Broome and The Dampier Peninsular

Gantheaume Point at Broome

Arrived in Broome and ready for a rest from driving every day. Have driven over 8,000 Km in 7 weeks to get here. Booked into the Cable Beach Caravan Park – a bit pricey at $50.00 per night but we were looking forward to the rest. This is a very big park with 480 sites and 4 amenity and blocks and a great pool. It is easy to get lost in this park. Broome had grown since we were here last, about 7 years ago. It’s very spread out with most of the conveniences you would expect in a large town. 

McKellars at Gantheaume Poin

 Two shopping centres as well as most types of businesses. We had seen most of the attractions on our previous visit so we decided to take it easy for 8 days.

We did visit Gantheaume Point again as it is a beautiful spot. There are dinosaur footprints in the rocks here but you can only see them at very low tide. The tide in Broome is very big – a variation up to 9 meters, almost as big as Derby where it can be up to 11 m.

Sunset over Cable Beach - Magnificent

 

There's no doubt that Cable Beach is the big attraction at Broome. There are hundreds of people here every day to lay on the beach, soak up the sun or just to admire the scenery. It's especially popular at sunset when literally hundreds line the promenade to take photos. This one didn't do the sunset justice as it is just magnificent.

North Cable Beach - Very Nice

We were within walking distance from Cable

Beach where we went on several days. The first couple of times to the main beach and then to the Northern beach where we could drive onto the beach and pitch our umbrella right next to the car. Very convenient. This was also a nudist beach as we found out to our surprise. No, we didn’t partake although most of the nudists were old people (like us!) We took our lunch and drinks a couple of times and had a very relaxing time of it!

Normal Day at Cable Beach

 

The main beach was as we remembered it – very busy and full of rented umbrellas and lounge chairs. A great business at $10 each for the chairs and umbrella for ½ day. One morning I counted 95 umbrellas – that meant at least $3,500 for the day! The sand is very white (almost as white as Huskisson) and the water a very pleasant 21 degrees. At this time of year the weather in Broome is a constant 29 – 31 degrees every day and no rain or wind. You might say perfect. This is probably why the 6 Van parks in Broome are always full in July and August. A lot of people from southern WA come here for the winter months to get away from the cold. Much like us and the Sunshine Coast in Qld. It is also a mecca for tourists like us from other parts of the country.

Peter & Diane at Cape Leveque Beach

Left our van with a refrigeration mechanic to replace the fridge 240V heater and went up to the Dampier Peninsular for 2 days. Stayed 2 nights at Middle Lagoon in our tent and visited Beagle Bay, Cape Leveque and One Arm Point while we were up there. . 

Sacred Heart Catholic Church at Beagle Bay

Beagle Bay is an aboriginal community and it has a well known church – the Sacred Heart Catholic church. Very well kept with a beautiful altar made almost entirely from local shells. Not much else here but worth a visit to see the church.

Coastline at Cape Leveque

Cape Leveque is essentially a tourist resort, Koolijman, which is another aboriginal community but again, run by others. There are several types of accommodation here ranging from tent sites to luxury units. An interesting feature was their beach shelters where you erected you tent under a shelter right on the beach. A bit dear, though at $65 per night. Had a swim and lunch at the beach at Cape Leveque. It was beautiful – white sand, clear water and spectacular scenery.

Beautiful Colours at Cape Leveque

The water at cape Leveque was very mild and calm. Not good for surfing but most enjoyable just the same. Access to the beach has been kept as natural as possible and you have to walk over small rocks and sand hills to get there. It is as pristine as you could get for a popular wilderness resort area.

Middle Lagoon Shoreline

Middle Lagoon is popular for fishing and several people from the south come here for long periods of time to fish. It’s pretty remote at about 180km from Broome and along a 33Km dirt track off the main road.

The Main Road to Cape Leveque

The road up to the peninsular is about 220 Km with only the last half sealed. The rest is like the photo – red dirt! You can imagine the state of the car after travelling about 400Km on roads like this!

On return from the peninsular (a 600Km round trip!) we had another night in Broome at the Broome Van Park (nice pool here also) before setting off on the trip down the Northern Highway towards Port Hedland.