Thursday morning Bel and I headed back onto the dirt up to Cape Leveque – north of Broome. Before heading off, I thought I’d check the GPS to see how far from home we were – we were turning south soon and starting the trek home.
According to Garmin girl we were 5174km from home and if we drove non stop we could be there in about 3 days!
The turn off to Cape Leveque was about 5km out of Broome, and it wasn’t long before we were off bitumen again. The road was rough and sandy, red sand. Wide at places and then very narrow and concaved in others. A nightmare for passing as you could feel the sand pulling you down the side into oncoming vehicles.
After about 100km we reached the community of Beagle bay. It was established by French Missionary’s trying to convert the local Aboriginals that now run the town. The feature of the town was the church built by hand from local stone and the local pearl shell. Beautiful.
The other feature was the Bakery, we were told the bread was amazing – problem was he didn’t bake Thursday!😳 so we had a pie and sausage roll instead thinking they would make up for it – frozen plastic wrapped imports😳😳.
From Beagle Bay to Cape Leveque the road was sealed and we made great time arriving at Kooljaman camp ground just after lunch. As you drive in you start to see the ocean and the deep blue water of the cape offset against the red sandstone cliffs that surround the coastline. After setting up we drove down to the Western beach and had a quick swim.
The contrast of the red sand from the cliffs, the white coral sand, the deep blue sea, and sky blue was stunning.
Back at the campsite we had a chat with our neighbours – Ryan and Rochelle (and their gorgeous kids – Rome, Lennox, and Banjo). We had coincidently been at the same campsite as them many times along the Gibb and had last seen them in Derby. When they headed off from there we thought it would be the last time. It’s amazing how many people we continue to bump into. Even better is that they’re Complete Campsite campers too!
Ryan enjoyed his fishing and had been given the lay of the land so the next morning Bel and I joined him, Rome, and Lennox for a fish in a channel off the rocks between the western and eastern beaches. It was a rocky walk around and the wind was up so not ideal conditions for the kids, but the fish were biting.
Bluebone Tuskfish were taking the bait, Ryan’s a lot more than mine! We caught close to 10 between us ( I got 2) but only 4 were legal. I did manage to tease one out that tangled me in the rocks which was fun. Think like a fish!!
They’re called tusk fish because of the tusks on their gums…
That afternoon we went on a tour of the beaches. First for a swim on the Western Beach, then on the Eastern, and then a drive up the beach the ?? South eastern ??
So beautiful.
When we got back to camp Ryan was there to tell me what I’d missed – they had fished off the beach and caught a Golden Trevally and a 5ft shark!
We also realise do that we had new neighbours who had a brand new camper trailer the same as ours. Three Complete Campsites in a row!
Will and Tilly were from Newman and it was only their second time setting up so we gave them a few tips when we packed up.
That evening we had the most amazing dinner. Kooljaman has a restaurant that would match any hatted restaurant I’ve been to, a big surprise when you’re 5000km from home. The food was a blend of traditional and local produce, with bush spices. For mains I had the three way duck, Bel had the slow cooked rump. The bush flavours included lemon myrtle, riberry, bush pepper, and quandong.
Just a fabulous meal. We had entrees as well – seafood bisque and pork belly, so we were too full for desert. Oh well we will have to come back 😜
For our last day at The Cape we started with another shot at fishing. We headed down to the beach and I threw a few 100 lures while Bel sun baked and shell hunted.
After a about 2 hours of casting for no return I switched to bait and had some hits from Lomtom. Lots of fun watching it dance on the water as I bought it in, but not what I was looking for. I got Bel to hold the rod to see if that changed my luck but no good.
To be honest it was just amazing standing there. Any fish were a bonus.
In the afternoon we set off for a tour of the local area. First stop was Ardyaloon (One Arm Point). The lookout across to King Sound was beautiful, with the currents rushing through the reef.
On the way out we dropped into Middle Beach. Another pretty lagoon that had beach shelters lining it with families from the local community enjoying the weekend.
From there we headed to some of the other camping areas to check them out (Kooljaman is by far the best), and then to Cygnet Bay and the pearl farm.
The farm is also a resort with accomodation, a cafe, and a pool. They had pearls on sale that were beautiful but at incredible prices so I got Bel out quickly. We did a quick check of their camp grounds – a maze of dirt roads and absolutely no one was camped there????
That evening we headed back to camp for our final swim and sunset at Cape Leveque. The sunsets up here had been stunning every evening since our arrival and this was no exception. I don’t want to leave 😢
