Middle Lagoon
With a tear in the eye, we packed up our camp in Broome and after leaving the van in storage, we headed up the dirt road toward Middle Lagoon (on the way to Cape Leveque). After 180km (of which around 31kms was sealed), we made it to Middle Lagoon where we were camping in tents for the next two nights. We didn’t think the roads were too bad, but once again, we compared it with the Bungles, so it was like a highway. There was lots of sand, corrogations and big “dippers” that you could hardly see, but we made it there in one piece. Definitely not a place you would take your van....or a 2WD vehicle. We arrived at Nature’s Hideaway “Resort” (I think they use the word resort very loosely up here) to find that they were closed for lunch. So we had a bit of a look at the beach which was paradise. Once we got setup (after they decided we had waited long enough) we spent the rest of the day collecting shells, swimming and lazing on the beach. Mel was a bit disappointed not to have seen whales (but she had her nose stuck in a book all day and hadn’t actually looked for them). Apparently they had been swimming past all day according to some people we had a chat to that night!! Charlotte and I had been diving to the bottom of the lagoon collecting shells and to our surprise a lot of the shells had inhabitants in them which we quickly released back to the wild (much to the disappointment of the kids!!) 
We finished the day with a big campfire and baked beans on toast (and a few sausages) all cooked in our new whizz bang electric fry pan....we decided to get a powered site and not worry about carrying the gas bottle or bbq. 
After sleeping in the boys tent and the girls tent, we woke to see everything covered in water. The dew was that heavy that everything was soaked and we couldn’t see 10 metres in front of us. The tide was way out so we jumped in the car to visit the top of Cape Leveque. We left after the school bus picked up the kids from the community and we were surprised to hear that over 500 kids go to the school at One Armed Point (that is bigger than Charlotte’s school) and they all get picked up all over the peninsula. These would be very long days as the drive to the school would be around 2 hours each way.
We went straight to the hatchery where Dave gave us a guided tour. He was great entertainment showing up the turtles, feeding the barramundi and showing off the clown fish. They even had a little turtle that was 20 days old that the kids fed. This is a delicacy in these parts for the aboriginal people, but Dave prefers Macca’s. Dave was even nice enough to give Charlotte a beautiful polished shell (that they were trying to sell for obscene prices!!).
We visited a Pearl farm on the way back and had some milkshakes and smoothies. It is amazing that you can drive down some very rough roads, and it feels like you are going into nothingness and then you arrive at a beautiful beach and in this case a fantastic cafe with all fresh produce!
On the road back to Middle lagoon we were confronted by a Donkey who would not let us travel the final 1km to our tent site. Mel tried to persuade it by taking to it (i didn’t know she could speak donkey) and I decided to honk my horn....big mistake. Apparently the donkey doesn’t like the sound of my horn and it attacked my car. It started chewing on my bonnet so I jammed the car into reverse and started going about 25-30km an hour in the wrong direction....with the donkey in hot pursuit!! I put on the brakes so the donkey would pass and it tried to rear up on Will’s window, so I floored it and quickly made our way to the “Resort”. The donkey still followed us, but somebody grabbed it and tied it up (after it bit him a few times). It was quite an experience and unfortunately I still have a few teeth marks on the front of the Pathfinder.
We thought after a busy morning, we needed some more beach action so we again swam, and collected shells and this time did it with our eyes open and we watch many whales breaching and swimming by the lagoon. Another fantastic day!!
We had saved an easy meal of spaghetti and meatballs for tonight (courtesy of Mama many moons ago) so we fired up the electric fry pan again...our only means of cooking which promptly shorted out the whole resorts power. No lights in the toilets, not pumps to run the showers, no lights in teh cabins. We were able to plug into the main homestead’s power to finish our cooking (thank goodness), but there were many unhappy people (oops).
The next day the dew wasn’t as bad so we were able to pack up early and head back towards Broome. We retired the girls tent...which didn’t have a fly and didn’t hold up to the dew...the boys tent was fine!!
We got back to Broome where we found that a recruitment agency was trying to get onto Mel (and of course we hadn’t had any service) for an interview that day for a job Mel had stumbled onto (it’s alright people, it was in Melbourne, not Broome!!) We quickly rescheduled the interview time, which meant we were stuck in Broome for a few more hours (terrible place to be stuck!!). We got some more supplies, loaded up the van and then headed back to the foreshore, for a play at the park, a paddle at Cable beach and an ice cream (told you we were being punished) while Mel did the interview. Once completed we jumped on the road towards Barn Hill which we had had very good recommendations!
Another 10kms of dirt with the van and we can to a park perched on a cliff overlooking the sea. We had arrived at 4.30pm so the caretaker had already left the office, so we found a site (powered of course) and made ourselves at home. We repacked everything after our camping trip and then were very disappointed that there was no hot water in the showers. So we boiled some water and gave the kids a tub. They kids were happy to be in their beds again. We then realised all the taps were backwards and there was plenty of hot water, so we enjoyed a wash ourselves.
The next morning Charlotte and I visited the rock pools on the beach, where we discovered many creatures of the sea. We found octopus, craps, little fish and then we stumbled upon a couple of huge trumpet shells which we wedged under the rocks. We took them back to show Mel and Will and Mel advised that there were signs everywhere saying not to take things from the beach....I hadn’t seen them so I didn’t believe her....we kept the shells.
We packed up and decided to head down to Eighty mile beach. This was probably the best free camp site we had stayed at thus far....whoops, forgot to check in....
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