western australia: windjana gorge to fitzroy crossing via tunnel creek

It's a short drive from Windjana Gorge to Lillimooloora Station, the site where Jandamarra shot his friend, the policeman Richardson in order to free his people and from where he fled in to the Gorge at the onset of the three year battle which claimed many of the Banuba people and finally Jandamarra himself. 

The police outpost is now in ruins. Just standing at the station gives you a sense of the distances Jandamarra travelled. 

We love the boab trees right across the Kimberley and the red red dirt. 

Tunnel Creek is a thirty minute drive on the dirt and is where Jandamarra hid from police during the resistance. Sadly this is the place where the black tracker, Mickey, tracked and finally shot Jandamarra. 

In places you wade through knee deep water in the tunnel in the dark. To add to the adventure a few freshies inhabit the waters, which I was not aware of until J pointed out the bronze eyes staring at us! 

They stared. I might have squealed. And then they disappeared under the very water I had to wade back through! Did I mention it was pitch black?

 

Ironically we happened upon the huge muster of Brahman on the Leopold Down Station which is situated between Tunnel Creek and the highway. It was an impressive sight to see the cattle thundering around the rocks and boabs followed by a man on a motorbike while a helicopter hovered about jerking in one direction and then the next. 

Can you spot J, all of six foot three in this huge boab? We lept from the car (leaving the kids to ponder our excitement) when we saw this great specimen. We could only wonder how long it's been there!

western australia: middle lagoon, cape leveque

Middle Lagoon is a bush camp on the Dampier Peninsula about 130km from Broome. It is only one of two places you can take a caravan. From the stories we'd heard about the place we had prepared ourselves for the rugged road and booked ahead. 

The drive took us a little over 4 hours with no stops. We lowered the type pressure to about 20/25 and took the corrugated sections really slow. Our kids did great. They listened to their audiobooks and snacked constantly but they didn't whinge. Thankfully!

We'd been told that there was 70km of dirt but there was more like 110km in total. Those last 30km from the turn off into Middle Lagoon were almost unbearable (in that we just wanted to be there!) 

We arrived to find people on our site. They hadn't let the office know they were staying on so we had to drive around to find another site where our van wasn't going to take out low branches and where we'd have plenty of shade. In the end we had site 45 which was shaded by the most beautiful gums that were also ideal for a hammock and slack line. 

We had six nights up at Cape Levecke and our friends, the Nelson's-Hauers, (ourfamilygapyear.com) were with us for five. The kids had a ball. The Wrights (wrightroundoz.blogspot.com) and their family of four girls joined us later in the week and surrogate grandies, Gail and Terry, whom we met at Warroora Station were up there too!

We also met another family from Victoria, author Kate, Roo and their four kids (tothekimberleyandbeyond2015.blogspot.com). 

As it turned out we had quite a gathering up at Middle Lagoon. It was good fun!

There are two beaches to choose from at Middle Lagoon, toilets and showers. At $50/night for our family we utilised the facilities. 

If you plan to stay you do need to take your rubbish with you when you leave. It's a bit ordinary but locals reckon the road will be sealed within two years which will make it easier to get services up there. Bitumen has been approved and local industry have been campaigning. 

There are plenty of things to see on day trips from Middle Lagoon including Kooljman, the pearl shell decorated Beagle Bay Church and Whale Song Cafe (which is only 5km away). 

J also got out on his kayak. It was the same day that L (the Nelson-Hauers) went spear fishing. Jo and I had the kids and while we were sitting there another camper generously dropped off a bunch of excess fish they'd caught. The boys came home with nothing but we shared with them! It was a huge feast that night!

Playing in the red dirt after ringing Ma for her birthday. 

Love this dirt!

This is pretty much how the camp looked. A playground!