Thursday 22 August 2013 - Middle Lagoon
The sun has set and the moon is on its way up. The sky is hazy with smoke from a nearby bushfire and the birds are chirping their goodnights. The children are showered and dressed for the evening (coated with their usual layer of mozzie spray) and a stack of vegies and topside of beef are roasting away in the camp oven beside the fire. Save for the whingeing child (Sienna, because I packed up the hammock in preparation for our departure tomorrow), life is pretty darn good right now.
We’ve eaten fish for a few nights, although Glenn would have liked to have caught more. He got out in the boat every day except one, when it was blowing and we decided to drive up to Cape Leveque instead. The girls didn’t go out in the boat this time, but they didn’t really mind because they were too busy hanging out with Nanna, Grandad and Corinne. Yasmin informed Glenn that he’s a bad daddy and she didn’t want him anymore (a statement that has since been retracted) because he told her off about something and she notified me that she didn’t like my food anymore and she wanted to eat Nanna’s food instead. So we’ve officially retired from parenting and are wondering if Glenn’s parents have room for a pint-sized blondie with a king-size attitude when they begin their long return drive back to Brisbane?...
Glenn and I went on a date yesterday morning. The wind was still up so we couldn’t take the boat out far, but we went and sat on a little spot just on the edge of the lagoon with a few live-ies Glenn had netted near the mouth of the creek. I didn’t catch anything edible but had fun pulling in two under-sized cod and Glenn got a just-legal (well, almost) parrot. After everything went off the bite and the tide had come in a bit, we punted up the little creek, which was much more protected from the buffeting wind. The water there, like everywhere around here, is crystal clear and you could see every creature in it so vividly it was like looking through glass! Stingrays cruised by, schools of mullet zipped around, butter bream and garfish glided past – it was like our own private life-sized aquarium.
It’s a shame the wind blew as much as it did, because Middle Lagoon and the whole Dampier Pensinsula is famous for its good fishing. Glenn was told of a really good spot about 12km out, but the weather just didn’t permit him to get there. We might just have to come back again one day, darn it. The beach was really nice and a great swimming spot for the kids, although they don’t enjoy spending hours playing near the sand and the sea, I think because it’s quite hot for them sitting on the beach in the full sun while they’re so young. The water was quite cool and refreshing – perhaps too cool for littlies. It was still a great place for the family though and being able to launch the boat right off the beach was handy too.
The drive up to Cape Leveque was a big one. The road is sealed most of the way, but Middle Lagoon is 30 odd kilometres on the red sand from the turn-off. Kooljaman is the campground at the tip and while it was stunning, I’m glad we didn’t stay there. Before heading that we, we went to Beagle Bay to look at the church with the famous pearl shell altar. That was pretty awesome. It’s a little Aboriginal community not too far from Middle Lagoon. We also called into Lombadina, another Aboriginal community on the way towards Cape Leveque, hoping to get fuel. The office and bowsers are closed between 11am and 1pm and we’d rocked up just before noon, so bad luck for us! Wouldn’t it be nice to have a siesta in the middle of every day, where everything closes down for a few hours?! Fortunately One Arm Point, the furthermost community on the road, has 24 hour card-operated bowsers, so we got our $1.98 per litre diesel there. It was nice to have a look around, but I’m not sure I’d bother to make the return trip back there if I were ever in this area again.
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