I had seen enough small places (Coconut Wells and Quondong Point) on the Dampier to be hungry for a longer and more detailed stay. I set off early one morning for Cape Leveque and One Arm Point which are situated at the top of the Dampier Peninsula. Once you turn off the Broome to  Derby road the Cape is another 225km away. After the first ten kilometers of bitumen the road becomes a graded gravel road that slowly deteriorates from bad to woeful. The idea was to head for Leveque and One Arm Point and then to work my way back to Broome along the southern side of the Dampier.

Not everybody knows that the stretch from Broome to Leveque, King Sound, Derby and beyond has some of the highest tidal differences in Australia. At Derby the differences are over 12 meters at certain times of the year. This results in the coastal waters running into and out of Kings Sound at one heck of a speed. I have been up the Fitzroy River when the tidal surge came in from the sea like a tsunami heralding the next high tide. It sounds as if one is standing on the banks of a river rather than an ocean shore.  Consider what effect the tides have on the harbors in the area. The piers are built on pylons 12 meters high. How do you load a boat at the spring low tide??

See some links below re Dampier peninsula

The Dampier Peninsula is a peninsula located north of Broome and Roebuck Bay in Western Australia. It is surrounded by the Indian Ocean to the west and north, and King Sound to the east. The northernmost part of the peninsula is Cape Leveque

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dampier_Peninsula

http://www.kimberleyaustralia.com/broome-cape-leveque.html

http://www.cygnetbaypearls.com.au/

The trip was long and dusty, but I arrived at One Arm Point later in the afternoon. This is an Aboriginal community at the top of the Dampier peninsula. It has a supermarket, a servo and a few public buildings. The coastline has several rocky outcrops just offshore . There are some pearl farm or oyster farm businesses that have their premises just out of town. There also is a crude short runway to land a small plane. Here at One Arm Point the tidal waters rush into and out of King Sound, depending on tide.

Island off One Arm Point

View from Camp ground

For more images see: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=one+arm+point&biw=1366&bih=639&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CCYQsARqFQoTCJuSwL6A28gCFYWklAod8uoCIQ

I headed back down the road from One Arm Point and spent the night a t a local camp ground close by. The views towards the evening glow after sunset were great, but the running tide made it sound as if I had been camping in a river. The facilities were basic.

The next day I went down the road and turned off towards Middle Lagoon. After a sandy track for many kilometers one arrives at a great camping ground with trees and its own beach. The grounds are expansive and have a small rock ledge over the sea. There you look into 15 – 25 foot of crystal clear water and see corals, turtles and fish swimming by. I tried some fishing but did not catch anything.

I camped for the night and had a lovely evening under a big tree.

See  link below for better images from that Dampier area than my crappy pics.

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=one+arm+point&biw=1366&bih=639&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CCYQsARqFQoTCJuSwL6A28gCFYWklAod8uoCIQ#tbm=isch&q=middle+lagoon&imgrc=_

James Price Point (JPP)

The next day I continued south and decided to visit this destination as I had read about this point of controversy in the months leading up to my trip. Woodside Petroleum intended clearing a few sq, kilometers of coast and building a gas refinery. It was going to have a major harbor construction as well. In short this caused an international outrage and likeminded people congregated in the area to protest and stop this from happening. History shows that a few years later the project was canned. This area will remain pristine.

At the turn off to JPP the protesters had set up a camp so you could not miss the place. I drove along the 30+ kms to get to JPP. It is stunningly beautiful. Red sand cliffs line the beach into the blue Indian Ocean waters. Great spots for fishing emerge at low tide with the tidal difference of up to 10 meters.

I camped on the cliff for a night and spent the next day exploring the area. At low tide I dived on a reef that was about 50 meters from the low water mark. I saw tracks of turtles that had beached the night before to lay their eggs. Evidence of nests were everywhere. Makes you wonder how people can destroy such natural beauty just for profit. I had a local aboriginal elder explain to me why they were protesting. Another regular at this spot showed me dinosaur tracks that were visible at low tide.

I asked some of the Aboriginal people where they would go fishing in this area. They described a place 10km up the coast. I went there on day 2 and caught these two trevally.

I went back to Broome the next day, much wiser and enriched. I have since been back to this location twice more and loved it.

Time at James Price Point (JPP)

My good mate Watto and I decided to spend a day visiting this spectacular destination on the Dampier peninsula. We got away fairly early and turned onto the road to the Dampier peninsula and JPP. When we left the bitumen and rode onto the red dirt the immediate impact was sensory. The color of the sky and the landscape changed and became more vivid. One also noticed immediately that the bush was dry. Much of West Australia is enduring a prolonged dry spell.

James Price Point shot to prominence when Woodside Petroleum wanted to level hundreds of acres here to build a harbor and gas refinery. It caused an international outcry and many hundreds of people involved themselves to either protest, camp and obstruct at the site, lobby politicians or collect signatures to send to their local members of Parliament. Even Sea Shepherd was  involved.

As you can see from the pics this place has stunning colors, has a thriving marine life and is close to the breeding ground of Southern Right Whales. At the southern end of this area turtles emerge during winter to lay their eggs on the beach at night, see pic.  Beautiful reefs exist just 50 meters from the beach where a multitude of shells live. I have seen massive clams, textile cones and many cowries when I dived there 2 years ago.

And this is the area that politics and business were happy to sacrifice for profit when there are alternate options available!!!

On this visit, my third, there are  signs still standing, maintained by dedicated protesters / campers who come here year after year to relax, soak in the natural beauty and just chill. I am sure they keep an eye on things too.

As this was my first visit in two years it was interesting to see the changes from the heyday of the protests. The major camp at the turnoff to JPP had totally disappeared. The smaller camp 2km from the coast had fallen into neglect. It had been used by campers during the winter season but was empty now. Campers fill this area during the winter months year after year. At JPP itself a few campers remained. By end of September it is getting quite hot already and the winter campers, who came to enjoy the benign weather, had gone back south over the last month.

We saw a Fish Eagle sitting in the tree and it was in no way concerned by us. The aboriginal elder / spokesperson (Janet) was no longer at JPP. She had left the place months earlier to return to Broome to live with family. I have included pics of the great spot she had used for years. Only a broken down panel van remains.

Our friend Dave still remains. He has been coming here for 9 years I think. He still rates this as one of the top spots in this area. See pics of his camp. He is known for finding dinosaur footprints amongst the rocks at low tide. There are some really good fishing spots in this area. Dave manages to catch a feed quite often.

We drove north along the coast on the gravel road to explore more of JPP. Pics of some of the stunning coastline below. At low tide many reefs emerge from the water and reveal great fishing spots. There is vehicle access to a great beach which leads to the next rocky point 9 km up north.

Also see this link:   https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=144528419227958&set=ms.c.eJw9ybkRACAMA7CNOOw43%7E%3B6LUQQodYLkLJlXK2gL1%7E%3BQAez%7E_zyWzP73k8Y74OgNsQCw%7E-%7E-.bps.a.105255276488606.1073741827.100010124012478&type=3

Unfortunately I had to head back home after two more days. It was great to catch up, catch some fish and recharge my batteries.

I had not been to this most beautiful part of Australia for 2 years now. The time has come to visit some good mates up there once more. It is generally accepted that Broome is the southern end of the Kimberley region in the north west of Australia. For my money the Kimberley region is the most magnificent region in Australia. It is one of the few regions in this country that is still largely untamed. It is stunningly beautiful. It has a great diversity of landscapes from 320 million year old coral reefs that stand as mountain ranges to billion year old, ochre colored mesas that are crumbling to dust and reflect mind blowing colors at sunrise and sunset.

This will be my fourth visit to this area. I look forward to time spent fishing, camping on the beach, boating, yarns around the camp fire and the odd beverage. Broome is the southern delimiter of the Dampier peninsula which sports a number of Aboriginal settlements and has the famous Cape Leveque as its westernmost tip. Broome itself owns the world famous and stunning Cable Beach. I cannot wait!

OK, I will confess. I am sitting at Perth airport waiting for my connecting flight to Broome. Look at my destination pic below; the magnificent Cable Beach, Broome