North of Broome lies the Dampier Peninsula. Stretching for 200km, the peninsula houses a collection of Aboriginal communities. Whilst the roads at the northern end of the peninsula are sealed, a rough sandy corrugated track links the northern communities with Broome. At the northern tip of the peninsula is Cape Leveque, where red sandstone meets white sands and crystal blue waters. We had heard it was worth checking out, so we let down our tyres and headed north.
There are many options for places to stay on the Dampier Peninsula. We chose Kooljaman, right on Cape Leveque itself. Owned by the local Bardi/Jawa people, it is a great place to unwind for a few days. At least that is what we planned - but like all good plans it soon changed and we found ourselves completely occupied.
Cape Leveque on sunset
We chose a powered site at Kooljaman - simply beacuse it was in a shady area. Unpowered sites had magnificent but exposed views. It is interesting but caravans are actively discouraged here, not because of the condition of the access road - although that deters the majority, but for their electricity consumption. The communities up here are all on generator power, and electricity is a valuable luxury. With a battery charger being our only electrical device on load, we were well under the four amp limit on the circut breaker.
It didn't take us long to set up - and we were soon engrossed in our books - before realising the sun was quickly setting. We wandered down to the western beach for a couple of mandatory sunset shots.
The red rocks coming down to white sand provides a stunning contrast
The next day, the menfolk of the family enrolled in Bundy's Spear Making Tour. Bundy, a Bardi elder took us to Chilli Creek, where we learnt not only the traditional way of making a spear, but many facets of Aboriginal interaction with the land.
When the first missionaries came to this part of the world, traditional language and song was banned, at least in the presence of the priests. Over a couple of generations, many of the stories and songs in other missions were lost forever - however when the first priest here died, he was replaced with a German priest. When he came to the community, he acknowledged the Aboriginal culture and heritage, as he had a German heritage. Thus in this tiny part of Australia, at the tip of the Dampier Peninsula, the Bardi Jawa people were able to retain their stories, heritage and language.
Of course the boys just loved getting their hands on some spears. The water was crystal clear - even in the mangroves due to the sandy not muddy base. We perched ourselves in the mangroves, hoping for a lazy fish to swim by - but we would have gone very hungry if it wasn't for some of Bundy's nephews coming along for the tour too. Whilst out skills were definitely not anything to be proud of, the boys soon collected four good size crabs.
After enjoying fresh mudcrab cooked on a mangrove wood fire in the traditional way, we waded back to the cars in the creek bed. I was incredibly nervous as we wandered back - as a four metre crocodile was known to be living in the creek. We put a lot of faith in Bundy's intuition that we would be alright on our wade back. Of course we were, but my eyes were on stalks the whole time.
The Bardi people's heritage is not in rock art or digeridoo. They used spears and boomerang, and told their stories in song. An important part of their heritage is in footprints, not in sand, but in rock. Yes, human footprints in solid rock. We were taken to some of these incredibly fragile and sacred sites to see these footprints, estimated to be between ten and twenty thousand years old.
Seeing the footprints sent a tingle up my spine. It was incredible to be standing right where someone walked thousands of years before the pyramids were built.
The following day we went to the Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm. We enjoyed a delicious lunch at the cafe, and a tour of the farm, before boarding the fast rhib CYCLONE for a giant tides tour. This took us out into the Bucanner Archipeligo and the mouth of King Sound.
The rocks of the Bucaneer Archipelago are ancient quartzite, around 2.6 billion years old - half as old as earth itself - and some of the oldest rocks known to exist. The red colour comes from a staining from dust of the iron rich rocks of the Pilbara being blown north over millennia. These rocks were forming when the first bacteria was starting to change the earth's atmosphere. They were already 2 billion years old when the first creatures made their first footsteps out of the oceans. Simply amazing - but, we were here for something else altogether.
Giant tides - and boy did we see some water moving. Not only did we see a fantastic 'waterfall' as water drained from an extremely rare coral encrusted algal reef, but we then went to see some of the water churning through Escape Passage.
The water flowing into King Sound on just one tide would fill Sydney Harbour some 156 times. Then, just over six hours later, that same flow is reversed. The result is the frenzied rush of water, that churns and scours its way in and out, racing past rocks and whipping up nasty choppy confused seas.
The ride on the edge of the tidal race was simply mind blowing. There is no other word to describe seeing whirlpools appear in front of you, dragging water (and anything silly enough to be on it) under. The water levels vary by as much as three or four metres in the whirlpool alone - yes, these tides do swallow boats, The ride was unbelievable - and worth every penny.
The video may not be super clear - I had my phone in a ziplock bag - but it gives you some idea of the power of the water here. It was fearsome.
It was then back to paradise, for another magnificent evening before we got up early for another tour - this time with another local character, Brian Lee.
Brian took us for a tour up Hunters Creek, and told us many stories on the way. We passed massive shell middens, and walked up into the creek, where again we tried our hand at catching crabs - well the kids did - whilst the adults spent most of their time getting stuck and attempting to retrieve their shoes from the sticky muddy sand.
We were just about all done with our walk, and I was just taking a couple of photos of The Little Fisherman, who was intently still walking with spear in hand, when he made a lunge in the water and picked it up with a mud crab on the end! Yes, he had caught a mud crab - and he was absolutely delighted with himself.
For our last evening, we drove back down to the beach for dinner. Whilst we sat just down from the ancient midden, we shared a view that had been enjoyed for thousands of years by the Bardi people. It was incredibly humbling to sit here - for our brief moment on this beach.
Cape Leveque is a special place, where the dreaming and its stories are very real and alive. Both Brian and Bundy shared with us an insight into the culture of the Bardi people - and also its differences with other Aboriginal Nations, in a way that no book or classroom ever could.
There is no mistaking this is a harsh environment, but in its own way it is incredibly beautiful. We hope that the Kimberley will be just as enchanting.
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