Cape Leveque & Surrounds

While we spent a week camped at Middle Lagoon, we had time to check out some of the lovely spots along the road to Cape Leveque.  First a few photos of the road.  It was long, corrugated and very dusty!  We dropped our tyre pressures to 28 PSI and travelled along ok – no damage to the camper on arrival – just lots and lots of dust inside – we probably should have taped up our fridge vents!!  From Broome the road to Cape Leveque is unsealed until about 80km from Cape Leveque where it is then sealed all the way up to One Arm Point.   On our way up to Middle Lagoon we stopped in to check out the Quondong Point free camp areas.  These were only about 30minutes out of Broome and there were three camp areas off Manari Road.  It looked like a lovely spot but was quite busy when we checked it out so we decided not to leave Middle Lagoon early to come back here.  The track to the last Quondong Point camp spot was quite narrow so we copped quite a lot of scratches to the camper going along here and it was a little tricky to turn around at the end.  We think you would have to pick a quiet time at Quondong Point to nab a nice shady campsite as most of the sites were in full sun which would make it pretty hot in the middle of the day.

The first campsite at Quondong Point

One afternoon at Middle Lagoon we headed out in search of icecreams to the nearby Whalesong Cafe & Campground.  It was only about 15 minutes drive from Middle Lagoon and it was a lovely spot (and it had full internet reception – if I had of known this earlier I would have taken the laptop up one morning on my own and enjoyed a cake and smoothie and gotten a couple of blog posts done – would have been lovely)!  The Whalesong Campground was only small and quite basic with its amenities but there were some nice sites with lovely views over the water.  The beach there was closed when we were there because a crocodile had been sighted so that was a bit of a bummer.

Lovely spot at the Whalsong Cafe and the yummiest mango smoothies!

Looking out over the beach from Whalesong Cafe

The very cool outdoor shower at the Whalesong Campground – looked like it was cold water only though!

We took a full day trip away from Middle Lagoon and decided to check out the Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm, One Arm Point and the Kooljaman Campground at Cape Leveque.  It was a big day out – we left about 9am and didn’t get home until after 7pm!  It was a little bit of a pain having to air our tyres up again when we hit the bitumen after the Middle Lagoon Road and then air down again when we came back in that night but a small thing to whinge about really!!  If we had more time I would definitely have liked to try out one of the beach camping shelters right on the beach front at Kooljaman – something to go back for!

Our first stop was the Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm.  This is a family owned and operated farm and it was really pretty – a great cafe on site with little sandpit for the kids to play in and the meals and drinks looked delicious!  We did the Pearl Farm tour which was something I had wanted to do in Broome and although the tour was good and really interesting – it was very expenisve ($140 for our family) and we didn’t really get to see a lot.  I was a bit disappointed too that we didn’t get to go out on the water to check out the oyster shells but that was a different tour that you had to pay extra for and was just too expensive for us.  It was a beautiful spot though!

Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm

Family Shot at the Pearl Farm

I love pearls! This necklace was only $16,000!!

The boys with the old pearl diving suit

From here we headed up to One Arm Point where you are required to obtain a permit ($10 per adult) from the local general store to enter the community.  One Arm Point had the most crystal clear water I have ever seen!  Again – if we had more time I would have loved to have come back and spent a day snorkelling and swimming here!  Another family said they saw some whale sharks here so we would probably have to be a little careful about where we swam!  There is also an aquaculture centre at One Arm Point that does tours for $10 an adult which looked quite interesting.

One Arm Point

Crystal clear water

Watching the amazing fast flowing current at the end of One Arm Point near the Trochus Hatchery

We finished off the day with a late lunch and a swim at Kooljaman at Cape Leveque.  It was a lovely spot – a bit more commercial than Middle Lagoon but lots of different types of accommodation here which looked awesome.  The kids found themselves with a few scrapes on them after their swim as there were quite a few submerged rocks in the water – we might have been swimming at low tide I think!  Matt got some lovely shots of the kids here!

A swim at Cape Leveque

Lunch under the picnic shelter

On the beach at Cape Leveque

Fealy Kids – Cape Leveque 2013

And of course we had to stay and watch the sunset and have an icecream on the deck of the newly built restaurant – beautiful spot!  And the woodfired pizzas they were cooking there looked pretty good too!

Newly built resaurant at Kooljaman

Sunset – Cape Leveque

Nothing better than an ice-cream at sunset – ok maybe an icecream and a cocktail would be perfect!

On our way out after our wonderful seven nights at Middle Lagoon, we stopped in at Beagle Bay and checked out the lovely little church there.  Inside it is beautifully decorated with local shells and definitely worth a stop to see it – I had never seen anything like it!

Beagle Bay Church

Cape Leveque and surrounds is a really beautiful part of Australia and definitely worth the long and dusty, bumpy road in!