Kooljamin Resort - Cape Leveque, Dampier Peninsular WA

By far the most touristy of all our Dampier Peninsular destinations, the Kooljamin Resort consumes prime position at the very tip of the peninsular.  Its at the end of the road where you can watch the sun rise and set over the ocean.

Talking about position, check out our beach shelter campsite.....its a hard life.



As far as accommodation goes Kooljamin caters for everyone.  The campground sits up on the hill with spacious powered and non-powered sites. They have safari tents near the campground and cabins scattered around near the beach. But its hard to beat the beach shelter campsites where you can set up your tent or camper.  The shelters are quite large with plenty of shade, an outdoor shower, table to eat at and their very own camp fires.

              Hannah reading on beach in front of camp                         Schoolwork for Ben
I love the feel of the sand under foot, and campfires by the ocean.  There is something soothing about drifting off to sleep with the sound of the waves rolling in, and although I didn't actually get up, I did peep through the tent window at the red glow of the sun emerging over the ocean for a new day....  The sunrise photos are courtesy of Scott who did make the effort to get up

The beach we camped on was classified as the 'swimming beach'. We also hopped in the car for the 5 minute drive around the point and along the next beach.  You are only allowed to drive 1km up this beach due to sacred Aboriginal land.  If you kept going you would reach Hunter Creek which can only be accessed now if you are on a tour.
We found a series of rock pools at low tide that were great for the kids to snorkel in. They were full of hard and soft corals, sea cucumbers, clams, anemones and fish. They also had a lot of oyster shells which I kept warning the kids to be careful of, and guess who ended up cutting her own finger in the first 10 minutes!

One day we joined a tag-a-long tour. Our guide Brian, with his wild and woolly white hair was great.  He was laid back, interesting and humorous but in a real way.  (not like some of the rehearsed like styles of some tour guides)  We set off at 8.30am and were meant to be back at 12.00 but arrived in around 1pm.
Brian spoke of his great grandfather (Englishman) who first came to the area, bought land at the Cape,  and told of his not so nice past. The drive was about 10km's along the beach with stops to  taste bush tucker off a tree, and learn how his people caught there own food and found fresh water.
He took us for a walk along Hunter Creek and caught some more mud crabs. He showed us different methods of throwing the throw net and caught some bait fish, which he gave to us to use as bait. 

It was harder to catch the muddies along the mangroves as its all tangly, Brian only managed one whole one, and 3 claws (they drop their claws when under threat).

                                     Scott gives it a go.....                            at least he came out with something!

The other one was spotted by Hannah and she gave it a good go at getting it too!  After a quite a wrestle it managed to escape her only to be caught by Brian.  He flicked it onto the sand, (it only had one claw) and said to Hannah “ok Hannah grab it by its claw”  By the time Scott was half way there saying  "I don’t know......" she had snapped it up confidently and was grinning ear to ear as the rest of the tour group took photos. 

It was a fun day.  There were two other families on the tour and all the kids and parents got on well.  Actually Hannah was happy to find another girl her age (Amber) and the rest of the kids were boys so Ben had a great time. 

More fish in the fridge! One day we fished off the western beach on the incoming tide.  Scott and Hannah walked about 3kms along the beach and came back with a nice Dart and stories of the ones that got away!

               Thats Scott in the distance and Hannah in the water...

So Scott and Ben headed back to camp to stock up on food and water while Hannah (well done Hannah) walked me all the way back to the spot. After the boys caught up with us we pulled in another a Dart and I snagged a nice Golden Trevally that fed our whole family.  That night our neighbour with a tinny came back from fishing with a Cobia.  Its a big fish that looked to me (in the dark) like a shark. Anyway he gave us 3 huge fillets, we've been making fish burgers for lunch with them.
          Kids cooling off....              The Golden Trevally caught on Bens Rod

We met up with Wendy and David a few times on the beach.  The boys Sam, Will and Ben had a great time mucking around playing soccer and building complex sandcastle structures. Wendy became my saviour and offered me a couple of bottles of wine she had spare after learning we had gone (by accident) since Broome.  Gosh that wine tasted good....Thanks Wendy!
The Dampier is a dry Peninsular. We knew this but when we left Broome the bottle shops were closed. So we took off, and I thought oh well I'll just have to wait till Cape Leveque, thinking that with a fancy restaurant catering to the richer people flying in for the day that surely we'd be able to buy a glass of wine and a beer with our meal. But No they don't serve alcohol and are strictly BYO!
We also had a night together around their campfire and have since had sunset drinks and dinner in Broome.  Half the fun of travelling is about the people you meet.

Here are some of our sunset photos on the western beach.  As the red sun sinks into the ocean it illuminates the stunning red cliffs on the beach.

Scott and I ended our Dampier Peninsular experience with a romantic dinner for 2 at the Kooljamin restaurant overlooking the water.  The food tasted great and we managed to polish off three courses and kept in touch with the kids back at camp with our walkie talkies.

Below are photos taken at the trochus shell hatchery at One Arm Point. The Barra' feeding was a hit, how fast to they take the bait.....
                                                                                               Scott with a Kimberley Oyster!