Exmouth & Coral Bay

The drive to Exmouth is very flat and uninteresting. We drove past the turnoff to Onslow, the only "major" town along the route. We had met a couple from Onslow, who told us it wasn't really worth a stop, as it was all Gas mining and salt mining. Pressed for time we decided against the extra 80km each way, and continued on to Exmouth. It was very windy, a headwind, and it is amazing how it slows us down, and increases fuel consumption. We made it into Exmouth right on empty after a long day of driving, 7 hours.

Welcome to Exmouth.

Exmouth is situated on a peninsula, with the Exmouth Gulf to the east, and the Indian Ocean to the west. It is home to the Cape Range National Park, and the Ningaloo Marine Park, a World Heritage listed area. The Ningaloo Marine Park is home to Ningaloo Reef, Australia's largest fringing coral reef. Being a fringing reef, it is close to shore, and there are numerous places where you can snorkel the reef right off the beach. The water is crystal clear, and the most amazing array of blue colours you will ever see.

At Exmouth Cape Big4.

We set up camp at the Exmouth Cape Big4 Caravan Park which is very nice, with a new pool area, and it is walking distance to town and tavern. The little town has everything we need, with a good IGA Supermarket, a few restaurant and cafe options, and some nice specialty shops. It also has Sean from Exmouth Caravan Repairs, who we have spoken to on the phone and arranged the parts we need, for him to do our repairs. He is a lovely young man and comes in on Sunday to make all the necessary repairs.

Says it all!

HMAS Harold Holt
Communications Base.

Exmouth is one of the rare "tourist towns", left on the coast. By that, I mean it is relatively untouched by mining, most likely given its proximity to such special wilderness. It is home to the military and communications. The Learmonth RAAF Base is very close, and this serves as the commercial airport as well. The naval base, HMAS Harold Holt,is also here, and it is a communications base. The huge number of masts and intricate systems of cables is mind boggling. How on earth does all that talk!! If you are into scuba diving, apparently the old navy pier is among the world's great dive spots. Boeing also has a High Frequency Communication Centre here. The tourism industry is driven by the sea and its

The land is arid and ugly!

local inhabitants. Alas, the time of the year and the weather means we won't be sampling. Exmouth and Coral Bay are two of the only places on earth, where you can swim with those majestic Whale Sharks, that swim across the Indian Ocean to feed on the plankton of Ningaloo Reef between April & early July each year. Humpback whales swim by on their way up and back to their calving grounds in the warm waters of the Kimberley Coast. They linger in the protected bays around the reef. Huge Manta Rays are here all year round. These giants have wing spans of up to 4 metres and are harmless ( no nasty barb!). You can actually see them from shore, swimming in the clear waters, flapping their wings on the surface. This all awaits us on our next visit to the area, when we've been warned to book early, for accommodation and tours.

Cape Vlamingh Lighthouse.

The country around here is all about amazing contrasts. The land is arid and windswept, yet the ocean sparkles in an unbelievable kaleidoscope of blue and turquoise. The land is dotted in termite mounds, the water is full of amazing creatures. The good thing, is that the eastern side of the cape escapes most of the heavy winds and provides for protected swimming, but the bad things is that most of the reef and snorkeling is on the western side. You just have to manage the winds as best you can, and find the protected little coves. Our timing is not good for wind (theirs not ours!). November is known locally as Blowvember, and it's living up to its name! We are not deterred and head off early each day to get the best of the conditions. A stop at Bundegi Beach on the protected East side, is a must. The water is crystal clear and warm. Not as warm as Broome though, which is an issue for Carolyn! She is a tropical girl! We followed this with a drive up to Cape Vlamingh Light House, which provides a wonderful vista of the surrounding region. Just spectacular!

Yardie creek.

Not a bad spot except for that wind.

It is around 70 kilometres each way, to drive around the cape and into the Cape Range NP. The road ends at Yardie Creek, which winds its way up into the Ranges through a pretty good gorge. There is a boat cruise up the creek, but today it seems we are up that creek without a paddle, because she ain't running! So we walk a ways along the path and get a glimpse. The waters of the creek are quite deep, and teeming with fish. There are some great campsites throughout

One of the locals takes cover.

the National Park, and you can stay in them, many big enough

Sorry, tables taken!

to take our big rig, for a modest $6.00 per person. You have to be self contained, but there are showers and toilets at most of the camp sites. We took a note of some of the better ones for future reference, but at this time of year we ain't living without the air con!! The vegetation varies from dying to dead, and is low scrub, so shade is at a premium, and that wind is just howling. Some of the camp sites are behind the sand dunes to get a little relief, but with all that red sand I'd reckon two nights here and you'd be picking sand out of every orifice for days to come! Even the local wallabies were taking cover!

Beautiful Turquoise Bay

Snorkeling at the Oyster Beds.

Back along the road a bit is Turquoise Bay. If you find a more beautiful beach let me know. White sand and crystal clear turquoise water, talk about aptly named. It is protected from the wind, and just so post card. Also nearby is an area known as the Oyster Stacks. This is a better snorkeling spot as the coral comes right to the beach, but it is a lot harder to enter the water, and less protected. For a day vegging at the beach, Turquoise Bay is the place to go. The Milyering Visitor Centre is a must. Here you learn all about the local sea life and about the national park through some great displays and some very friendly staff.

Blown back into town, we take sanctuary at Ningaloo Health, our chosen coffee spot. It really is good, both in respect of food and coffee. A drive out to the new marina precinct is most enlightening. A lot of money has gone into the construction of the marina and harbour, and there are some serious vessels, both commercial and private. There  are a number of oil rigs off the coast, in fact you can see some from the Cape Vlamingh Light House, so there is a fleet of ships to service them. There is also a big fishing fleet, and you can buy some of the local good fish, which we did. Snapper and local Dhufish as well as whiting, mulloway and emperor are available at pretty hefty prices. All in all it is a pretty interesting place.

Beachfront at the Peoples Village.

Beautiful Coral Bay.

Our next stop just 150kms down the road is Coral Bay. It sounds like something out of Home & Away or Neighbors, but as the name suggests it is a little piece of paradise, except for that bloody wind! It is much smaller than Exmouth and is on the exposed Indian Ocean. Thankfully the beautiful Coral Bay beach, is tucked in behind a small headland, and gets a bit of protection from the wind. There is no harbour as such. There is a big new boat ramp a few kilometres away, and

boat tours either leave from here or directly off the beach.  We

Boat tours right off the beach.

Coral Bay beach.

book into the Peoples Village Caravan Park, formerly owned by Josef Stalin (only kidding! where do these names come from!), and decide to go upmarket and stay on one of the beachfront sites. Good choice! Out with the reclining chairs and for the next few days it is walk to the beach, walk along the beach, come back from beach, sit in recliner, read books, drink wine, eat food, walk to the beach, sit in recliner, read books, eat food, drink wine etc. etc. I think you get my drift! Oh, and we feed Hunchy, our new head honcho sea gull who has breezed into town.

Hunchy the sea gull.

Sunday BBQ breakfast
is an institution!

Now Hunchy isn't your average sea gull. This guy had attitude. Man, he would not allow another bird within 25 metres of our caravan. Maybe Joseph placed him there on guard. All I know, is that he was there first thing when we got up and last thing when went to bed. Even at night while sitting inside watching TV, we would hear Hunchy chasing away some intruder. It was quite sad when we left poor little Hunchy. I thought I saw a tear in his eye as we drove off, but then some kid threw him a chip and we were forgotten. Fickle bird!!


At Coral Bay, it is much the same as Exmouth, with the tourism around the whale shark, manta ray and snorkeling cruises. Again, except for the inner bay itself, the wind made it impossible to do much out on the water, and at the prices of well over $120.00 per person just for snorkeling, we didn't take the risk. Again it will be on the next time list. On our last night we walked up to a nice little restaurant at the other caravan park, and shared a terrific pizza washed down with a nice NZ Sav Blanc I just happened to have on hand! And yes, we took home the crusts for Hunchy!!

Broome to Exmouth

It is getting really hot now, and we are running out of days. We are now in the cyclone season, and we don't want to get caught. This is all new country for us, and there is so much to see. Our journey down to Perth will only be a bit of a scouting mission, to check out places to come back for a longer stay next time. We've also got a couple of minor problems with the caravan, which need to be addressed sooner rather than later, and Exmouth is where the next available repairer is.

Here we are at Eighty Mile Beach.

Set up at Eighty Mile Beach.

Leaving Broome we head south down the North West Coastal Hwy. We will make a beach side stop at either Barn Hill Station or Eighty Mile Beach. We slow down to make the turn into Barn Hill Station, and the decision is made for us. The gate is locked, and Barn Hill is closed for the season. We stop at Spitfire Roadhouse to top up the fuel. It is a very basic roadhouse! They tell me that Eighty Mile Beach is open and that the road is pretty good, so off we head. The road isn't bad, just lots of red dust, again, and after about 10 kms we are at the gates and over the hill to a surprisingly green caravan park, with the beautiful blue ocean over the sand hills. The park is almost deserted, and half of it is blocked off as they try and regenerate the grass after "the season". Sprinklers run around the clock from their bore, but we have no trouble finding a spot. The only frustrating thing is their generator that provides the park's power. About every 6 hours it just shuts down, and then restarts about 5 minutes later. What are all those power surges doing to our electronics??

Looking south
along Eighty Mile Beach

We find the path to the beach, and once out on the beach it is obvious they aren't kidding, this is eighty miles of beach! Actually, according to the signs, the beach runs for 220kms, and I don't care which conversion table you use that would be about 132 miles. After enquiring how the beach actually got its name, and getting some blank & puzzled looks, I decided I'd just shut up and stay with Eighty Mile Beach! It is an amazing beach. Mostly shells and shell grit, it is a breeding ground for a variety of shell fish. I remembered that at our pearl farm stay, they told us that they sent divers to Eighty Mile Beach in search of new oyster stock, and it was evident that scallops, oysters, and pippies/clams are in abundance. At low tide, the beach recedes hundreds of metres, and during our stay it would become very windy during the afternoon. On our second day, we came

The beach is made from shells.

out for a swim at high tide. There were only a few fishermen who gave us funny looks. I asked if there was a problem swimming. He just laughed and said watch the water, and sure enough we could see shark fins, just metres from shore! He said they are only small, but they came in chasing fish. We just had a paddle instead! You know that old saying about how "old fishermen never die, they just smell that way?" Well this is where they come! It is a real fisherman's paradise, but you need the right gear, as it is beach fishing with strong currents, and only on a full tide. I tried my hand without luck, but did see others catching some nice thread fin salmon and blue nose salmon, both nice to eat. We did read that the area is home to huge flocks of migratory birds, some which fly up to 10,000 kms, as they return each year to gorge themselves on the shell fish. Unfortunately, not this time of the year, though there were still plenty of birds around. That night we had a drink with our neighbours. They were an interesting couple from Victoria. When she said that they'd met in prison, I checked for my wallet and mobile phone. When she clarified it by saying they had both been prison wardens, I didn't know whether I was relieved or not!! It was very interesting happy hour!! Has anyone seen my IPod???

Turtle tracks. Unbelievable how
 far the turtles will go.

Flatback Turtle on the beach, 
using my zoom lens!

This time of the year is the turtle egg laying season, and every night, and even some days, they come ashore and lay their eggs in the soft dry sand above the high tide line. Each morning as we would head off along the beach, we would see the tell tale tracks of a turtle that had been laying its eggs. Here the turtles are Flat back Turtles, and they are quite a large turtle. We went out a couple of evenings to see if we could see a turtle. We had read how not to use strong flashlights and to be very quiet as the turtles were very timid, but we didn't see any. Unbelievably, on our last afternoon a turtle came ashore quite near us. It doesn't happen very often during the day. We stayed a distance away, and watched as this lady dragged herself up the beach in the heat and blazing sun. About 20 metres from the laying area, she just turned around and headed back to the water. We won't ever know whether she got stressed from the heat, or just didn't like people being around, but it was a long and tiring journey for no result. And ladies, if you think child birth ain't fun, add dragging yourself a few hundred metres on your belly across broken shells! Now that even brings a tear to my eye! All I know is that she swam happily out through the waves. We had just shared something very special indeed.

Dampier Salt's stock pile.

Trains that are 2 kms long!

From Eighty Mile Beach it was on to Port Hedland. What a contrast! You know that old Jodi Mitchell song line, "they paved paradise and put in a parking lot"? She must have arrived at Port Hedland! From all things remote and natural, to man made mining mayhem! Wherever you look there are railway lines, huge trucks, huger machines, trains and piles of iron ore. Oh, I almost forgot. In the middle of all that red earth and iron ore is a monstrous pile of salt. Dampier Salt, now owned by Rio Tinto, is one of the world's largest salt producers, shipping over 3,500,000 tonnes from Port Hedland last year. When Carolyn travelled around Australia in 1974, she stopped and worked in Port

The Pier Hotel at Port Hedland.

Hedland. Mining was only just starting. About the only thing that hadn't changed was the old Pier Hotel, where she worked. It was a dump then, and remains so today. It seems as though time has stood still at the Pier Hotel.

This wasn't here on my last visit!

We booked into the Point Cooke Caravan Park, and like anything in a mining town, it is expensive. Gone are most of the tourist sites, replaced by miners who set up permanent camp. They do keep a small number of sites at $54.00 per night. They have a deal that if you pay for 3 you can stay 4, which we take, and set ourselves up looking out across the salt flat to the railway line, loaders and conveyors in the distance. Aah, what a romantic setting!

Coffee & cake on the Silver Star.

Peter the ship's pilot.

True to form, we did find a nice coffee spot, The Silver Star Cafe, an old 1920's rail motor that used to travel the railway from Port Hedland to Newman. It was excellent. Walking around town, we really stand out, as we are the only ones not wearing the standard flouro work clothes, and our 4WD doesn't have a big yellow number or a flag! We liked it down around the port. There is a nice park, and so much to see as the shipping never stops. It is like no other we've seen. Here, each berth is owned by a mining giant and all the traffic is one way. Nothing comes in through the port. Each berth has a dedicated loader, and the huge ships of 200,000 tonnes and bigger, just keep coming and going. Last year 280 million tonnes of iron ore left this port and it

They leave full.

They come in empty.

will only get bigger, as Gina Rinehart has a new mine, Roy Hill Mine, coming on line, which will make the port bigger and add 55 million tonnes a year to production. BHP and Fortescue are the other two big players here, and they too are expanding. The whole thing is mind boggling. I love talking to people, and found a guy getting off a tender. Turns out he is a ships pilot, just returning from having guided one of those monsters out to sea. He's been here 5 years, lives on the Sunshine Coast, and Flys In and Out for his two weekly shifts. He summed it up best for me, when he said "people back on the east coast haven't got a clue what's happening up here. I go home and read about a downturn in the mining industry, then come up here to work and we send out another record number of boats and tonnage of ore! Who gives these dickheads their information? Go figure that out." Well Pete, I can't! Inland from Port Hedland, a whole city has been built. It is called South Hedland, and it is estimated that by 2035 this area will have a full time permanent population of 50,000 (currently 20,000) plus around 75,000 on fly in fly out rosters. Further inland are the mining towns of Newman and Tom Price, from where the recently duplicated rail line, runs a non stop shuttle service of 2 kilometre long trains full of iron ore. This area is also home to the Karinjini National Park, which is another must see for us at a future cooler time of the year. Heaven help us if the mining boom busts!

Mining country.

An unromantic sunset!

Further south, we decide on a stay at Point Samson, near Karratha and Dampier. It turned out to be a really quick stop. Our hot water system  blew an element, so we just overnighted, and next morning it was up early to head for Exmouth, as the list of things to fix on the caravan was now a bit longer, and cold showers didn't appeal. We stayed at the Cove Caravan Park in Point Samson. Again it was expensive, and the manager was almost embarrassed to tell me it was $50.00 a night, out of season! It was a lovely caravan park, really well laid out, and with a whole section reserved for travellers! The rest of the park was full of "permanent" miners in their big caravans and 5th Wheelers. The surrounding area is full of mine camps, which are like mini temporary cities, catering for the FIFO's (fly in/fly out workers), and looking out to sea you could see the dozen or so ships waiting to be loaded. Around the headland was the "port", or more accurately, a huge gantry/jetty jutting out into the sea, loading ships with iron ore. That night we walked across the road to the Tavern, and enjoyed a nice Pizza looking out over the sea. First and only time I've paid $10.00 for a beer!! Actually, beer prices up here are ridiculous. You can buy a carton of beer for not much more than in a big city. But if you buy a 6 pack it will cost you $20.00 plus, and God forbid you get them to put it in a glass! No wonder the pub's aren't real busy!!

This whole area is just one big mine and gas site. If Port Hedland is "owned" by BHP, then this area is owned by Rio Tinto (iron ore) and Chevron (gas). Sorry, no pictures of Point Samson. We were really moving!!

New arrival, Marcus Michael Brown

En route, we found out that our niece Tracey and hubby Dan, had become proud parents for the first time, after a long, long wait. We are so happy for them, and their new little son Marcus. That makes my sister Jenny and her hubby Dave, first time grandparents, and my mum a first time great grandparent. Congratulations to all!!! So we needed a post office to send off a parcel. We found a post office at a small town called Wickham, and stopped at the small shopping mall. We have never seen so many bars and window grilles anywhere. Every window and door was covered. It was like entering a prison! There were a lot of aborigines around, in varying states of disrepair. Hopefully the parcel left before it got nicked!!! 

In the morning we were up and on the road by 7.30am as we were looking at a 7 hour drive to Exmouth. We bypassed Karratha and Dampier and put them on the list for next time.

Cape Leveque

The rugged coast at Cape Leveque.

The peninsula of land north of Broome is the Dampier Peninsula. It extends north about 200 kilometres. It is remote and spectacular country, with the peninsula fronting the Indian Ocean and Timor Seas to the west and north west, and the waters of King Sound to the east. It is remote country, accessed by a road that is sand and dirt for the first 90 kilometres, then sealed for the remainder. We have decided to explore this region over a couple of days, leaving the caravan safely at Cable Beach. We will be staying overnight in a safari tent at the Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm, Australia's oldest family owned pearl farm, established in 1946. Like many businesses in the Kimberley, they have added tourism to there product range, and because "the season" is over, they have specials on offer!

The road to Cape Leveque.

A little rain would make
the road a nightmare

The drive up is an experience in itself. The dirt section, is mostly red sand and compressed red mud. It is like driving along a huge drain, with high sides along the road, which varies in width from a single car width, up to ten car widths in other places. Everyone travels at speed, to lesson the corrugations, so you drive fast as you don't want someone overtaking in a cloud of dust and rocks! The 90 kilometres of dirt is behind us in less than an hour, and thankfully with not much traffic. There are a number of Aboriginal communities along the road, and it is after we reach the sealed section of road we start to see the turnoffs to the communities.

Sacred Heart Church Beagle Bay.

We decide to take a look at Beagle Bay. "The HMS Beagle" was Charles Darwin's ship, and he and his staff explored the north of Australia extensively. We find Beagle Bay as quite a large Aboriginal community, with every facility available. It is difficult to explore the aboriginal communities, as photographs are banned without permission, and the streets have signs erected "Locals Only Do Not Enter". Consequently we come to the General Store, and that is as far as we can go. We never get to see Beagle Bay.To our surprise, there is a beautiful Spanish church in the park next to the school, so we take a look. For a gold coin donation we obtained a small brochure telling the history of the church. Catholic missionaries came to the area in 1883, and it was ultimately Trappist Monks who built a church. The current white washed brick church, was built by German priests, interned at Beagle Bay during the first world war. All the bricks were hand made, and the alter is magnificently inlaid with mother of pearl shell, the work being done by local community people.

Our safari tent.

Says it all.

Back on the main road we continue on to the end of the road at One Arm Point, another large Aboriginal community. Here if we wish to have a look around, and access the water front, boat ramp and beachfront, we need to buy a permit at the local administration office. We decide to head out to the pearl farm instead, where we can access the beach and coastline.
We find the reception area, where there is a surprisingly nice cafe, so after check in we try the coffee and cake. Excellent! We drive about a mile out to where the safari tents are set among

The boudoir.

the trees and along the beach. We find out tent, which is in a

The view.

lovely setting, then step inside and it is like a sauna! We opened everything we could open, turned on every fan, even got a spare fan out of the car I'd bought along, and the temperature fell from extreme to almost extreme, so we changed into swimmers and just went and sat in the sea to cool off. Thankfully the tide was in! As we found out next morning it would be a 500 metre walk to the water at low tide! When booking, we had been told the restaurant was shut as the season was over, but we could eat in the mess tent with the staff for $37.50 per person, but we'd have to wash up! otherwise we could self cater, using their camp kitchen. We chose the latter option, and Carolyn had wonderful picnic of cold meats and salads, and of course a cold bottle of champagne!

Our Sea Legs.

The waters of King Sound are studded with the islands of the Buccaneer Archipelago, and experience some of the

Local Aboriginal Elder, Bruce.

most severe and dramatic tidal movements anywhere in the world. The pearl farm runs a boat tour called Giant Tides, and we picked our time to visit ensuring we coincided with a big tide. Today the tide drops 9 metres, and our tour heads out onto the water two hours before the low tide mark. We board the boat at reception, on dry land! They have these amazing Zodiac style boats that drive on land as well as water. They are called Sea Legs, and are apparently made in New Zealand for use where there are huge tidal movements. We head out onto the sound and transfer to our high speed Gemini Boat for

Off to see the Giant Tides.

the tour. We have a special guest on board, meeting Bruce who is an elder of the local Bardi people. He is a real character, wearing a heavy orange western shirt and jeans, and a huge black cowboy hat which he has painted and adorned with flowers. He reckons he's going to sell his hat to an American for $3,000. I told him that the American he's looking for hasn't been born yet! He told us how he'd met some American Indians when he went to America, and I think he was sold on their look! He was born at a mission on nearby Sunday Island, and he added a lot of great history to the tour, telling us his peoples interpretations of the land and the water.

Giant Whirlpools.

Water rushes of Tallon Island.

The sea around us is unbelievable to watch. It seems to be going in all sorts of directions, then there are smooth sections turbulent areas, and even huge whirlpools. Even our powerful high speed vessel is thrown around quite violently at times. At one stage our guide turns the boat into the rushing tide near an island, and with the 700hp of the motors revving at 3500rpm, we are stationary in the water. In flat water we'd have been travelling at 35 knots! The highlight came when we pulled along side Tallon Island, which is completely covered by water at high tide. As the tide drops, the island emerges from the sea, and it happens so quickly that the water continues to flood off the island for some time, as more and more of the island appears. Just quite incredible. This is where the Kimberley starts, and you can see it in the rock formations. The 2 billion year old Kimberley rocks were broken apart by the newer 300 million year old rocks of Asia, as the two great lands separated.  Bruce, with a twinkle in his eye, reckons his ancestors saw it all happen! He's been spending too much time with the white man!

Beautiful, and the pearls
aren't bad either!

In the morning, we went on a tour of the Pearl Farm. This was very interesting, learning about how the family became involved in the industry, and how pearls are cultured. I am always fascinated by, and stand in awe of those people who just take their life on a totally new adventure. Dean Brown was one such man. He left Perth in 1946, heading to the Kimberley to see if he could make a life fishing. He couldn't, so he shot crocodiles instead to make money, and together with his son, got friendly with the local Aboriginal people, bought some land, and started to process pearl shell. He went to a local Japanese run pearl farm and learnt how to culture pearls, brought the knowledge back to Cygnet Bay and started his own business. Today, his grandson manages the day to day. They grow around 20 to 30,000 pearls a year, based on current demand which is low. There are lots of different grades, with around 5% being perfect round specimens.They have produced up to 60,000 pearls when demand allowed. They have produced the world's largest perfectly round pearl, which we saw at their shop in Broome. It is worth $1 million! Of course they have a shop, and Carolyn tried on everything!

The road to Kooljaman Resort
Cape Leveque.

We left the Pearl Farm, and headed across to Cape Leveque,

where there is another resort, called Kooljaman. It is an

Lunch with a view.

upmarket Safari Tent style resort, that has a small campground, which caters for camper trailers and tents only. It is run by the local aboriginal people, and is a good example of the good things happening with black and white co-operation. The road in was soft sand and very narrow in parts. The new main building is very nice, with an excellent restaurant. We had to pay a $5.00 fee each to wander

Red Cliffs of Cape Leveque.

around!! It was worth it. This is where the Kimberley starts,

Lunch at Kooljaman Resort.

and the contrasts of the red cliffs, white sand and blue/turquoise ocean was simply beautiful. We decided on lunch as it all looked so nice. So we took up a prime position on the veranda overlooking the ocean. Prices up here had continually amazed us, so we were pleasantly surprised when we read the menu. We chose to share a Caesar Salad with prawns. Carolyn asked if we could get the anchovies on one side only, as she doesn't like them, and we got an even more pleasant surprise when the chef arrived with two separate salads! All he'd halved was the prawns! And John got lots of anchovies! It just keeps amazing us what is out here in some of the most remote parts of Australia. 

The drive back to Broome was more dust and corrugations. We did start to take a diversion into another community called Middle Lagoon, but we were unable to ascertain if it was open. The road was diabolical, and when we saw the sign that said more permit money was required, we opted out. We arrived back at Broome covered in red dust, but flushed with the adventure from a couple of days at remote Cape Leveque.