Cape Leveque
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
We drove north from Broome along an unpaved highway, red from the color of the rock, towards Cape Leveque. The Cape is 150 miles/240 kilometers from Broome.
Along the way, we stopped at the Aboriginal Community of Beagle Bay and took a self–guided tour of the famous Sacred Heart Church.
Here is a map showing the Church, our lodge up at Cape Leveque (blue bed icon), and the nearby pearl farm we will visit.
When we crossed over into the Aboriginal area, the highway went from red dirt to pavement. Beagle Bay was not far up the highway. Here is the church (built in 1918), and the famous interior covered with pearl shells.
We pressed on and got to our wilderness camp at Kooljaman. A new issue, for us, arose when we were told frogs will get into the toilet bowl, and that the solution is to flush them back down to where they came from. Sure enough, we flushed a lot of frogs during our stay!
This photo shows the Cape in the distance. We walked a lot and did not encounter many people. The beaches are amazing.
Here, the tide is coming in over the mangroves.
Today, we also attended a lecture by the Chairwoman of Kooljaman on the history and culture of the area.
On Thursday, our planned boat tour of the large tides was canceled due to wind, so instead we drove across the Cape to Cygnet Bay and its Pearl Farm. We were given a lecture on how the pearls are made (a five year process). The Pearl Farm introduces mother of pearl fragments into oysters to get the process started.
Here is a fine looking necklace that is for sale—$23,000.
The next day, Friday, we drove back to Broome for a flight to Kununurra (red bed on the map).
We drove north, out of Broome, towards Cape Leveque. On the way, we stopped at the Beagle Bay Aboriginal community to tour the Sacred Heart Church. We stayed at Cape Leveque for two nights before returning to Broome.
