Dampier Peninsular - continued

You would have read the boys stories of their adventures on the Dampier Peninsular. Well it has been an absolutely fantastic 9 days. Firstly we took a short cut from Derby up to Middle lagoon which we heard about from some other travelers. A really nice drive on a two wheel track for nearly 4 hours, only saw another car 30 min form the end. Had the 3 nights at Middle lagoon and happened to be be camped next to family friends from Tickera which was a good surprise. I manage to score a few hours in the boat, but still no luck on the fishing front. We obviously looked deprived of seafood as once again some nice people supplied a large feed of mackerel which was great. We enjoyed the beaches here and the boys had plenty of swimming. From here we headed north towards Cape Leveque. We could not get into the resort which we were OK about so went closer to One Arm Point and camped at Gambanan. This was a nice bush camp on the coast owned and run by some locals who also came and gave a campfire talk one night. While it was busy enough, all the other campers there were looking for something less commercial and some space. Obviously the tagalong tour was the highlight for all of us, Brian really made the tour fun and relevant for the younger group. I would say though, both Susan and I also had a great time and learned a little about the Bardi Jaawi people. The day after the tour we went into One Arm Point (the town had been closed over the weekend for a special Aboriginal law gathering) for a look around, made a visit to the trochus hatchery where the boys enjoyed looking at the fish in the tanks, in particular the blue ringed octopus.  Had some lunch at the beach before a tour at the Cygnet Bay Peal farm. Turns out our tour guide was the grandson of the owner of the campground and stayed at the pearl farm Sat to stay away from the law get together. Tour was great, Susan got to model a $10,000 string of pearls! Actually looked nice on!!!!!!  Packed up and headed south again. Called into Lombadina and then to Beagle bay. No fuel here so had to buy some from some travelers we had met a few days back. Made camp at Quandong point ( a free camp) in  great site with shade and a sea view.   Interesting thing here is that one area was packed with large caravans all set up with annexes and the works. We found out later many camp here for 2-3 months when we read the maximum stay was three nights. All the casual campers were keeping clear of this area.

Saw more whales here plus the boys had a swim with a sea turtle that came into the beach one night. Can see why there was a huge outcry about the planned gas hub for James Price Point. There would be no camping at Quandong if this went ahead. Not to mention the 7km jetty to berth the tankers.

 great beach at Quondong pont

 nice view from our camp

 dinosaur footprints

 saw a lot of  these around the North of WA. Gas hub is not going ahead

 amazing coastline

Brian Lee tagalong tour by Lachlan

Today we went with Brian Lee. We did………

Spear fishing, mud crabbing, ghost crabbing, swimming, shell whistling, sucking green bird flowers, walking through mangroves and jumping down sand dunes.

Brian Lee tagalong tour by Samuel

Today we drove to Kooljaman to start our tour with Brian Lee. We drove off to the beach and stopped to look at some middens which were places where the indigenous had their dining, meeting place and lounge all together. We drove off then stopped to do some spear fishing. We all hurled our spears at a school of mullet but none of us caught one. We stopped at another site and looked at some manta rays swimming past, 50 metres later we saw some stingrays. We stopped again and Brian showed us how to whistle through a periwinkle. After we tried catching ghost crabs down their holes, I was the only one game enough to pull one out. We stopped at the edge of Hunters creek and Brian speared a Mangrove Jack with a speargun. We stopped to see if we could catch some Muddies, along the way we saw stacks of tiny soldier crabs and a few blue crabs. We found a muddie with half of its legs missing and then another that we all took turns picking up. We walked in the mangroves and Brain managed to spear a mullet. We got out of the creek and caught small, flightless (flowers on a bush that looked like birds) birds and ripped their heads off them and sucked the juice out of their necks (this is a dreamtime story). We drove to a swimming spot to rinse of the sand that covered us then drove back over the sand dunes and back to camp where we saw two lionfish.

 at the midden

 Brian showing us how to throw a spear

 practicing

 digging for gohst crabs, I caught one

 looking for mud crabs

 holding the muddy

 hunting

 our tour group

the great beach at cape leveque

Middle Lagoon on the Dampier Peninsular by Toby

This morning Dad, Samuel, Lachlan and I got towed in a boat by a car to the beach on the left side of the rocks. I put my thongs down near the water we watched whales swimming on the horizon. Then we said goodbye to Dad and then we started walking back. Just then I remembered about my new (I only bought then 2 days ago in Derby!!!) thongs! So I quickly ran back to the beach where I left them. I found one upside down where I left it, I held it up to show Mum, Samuel and Lachlan, then a man saw the tong I was holding and found my other thong in the water. When Dad got back we walked around the edge of the beach on the left of the rocks. The waves were huge and I actually mean HUGE!

Next day….

The first thing we did was go out to the lookout and watch the whales swim by as we listened to them sing. Then we packed up and went to the whale song café, I ordered a Mango crush. Our next stop was at Kooljaman, I had a pizza for lunch. Our camp was at Gambanan. At Gambanan was a small beach by a cliff. )On the left was a cliff and on the right were some (2) rocky hills. Behind them Samuel spotted a lion fish.

 middle lagoon

 morning tea at whalesong cafe

 nice view

 lion fish....do not pat

 boat ride to the beach

Gibb River Road overview

You will have read that we made it a across the Gibb River Road to Derby well over over a week ago now  (we are now in Broome) so I thought I would write some general info of the Gibb Rd from Kununurra to Derby. We covered 1765km in 18 days which included a trip to Mitchell Fall and Kalumburu plus couple of days through Windjana to Fitzroy Crossing. I should say also that we stopped in at El Questro for 4 day’s in a loop we did earlier around the Bungles and Wyndham so if you include this we spent 23 day on the Gibb. The road was surprisingly good with a small section from El Questro to Home Valley that was rocky and corrugated, the rest was easily managed by the Ssangyong at 60-80kmh. However like we mentioned earlier in the blog, once we turned north towards Mitchell Fall the road was very corrugated and this is where I though the car might struggle as we tried to sit around 60kmph. However while car was fine but the trailer axle didn’t enjoy it much and I had to undertake a small repair when we got into Mt Barnett Roadhouse.  The friendly camp host – also a mechanic – helped out and go the job done. He would not take any money so Susan baked a cake for him which went down well. Susan has done this a few times now that I finally mastered the camp oven and not overdoing the hot coals.The closer we got to Derby the more the road improved with some sections we could easily sit on 80kmph

There are not a lot of free camp options along the Gibb itself with stations opening up and then the National Parks at the western end. The gorges on the western end were pretty popular with the boy’s as you  can swim at them and even jump of the high ledge if your mother turns her back. Bell George in the King Leopold NP was a favorite.

Below is a list of the major items we had packed for the Gibb……we were loaded to the hilt. We could pick up frozen bread at some spots, if not Susan made it and baked in the camp oven. Only the apples lasted well and once all the veg was gone that was it!! Samuel was in heaven. Every third day or so Susan would bake a cake which we ate for “recess” . Water was available at nearly all campsites and on the road so no problem washing etc, and we always stopped in the afternoon to collect enough firewood for 2-3 days and did the majority of our cooking on the fire.

90 apples, 2 tins tomatoes, 7 small tins tuna, 4 packs corn thins, 3 cruskits, 5 x 1k oats, 3 . 1.3kg weetbix, 5 box muesli, 2 x box cheerios, 2 box fruity bix, 5 x easyo, 18 x 1L uht, 2 x 2l fresh milk, 2 x cans milk powder, 2 x doz eggs, 7 small bacon, 2kg cheese, rice noodles, 5kg bread flour, 3 x SR flour, 1 x kg sugar, 2 x 1kg frozen veg, 2 x packet ham, 2 x butter, 5 x bag pasta, 1 x cuscus, 1 x rice, 16 x 1kg fruit, 3 x pasta sauce, 5 x fruit cake, 2kg potatoes, 1.5kg onions, 3kg carrots, 3kg oranges, 2.5 kj mandarins, 1 kg tomatoes, 4 cucumbers, 2kg bananas, 2 x lettuce, 2 x roasts, 2 x silverside, 2 x snags, 2.5kg chicken, 2kg steak,  plus 1 x can of spam for me in case we get short of food. Susan refuses to eat it, so I’m might have to struggle through the whole can. Maybe there is a chance I could use it as fish bait.            

the Gibb River

 Road north to Drysdale station. We have some good video of this.

 Mitchell Fall Rd, a better section

 moving the axle back 40mm

 Gibb starting point

Lachlan wanted to walk over a cattle grid so we had to stop