WA-Cape Leveque

We decided to head to Cape Leveque at the tip of the Dampier Peninsula, which is about a 440 klm round trip from Broome and half of it is unsealed. We camped at the beautiful Aboriginal community of Middle Lagoon. We pitched our tents on the edge of the cliff overlooking the bay. Mike and Steve fished off the rocks after wading out to them, and pulled in one of the favoured fish of the area- “bluebone”. We have had two of them while in the Broome area and they are the sweetest fish I have ever eaten. Delicious.!



Half way towards the cape is Beagle Bay, another Aboriginal community where the church was built by the missionaries and the locals in the 1800’s. Mother of Pearl shell has been used to decorate the inside of the church altars and the walls. The inside of this church was also in the movie “Bran Nue Day”



At the tip of the peninsula at One Arm Cove two of the local dogs spend the mornings playing with the sharks. A couple of lemon sharks swim into the bay and the dogs swim out to play. The sharks grab the dogs in their mouths, pull them under the water, drag them along and then let them go. While we were there the dogs were swimming and the sharks came in but they didn’t play with each other. Maybe they didn’t want to be watched.


The Aboriginal Communities on the Peninsula are well kept and the locals very happy and friendly and willing to share the local fishing spots. The dirt roads were rough but it was all worth the experience

WA-Broome

This romantic town is often described as the southern gateway to the Kimberley. It oozes charm, has a rather checkered and interesting pearling history, is extremely picturesque and is where the red pindan cliffs meets the turquoise blue ocean, and we love it!!


Broome is a melting pot of cultures. The area was originally founded in the late 1800’s as a pearling port which attracted Koepangers, Malays, Chinese, Japanese, and Europeans along with the local aborigines, many who were taken as slaves for work on the boats. It is hard to imagine that over 1000 men died while diving for the mother of pearl shells which was used to make buttons until the discovery of plastics in the mid 1900’s. With the advent of cultured pearls about the same time Broome then became the world’s leading producer of large cultured pearls and they are stunning.


The town of Broome, as you would expect is full of pearl shops, art galleries, restaurants and many beautiful resorts. Mike and I had coffee at many of them enjoying the beauty of their surroundings and deciding which one we would stay at if we had the opportunity to come back without our caravan.


Camel rides along the 22klm Cable Beach are one of the “must do” things when here, and the most popular times are at sunset. Hundreds of people descend onto the beach with their chairs and beverage of choice to enjoy the sun setting over the ocean. We spent many evenings here enjoying this spectacle. A highlight for us was to watch the inaugural Polo match on the beach. Apparently it was such a success that it will now be an annual event.



Another” must do” is to watch a movie at the Sun Cinema. This indoor/ outdoor theatre was built in 1916 and has withstood the war time bombingof Broome, cyclones and king tides.The Australian movie Bran Nue Day was filmed in the Broome area and one of the scenes was filmed in this theatre, and we were very fortunate to see this movie here.




While in Broome Mike spent most mornings fishing of the town jetty and we have eaten some magnificent fish meals. Many times the local gropers or sharks would eat the catch before it could be pulled out of the water. While at the jetty we also saw large water snakes and turtles gliding by. Mike caught a “bluebone” here which is one of the best eating fish in the area but difficult to catch.












“Stairway to the Moon” is a natural phenomena that occurs 2-3 nights each month when the moon rises over the ocean and reflection on the water creates the stairway effect. Hundreds of people line the shores of Roebuck Bay to watch this event.

We loved Broome so much that we extended our 10day stay to a month. We needed a holiday from our holiday! It was beginning to get rather busy by the time we left so we were ready to move on.

WA-Barn Hill Station

Barn Hill station is a working cattle station, about 130 klms south of Broome, which has a camping area near the beach. The 10klm drive down another dirt road was rather hairy as this stretch had puddles on the track as well as the cattle crossing every now and then.








The camping ground is very basic, right on the cliffs on the edge of the ocean, with lots of shade trees which is always nice on those hot days. The showers and toilet blocks didn’t have any roofs which made it interesting at night - sitting on the toilet checking out the stars! The hot water is heated by a very primitive system of wood burning and is hot for two hours in both the morning and in the afternoon. The power was generator run so we couldn’t use our air conditioners or any heating elements which meant that we had to switch our hot water to gas. It is handy that our van is so versatile.







Once we walked to the beach we were in for a treat. The red cliffs and rock formations were fascinating. The area also had a dramatic nine metre tide. At high tide there was a narrow strip of sand along the beach and then at low tide, there is a steep decent to the waters edge where masses of huge rocks have been uncovered by the retreating tide
and you would swear that you were on a different beach.



It was wonderul walking along the beaches viewing the cliffs but the shells were few and far between, we had been spoilt by the millions of them at Eighty Mile Beach.

WA-Eighty Mile Beach

Eighty Mile Beach Caravan Park is located on the beachfront between Port Hedland and Broome. The park is off the main road, 10klms down a red dusty dirt track. The area had been hit by a cyclone last season which snapped many of the trees making the area very bare with parts of the tree trunks still left in the ground but with no branches or leaves.
The area is well known for its fishing, sunsets and shell collecting.

Mike hooked into a huge catch which we thought would be our dinner for a week. It took him one and a half hours to bring it close enough to shore to see that it was a huge sting ray just before it snapped the line and swam away, probably exhausted. Mike really enjoyed the fight but disappointed after all that effort to find out that it wasn’t something we could have eaten.









At low tide the water goes out between 500 metres and a kilometre, which leaves the mud and sand flats exposed. The beach is covered in shells and sponges, and in some spots the shells would be over a metre deep. A shell collectors heaven. While Mike went fishing my friend Di and I would fossick on the beach and we have collected some fantastic shells. There are piles of shells as far as you can see. Incredible.