Mud crabbing at Chile Creek - Dampier Peninsular WA

What a fantastic experience!

           Ben with a grin from ear to ear                                               Brave Hannah the first to hold one

After leaving Middle lagoon we continued north towards the Aboriginal community of Lombadina where we took a left turn off down another narrow track towards a place called Chile Creek. 
The campsite was a basic bush setting, but after taking a drive down to the beach (on what seemed more like a walking track) and seeing how beautiful and pristine it was we decided to stay.  We were the only campers there and Scott thought it could be a good opportunity to see if we could get someone to take us mud crabbing. So we asked Roma, the lady that runs the place who caught up with us later to let us know that Philo, would take us out at 8am the next morning.

Philo's car wasn't "running too well" so we all hopped in ours and headed out to the creek.  Philo with gumboots on, a crab hook, spear (that caught Ben's eye) and a big bucket which looked promising.  He assured us there are no croc's in the creek.

It was amazing to see the creek at low tide after seeing it at high tide the afternoon before.  It looked like a different world, with white sandy beaches fringed by mangroves and an exposed coral reef.  There were a million oysters growing all over the rocks and even on the mangrove roots and branches.


            The kids one step behind Philo the whole time.                                       Success!

               Hannah getting right into it mud and all                                      Ben sinks to his knees

                  Scott did well, after 2 and half hours that bucket filled with 7 muddies was heavy!

           Ben spotted one....Philo prepping him for action......and after a bit of a tug-o-war Ben got him!

                            Ben ready with spear as Philo struggles with a big one on the other side

                                                             Some of the exposed Coral we saw as we walked through.

                 The ones we got to take with us                                                  Getting ready for the pot!

We ended up having the best day.  It was amazing watching Philo.  He new exactly where to look, and had lots of favourite holes to check.  This was his backyard, he knew it, loved it, and you could tell he was really enjoying himself too.  The walk was great in itself, with lots of fish in pools, and baby mud crabs partially buried in the sand.  Ben had a great time chasing the smaller blue claws and picking up the soldier crabs.  Hannah never left Philo's side, chatting away and pointing out all the different kinds of corals and shells.  He showed us some of the things the local elders eat as delicacies and quickly warned Ben off the "bad luck crab" he spotted.  We ended up walking too far so cut through back to camp and Scott and Philo got a lift back to the car to pick it up.

Those claws were full of juicy sweet meat..yummy I was in heaven! We ate mud crab for 5 days after that and never got sick of it.

Chile Creek Beach is so beautiful.  White white sand and turquoise waters.  Roma does not allow day visitors onto the beach so the campers (only us) had it to ourselves.

Our camp was unusual as we had our own tin shack with a campfire and table.  The mozzies were bad and Scott was the tasty one!

                                                                                                            Ben and his harmonica

No I didn't bake this bread.  We paid a small fortune for this loaf from the only baker on the whole peninsular.  We ordered it the day before and Scott took the rough drive into Lombadina twice the next day (turns out the shop that sells the bread closes between 11am and 1am) only to find the extra crusty top when we opened the bag. 

                                                              Chile Creek sunset....dolphins and all

So we are really glad we decided to check out Chile Creek and would highly recommend it to anyone travelling up that way.  We would have stayed longer but were locked into the very heavily booked Kooljamin Resort at Cape Leveque so had to move on....

         Ben changing the tyre pressure...in preparation for the tar road to Cape Leveque....