Middle Lagoon

We really didn't want to leave Cape Leveque because it was such a magical place, but we also wanted to see what else the Dampier Peninsula had to offer us. So we packed up our trailer (which we are getting pretty good at now) and headed 100km South on the Cape Leveque Road to Middle Lagoon.
On arrival, the Middle Lagoon Campground reminded us a little bit of McGowans Island, but it was much cleaner and the staff were really friendly. They were also very relaxed and told us that we could set up wherever we liked (we chose a nice shady spot) and unlike the Roebuck Bay Caravan Park we were not given a double sided A4 sheet of rules. As the name suggests,the campground is situated on a stunning reef lagoon which is beautiful for swimming and perfect for launching a boat for a spot of fishing.

insert standard sunset photo here

And a spot of fishing is exactly what we did; in fact we spent a large chunk of our time landing a variety of good sized fish. As mentioned in our last blog, our BFFS Dave and Jana had to start work in Port Headland and they took their big beautiful boat with them so it was back to fishing out of the easytopper. This did present a few challenges for us, but we still had a ball. One memorable incident was when Belle hooked a rather large feisty Mac Tuna that was able to tow our 46kg boat around the lagoon for a bit of a spin until it had been expertly landed in the boat. In fact many of the fish towed our boat around!!!!!!

nice size to courier back to Trousar - Daz can you get us a quote???

Another bloody Mac Tuna

Once again the marine life was spectacular and we saw stacks of dolphins, sharks turtles and manta rays cruising around the boat. We also did pretty well fishing wise - some of the highlights were Belle's 57cm Coral Trout caught on a popper, a couple of reasonable sized GTs caught by Waz, a nice sharky mackerel that nearly ended up as sharky dinner and a few assorted reef fish. We also decided to utilize the freezer, so if anyone wants to come over for a feed of fish when we get back just give us a hoi.

Mmmmmm coral trout

Waz and Tea Leaf Trevally

Couldn't have landed this one without the gimble - thanks Jana and Dave!!!!

what an ugly looking fish....

birds working the tuna

Blood in the boat is all part of a good days fishing

But someone needs to clean the blood of the Catalina Combo

Most mornings we would rise reasonably early and fish until we either got sick of it, caught enough fish, or it just got too hot or choppy. We then spent our afternoons lazing around the lagoon and enjoying long walks on the sandy beaches collecting shells (obviously Waz didn't get into the shell collecting - men with beards just don't do that sort of stuff).

We had this beach to ourselves

watching a storm roll in (never actually rolled in to Middle Lagoon)

attempt at artistic storm photo

WA tides are huge - this photo was taken of idiots car at 10.30am

Photo taken of idiots car at 10.45am

One afternoon we decided to drive out to Beagle Bay to visit the Sacred Hearts Church which is supposed to be quite spectacular. Old Mate who ran the campground had told Belle about a shortcut, so we decided to give it a go. We still aren't really convinced that the short cut was a short cut, but after getting lost in a deserted looking community and noticing some rather ominous looking storm clouds forming we finally made it to Beagle Bay.

As soon as we got out of the car the storm started and with surprising intensity - really strong gusts of wind, horizontal rain and even hail stones. The woman at the community store told us that it was only the second time ever that it had hailed in Beagle Bay and the locals looked pretty excited to see ice falling from the sky. The storm went on for about half an hour and we were pretty worried about our open trailer back at camp (the weather was perfect when we left) and the state of the roads. As soon as it was safe to do so we drove back to camp and were very relieved to see that it was completely dry and the roads unaffected - it is only 25km as the crow flys and they hadn't received a drop of rain.

camp dog escaping the hail storm

Beagle Bay Storm

First church either of us have been in for a while.....

Very fat Beagle in Beagle Bay Church....

We support a Gas Free Kimberley (don't tell Waza's work)

A few days later and it was time to pack up again and make our way back to Broome where we are going to spend the next week before we start the 3500km journey back to Brissy.