holiday valley: Dampier Peninsular

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.