Middle
Lagoon
The top half of the Dampier Peninsula
(north of Broome) is all Aboriginal owned land and is meant to be really
beautiful. WE had a beautiful, relaxing
time up here for 10 days and could’ve stayed here much longer. The people are
warm and welcoming, the beaches are beautiful, there’s more campgrounds than
you can poke your stick at and you’re a visitor in Aboriginal-owned land. It
was magic.
We stayed at Middle Lagoon for 6 days,
Chile Creek for one (or Chillie depending on who is spelling it) and Djoodoon
for three. We also visited the communities of Lombadina, One Arm Point and
Beagle Bay.
Most people only know about Kooljamon
resort up at Cape Leveque (an Aboriginal-owned campground resort) but we’d
heard along the way there were plenty of other places to stay. So glad we found
out about the others as it really made our trip up here something special.
At Middle Lagoon we felt a little
nervous about swimming despite the assurances that the rock bar into the lagoon, the kilometres of beach and lack
of mangroves meant that crocs don’t come here. So we swam in the shallows. We
had a couple of campfires, lovely neighbours and a torrential, unseasonal
tropical downpour that got everything and everyone soaked!
Our tent just couldn’t cope with that
much rain and a little creek running underneath it (it felt like we were
walking on a waterbed). We spent a whole day in the rain digging small levy
banks to divert water, kids just dug holes and mucked around in puddles and generally
trying to dry everything that was well and truly sodden. Not so fun.
Our lovely neighbours, Lance and
Marion, took the kids down to the beach for an hour or so the next day while
Simon and I dealt with the aftermath.
The kids loved their kayak (and so did we!) and had a great time with
their new friends. We were so grateful to them as we had a lot to do and it
just made it easier knowing the kids were entertained and happy (and having an
adventure all of their own).
We discovered another beautiful beach
at Middle Lagoon on our last day and also learned about all the great fishing
spots (why do we have these conversations on the 5th day and not the
first?). We also walked around and found
some more beautiful campsite we didn’t realize were there when we were trying
to choose one (too many to choose!).
On our final night, two of Tamara’s
kids and one of her dogs joined us late in the afternoon. Hugo and her son
kicked a footy for a bit until he discovered his sister was in the tent playing
with our train set. Three days a week a
big 4WD bus collects them to take them to the Catholic school at Beagle Bay –
what an adventure just getting to school is in this part of the world!
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