at Quandong Point

Lunch spot at Quandong Point - need for shade

Quandong Point free camp spot

Near Prices Point

Prices Point

Finally, we left our van in Broome (didn’t have to move it from our site as we were coming back) and headed up the Cape Leveque Road to Middle Lagoon. The road starts with 14km of bitumen, then about 90kms of RED, sandy, often narrow in width with high sandy sides, road before returning to bitumen for the last 80kms (all side trips are rugged, unpaved tracks). 

Cape Leveque Road - sandy, rough, RED

We made a short stop at Beagle Bay to have a look at the beautiful Catholic Church there – lots of pearl shell throughout the whole building. 

Sacred Heart Church at Beagle Bay

Lots of shell mosaic in Sacred Heart Church

The road into here was very interesting - very sandy, often corrugated and some sections that were just like driving over some very large waves – real roller-coaster stuff! 
 

Riding the red waves into Middle Lagoon

We had two very pleasant days at Middle Lagoon perched up on top of a ridge overlooking the bay. A couple of swims and a bit of walking around the area made it a great place to spend some time. On our first night we had a strong wind blowing that was obviously heavily water-laden as the sides of the tent became quite damp – in the morning we had little patches of salt on the floor where it had dried!

Our site at Middle Lagoon

View from our Middle Lagoon site

Middle Lagoon beach from our tent

 

Sunset at Middle Lagoon

Next we headed off to have a look at Lombardina. This is a quiet, neat, clean community with a church that is definitely designed for the climate – made from Mangrove trees and a paperbark (tin-covered) roof. There is a brilliant white beach with very aqua-coloured water that invited us in for a swim before we headed off again.

Church at Lombardina

Beach at Lombardina

Our next short stop was at Cape Leveque where we picked up our tickets for the Brian Lee Tagalong Tour we were taking on the next day. We continued on to  Gambanan Bush Camp where we spent the next two nights. 

Need for shade at Ganbanan

 

View from our site at Ganbanan (tide in)

The camp is DEFINITELY a bush camp – so much thick (mostly red) dust, but there were much appreciated cold showers (of course, the cold water here is warm). Our site here had us on the edge of the rise overlooking the bay. We had a great view only to discover that when the tide went out it left only a very small creek as the whole bay drained! Great sunsets and sunrises. 

 

Sunrise at Gambanan

Gambanan campsite at sunrise (tide out)

 
We also had a preview of the Staircase to the Moon (as the full moon rises at low tide – 3 days each month – it gives the appearance of a set of steps reflected in the water leading up to the moon).

Sunset at Gambanan

Sunset - All the water has gone from the bay at Ganbanan!

An early start had us off to Cape Leveque for our cultural tour along with another couple. The drive along the beaches and sand dunes was great fun and we had a great spot for a swim. However, we were very disappointed in the cultural side of things that turned out to be almost non-existent. No fish caught, no mud-crabbing, almost nothing about indigenous foods or lifestyle on the Peninsula. It did not live up to the brochure blurb and we felt cheated – finished at 2:30 rather than the expected 4pm. We figure that, as he’d had a large group the day before, he must have been too tired from that to give us the full works!

Driving on the beach at Cape Leveque

Looking at shells

Needed a couple of goes and less air in the tyres for this dune!

Time for a dip

Quick movement of cars to avoid rising tide

Moonrise at Gambanan

After another pleasant night, we packed up in bit of a wind, and headed back to Broome where we cleaned up as much of the red dust as we could, washed the clothes and just relaxed for a bit. We did go to the Town Beach to see the Staircase to the Moon, but the photos taken don’t do it justice! Camera not performing very well.

 

Returning to Broome - very high sides

Staircase to the Moon

We have been watching the Olympics in between the cleaning/washing. As we were travelling when the previous two Olympics were on (2008 = Europe, 2012 = Outback/Oodnadatta Track), we are thoroughly enjoying what we have managed to see. Missed the Opening, but will not miss the Closing Ceremony!

We have three nights in Broom before we head south to Karijini and Cape Range National Parks.