Dampier Peninsula, Broome, Exmouth - 21 August to  4 September

Pender Bay Escape

We enjoyed the last few nights at Pender Bay Escape. It truly is a magical place, and definitely on our list to return to. And it was so warm, mid 30's every day, without a breath of wind.

We went swimming most days, even Sue enjoyed getting wet!

We drove further north for lunch at Cygnet Bay Pearls, which is an actual working pearl farm. The lunch there was certainly "Fine Dining" which in a remote location like this is quite amazing.

Here we are Fine Dining in T Shirts and thongs! Where else in the world can you do that?

Cygnet Bay Pearling Operation

Back to Pender Bay for our last few nights.

We even had a fire one night, which certainly wasn't needed with the temperatures up there. As if it wasn't already hot enough, we had to have a fire to keep us even warmer!

One of the highlights of Pender Bay are the whales! They certainly put a show on in August.

Magical Giants

These pictures were taken from our camp site! Quite amazing to watch, every day we were there.

We never got tired of watching the mums teach their calves how to breach. The calves tails going vertical and then flapping while out of the water was great fun to watch. 

We again went into Beagle Bay to inflate our tyres, rather than doing it on the side of a dirt road.

Broome

Back in Broome at Camp Alexis for a few nights before we start to head south. As Alexis had a day off we decided to stay another night there, meaning we have to drive to Exmouth in 3 nights. This was definitely worthwhile and meant we could go to the Malcolm Douglas Crocodile Farm, as well as see some of the Shinju Matsuri Festival - a celebration of Broome's Japanese / Rubibi's unique multicultural and pearling history.

The parade was certainly a lot of fun, especially with the kids throwing water bombs at the police and fire departments floats. Mind you, they gave more back than the kids could throw at them!

Throwing water bombs at a Fire Truck? That'll get you wet for sure :)

We enjoyed our last night at the new Broome Surf Club, where Alexis friend Lisa joined us as well.  Alexis has made some great friends, and Lisa is a special one.

Shadow people on Cable Beach

We'd been to the old Malcolm Douglas Crocodile Park in Cable Beach when our kids were small, but he relocated to further out of town. Malcolm Douglas died at his new Croc Farm in 2010 in a car accident when his car crushed him between his car and a tree. There wasn't anyone else there when it happened. We suspect there was a fair amount of beer involved!

So many crocodiles!

Fatso, the famous Croc

From the "it could only happen in WA" file:

The croc farm houses Fatso, a saltwater crocodile and in July 2010 Fatso bit a Melbourne man (Newman) who had climbed into his enclosure. Earlier that night Newman had been thrown out of the nearby pub "Divers Tavern" for being overly drunk, and scaled the barbed wire fence surrounding Fatso's enclosure and attempted to sit on the crocodile's back. I mean, what else do you do when you've been thrown out of the pub but go sit on a crocodile!

Fatso bit Newman on his right leg, and Newman subsequently escaped the enclosure and returned to Divers Tavern. The manager of the pub, noted that Newman had pieces of tree bark hanging off him and chunks of flesh missing from his leg. Newman was given a beer and ordered an ambulance, and was taken to Broome Hospital, where he received dozens of stitches to his leg. Malcolm Douglas called Newman "fortunate", stating that "Fatso was a bit more sluggish than normal due to the cooler nights we have been experiencing in Broome. If it had been warmer and Fatso was more alert, we would have been dealing with a fatality." Fatso had arrived at the park in the 1990s after having been removed from the Victoria River near Timber Creek, Northern Territory.

Just another day in WA.

The tour and croc feeding was interesting, with many crocs having been captured in the wild after threatening humans.

What we didn't enjoy was the excessive commentary from the old guy who was giving the tour. He should definitely stick to talking about the crocs rather than rabbiting on about political things. We go on such tours to learn about the crocs, not the political views of the staff.

Eighty Mile Beach

Eighty Mile Beach wasn't on our agenda due to having to get to Exmouth in only 3 days. But when we were pulling in for our first night it was over 35°C at 4pm. With Eighty Mile Beach being just 20kms out of our way, it was a no brainer that we head to the beach for the night to get a cooler sea breeze.

It was certainly the right decision and we enjoyed the sunset and a morning walk along the beach collecting shells and a much cooler evening.

Why they call it Eighty Mile Beach beats me. Until 1946 it was called Ninety Mile Beach, but it's actually 140 miles (220kms) long. In 1946 the name was changed to Eighty Mile Beach to avoid confusion with Ninety Mile Beach in Victoria. Would have been more spectacular to have changed it to 'One Hundred and Forty Mile Beach', a bit of a mouthful yes, but wow!

Pardoo Roadhouse

Pardoo Roadhouse was hit by Cyclone Ilsa in April 2023 and five accommodation sheds were entirely blown away and emergency officials have been unable to locate them. It caused A$4million damage and the future of the roadhouse is uncertain.

Ilsa's Path

Such destruction from Cyclone Ilsa

Port Hedland

Port Hedland is a very interesting town, so we called in for a look at the busy harbour, with boats being loaded up with iron ore from nearby mining operations, and shipped on to China and elsewhere.  They also produce salt, and there are large piles glistening in the sun.

Port Hedland Harbour is always interesting

We weren't planning to overnight in Port Hedland, but the weather had different ideas for us. A bush fire had closed the only road south (the main Highway 1) from Port Hedland with no detour possible. We got to the turnoff to go south 30 minutes after they had closed the road. Missed by that much!

So we had to back track to Port Hedland for the night and we stayed at the Golf Club, which turned out to be quite nice and we were able to enjoy a cold beer in the air-conditioned clubhouse once we were set up.

We checked the WA Emergency website in the morning and the road was open, so we made a quick departure before the wind had a chance of building up and flaring the fire up.

We got past the turnoff, yes it was open! Driving past Whim Creek Pub we were called up on the radio by another caravanner at the pub telling us that the road south had closed 15 minutes earlier. Not 100% trusting some random CB'er, we decided to continue south to see if we could get through. What's the worst that could happen? We turn back...

Well about 10kms from there many vehicles were stopped on the side of the road. They had been called up on the radio by the WA Fire Department asking them to close the road there. So we stopped, and yes the fire was close by.

The guy that the Fire Department had asked to close the road was carrying EXPLOSIVES! Through a bush fire! We were just waiting for the real fireworks to start.

You can see the flames just past this car

Eventually the Fire Department called up on the radio all those waiting to go south to form a line in the middle of the road and they'll escort us south through the fire zone.

So line up we did! Explosives in front!

We crept through the fires under the Fire Brigades escort at a slower pace that we liked. The lead car was the Explosives carrying car. We didn't see or hear any large bangs and certainly no fireworks!

The heat radiating through the drivers window was quite high, and I wouldn't have wanted it to get much warmer than what it did.

We finally made it past all the fires into a safe zone without the paint on our car blistering. Whew!

We stopped for the night at the Onslow Turnoff, a peaceful free camp with plenty of room for our 2 caravans.

Where we were camped we could see the operations of a large Limestone Quarry. They did up everything and anything in WA. One day they'll just peal back the whole top layer of the state and take everything that's underneath it!

Exmouth

3 nights were spent in Exmouth stocking up on all things necessary to go out to Ningaloo Station for 9 nights.

For such a small town, Exmouth has two breweries! We visited the Froth Brewery for a Friday night stout for Merv.

Froth Brewery

We visited Whalebone Brewery the next night. My, that place has grown in 2 years since we were last there with our kids.

Whalebone Brewery - serving fantastic pizzas, and a great play area for the kids

We had a great night, and played silly buggers with shadows on the walk back to the caravan park.

They breed 'em tough out these parts. Even the Hardware Store has Minimum Dress Code!

Glad you have to wear pants into a hardware store!

RAC Exmouth Caravan Park's new pool

We went for a drive and found the surf beach

They have some surfing in Exmouth, if you can call it that!