Dampier Peninsula WA

On Wednesday we said our goodbyes in Broome and headed up into the Dampier Peninsula. 

The 208km road to Cape L’évêque is bitumen now. Unfortunately the cape is closed for renovations at the moment, but there are other areas to explore.

Our first turn off was to Beagle Bay (128km from Broome). Located in this aboriginal community is the Sacred Heart Church, famous for its mother-of-pearl shell altar. It was built by hand by the locals and the German Pallottine monks who had taken over from the French Trappist that had started a catholic mission here in the late 1800’s.

We managed to secure an overnight camp at Pender Bay $40pn, situated about 170km from Broome. The last 30km are along a sandy, corrugated track, much of it one lane. As our first site (E5) was not great we were able to find another on C11, which offered beach views and easy access. We also booked an extra night but we needed to move to C14 with similar views… made the drive in worthwhile.

So Thursday passed with lovely walks on the beach and admiring the beautiful colours of the water, red cliffs and blue skies. There are no resident crocodiles here so swimming is relatively safe. In August the humpback whales come in the calf right into the bay, close to shore… pity we are a tad early for that. 

Got bogged down at the beach… had to air down and use the Maxtrax for the 1st time.