Having arrived in Broome a full 2 days early, and having our own car handy, we decided to take a short trip 200km north to Cape Leveque on the Dampier Peninsula - a place Dad and partner Julie had raved about, and I've heard mentioned by many locals as being isolated, beautiful, and bloomin' hard to get to if you don't like bumpy roads or expensive light aircraft. We decided to brave the road ourselves, but left the Eagle back at home base (Broome Beach Resort) as we figured that taking more chances after the Bungles road was pushing it too far. We booked a safari tent at Kooljaman Resort, owned by two local communities of One Arm Point and Lombadina, but operated by outsiders who trained the locals.
Compared to the Bungles Rd, this one wasn't as bad as expected. There was 95km of a wide, red, corrugated, sandy road - but on the bright side, it was straight and flat! With tyre pressures down and everything tightly packed in, we made it without any issues. The remaining 105km to Kooljaman is a beautiful paved road!!!! Keeps out the riff raff I guess. Just after the bitumen commenced, we pulled into the Beagle Bay community to look at the Sacred Heart Church there - the alters are embedded with mother of pearl and shells. We picnicked under a tree outside watching the school next door film a hip hop song.
Checking into our safari tent at Kooljaman (built on a wooden platform), the girls were thrilled with the 'tent' that was to be our bedroom (I was thrilled at the very nice solid bathroom and kitchen ammenities) plus of course our verandah with bbq and table etc. Gorgeous view too.
Straight down to the water - a sublime 30 degrees and bright blue - before heading back to our barbie to cook up some lamb koftas and light the mossie coils.
The next morning we booked into "Brian Lee's Tagalong Tours". Brian is a well-known character locally and in Broome. With a heritage from the local Bardi people, an English 'blackbirder' (stole aboriginal people for pearling) and a Japanese pearler, Brian had many interesting stories to tell. We joined 6 other cars and drove along the beach, stopped at a 'midden' - where families had eaten shellfish and turtle for centuries; stopped for a swim and spear-fishing lesson (along the way we passed an unfortunate Toyota Prado which had been bogged 3 weeks before by 2 girls who decided that driving along a beach in their friend's car in 2WD and fully inflated tyres was a good idea - they got bogged, the tide came up, end of story); and headed over the dunes along the Hunter River (no crocs yet) to look for mudcrabs and find bushtucker. It was supposed to be a half-day tour, but it was all so enthralling, everyone got fully involved and we didn't end up getting back to our 'tent' until mid-afternoon - in time for another swim.
Being a Friday night, we wandered down to the restaurant to partake in their woodfire pizza night - we were hoping for some leftovers for lunch the next day, but the girls left very little.
We had hoped to visit the Lombadina community (the wife of a friend of Paul's had taught at the school here), but we'd run out of time, and being Saturday, the school was closed. Next time for sure. Now back along the bumpy road to Broome. Mum arrives for 2 weeks on Sunday.