27/7/16
Awake with the birds this morning , but we ignored them , getting up later . Breakfast complete , it was pack up time - places to go , things to see !!
First stop was back to One Arm Point , where we paid our entry fee $15 each - this gave us access to the Trochus Hatchery and a couple of beaches & boat ramp . The gentleman in the supermarket filled us in on where to go and what to do , and also explained that the entry fee helps pay for the upkeep of the bitumen roads and some of the wages of the council workers - we didn’t mind paying , knowing it was going toward the upkeep of the town & roads . He was the only one that bothered to explain this to us !!
With that we headed off beside the airstrip & out to Round Rock Lookout . It was beside where we went in the Giant Tide tour yesterday . The water was going out today and you could see the water moving . The rock here is amongst the oldest in the world , dated at up to 450 million years old !!! That’s impressive !!
Out of all the slabs of rock here , there is one section of rock that the lookout is named after .
Down the road we went , off to the Trochus Hatchery . The Trochus shells are a conical shell , that get polished up and are regularly sent overseas to be made into buttons for fashion houses , and for other jewellery . They make some on site - bangles & necklaces , they do sell polished shells as well .
In the Ardyaloon Hatchery , are many tanks where they breed the Trochus , they also contain a lot of the local coral & fish . Here’s just a few .
Pencil Urchin
Soft Coral
Pearl Oyster
Anemone Fish
From there we went down to Middle Beach and on to Jologo Beach . The tide was running out and it was a fair walk to get to the waters edge .
It was an enjoyable walk , till we got back to the ute and I trod on a piece of glass , it went into my heel a bit and drew blood - but not much - should have had my all terrain safety thongs on !!!
Time to drive again , around and down to our next campsite for the night - Goombaragin Eco Resort !!!
It is about 80 klms back down the road and into the bush again - more sandy & corrugated tracks. We were thinking that this had better be worth the drive down this little track - it wasn’t looking to good - it was only 28 klms in . We could see the ocean through the trees , so knew we were getting close , rounding another corner we came across an safari tent , must be here , bit further and we found some cars and a few buildings and some more safari tents , so we pulled up beside the main building . It was a small building with a large roof , that stretched out to cover a metre or 2 past the edge of the building . This was where they sleep , the next screened building was the kitchen , with 2 showers & composting toilets behind . The have a solar station that supplies more power than they will ever need with battery backup as well.
John ( the owner ) met us and walked us around the eco resort , showing us our camp site , the lookout (50 m from our campsite ) and the ablutions , also where we could go & not go - there are significant aboriginal sites here that shouldn’t be disturbed - John doesn’t even go there !! Kathleen ( his wife ) was busy working and cleaning the place up .
We set up the tent before taking some photos of the view from the lookout - awesome is the only word that vaguely comes close to what we saw . Pender Bay stretches out in front of you from the top of this cliff 70m above the water , beaches to the right and rocky cliffs & point to the left . Further around to the right are the reddest dirt cliffs we’ve ever seen , below that is a rock shelf that appears to be volcanic , with lots of smaller rocks in a band a few metres wide .
On the walk out to the lookout are some everlasting flowers and some very small star shaped flowers .
After checking the views , we jumped back in the ute for some 4wd action , Lyn drove us down to the beach . The track was washed out a bit , but filled with small rocks and dropped down about 5m before levelling out again . As we went over the mound , we were unsighted, so that made it a bit more exciting for Lyn . Stopping up on top we walked around looking for somewhere to get down to the beach , but couldn’t find anywhere , so kept driving down the track . There were undulations , rocky sections to crawl over slowly , then turned to sand. We parked well clear of the high tide mark and walked down the beach back toward where we were camped high above .
The sand was a curious mixture of orange and cream sand and formed nice patterns.
The red cliffs and orange sand looked incredible with the bluest of blue skies .
Further down the beach , there is limestone with worm tubes like Kalbarri - it was a lighter cream colour . On the beach were some really dark grey / black rocks to set it all off !!
We found many shells along the beach , these are just a few .
It was getting hot as the wind had dropped , so we headed back to the ute and got changed - time to hit the water to cool down . The waves were small , but the sand and tide ripples were large , making walking out difficult . Dropping into the water about 1.2m deep was great , it wasn’t cold , it was just right . While we were walking along our private beach , another of the guests decided to drive down and have a swim as well . They are Victorians who spend 7 months in Broome and 5 in Melbourne , who have an on site van at Cable Beach . We chatted to them for a while before going back up to catch sunset from the lookout .
Lyn was back in the drivers seat for the drive back to the top , doing very well , dodging rocks , putting the wheels where they needed to be . Then we found the last washed out part to climb back to the road , low range , 2nd gear and the ute climbed over without any fuss or bother - much to Lyn’s relief !!!
We took the chairs down to the lookout , with a beer & cheese & bickies and settled in for the show . As everyone on Facebook has already seen the sunset from last night - I couldn’t resist putting it up - it was amazing !! Here are some more .
We headed up to the house and sat around the fireplace talking to John & Kathleen and 2 other guests .
And that was it for the day , hope you enjoyed it , we sure did !!!
28/7/16
We were awake early - before the sun , so we headed down to the lookout to get the sunset, it too was pretty good . We got some pictures and went back to bed for a while .
There is an old wall - not sure whether it’s there for looks or was part of an old building .
We packed again , said goodbye to John & Kathleen , wishing we had a few more days here. Back down the sandy red track again , we found a couple stuck on the track - they were in a mercedes sprinter van , towing an old pop top caravan . We deflated their tyres from 50 psi to 30 and they drove on - we’re not sure how much of the van will be left by the time they get back to Broome , time will tell !!
We drove down to Beagle Bay , where there is a famous church , heritage listed . The interior is decorated with pearl shell , even the pictures on the wall have a mosaic as a frame !! There is shell inlaid into the floor .
We looked and departed , heading back to Broome . As we drove , the lane going north gradually got redder & redder - could only mean one thing - we were getting closer to the 86klms of teeth chattering corrugated , sandy red dirt track , that is Cape Leveque Rd .
We were a little surprised and hopeful , we’d heard that the graders had been out on the road . The northern end had been graded - hooray!!! - only about 15klms of it but !! We rattled & bounced down the road for an hour or so before reaching the bitumen at the other end - that was a relief , We stopped and reinflated the tyres , then took the ute out of 4wd - it deserved a rest after the last few days , after performing faultlessly !!
Back to the van & got it back onsite and started the cleaning up process .
Not very exciting today , but that’s it .
Here’s a map link :-https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bL-wfXajAekUFfheKPFaePI8N4g&usp=sharing
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