Bradby Trip - 17 to 27 July 2009 Days 27 to 38

16 to 19 July 2009 Days 27 to 30 – Thursday saw us pack up and today we are heading to Karratha to visit a friend of a friend, he is organising new tyres for the Prado, another set of BFG All Terrains, I’ve been very happy with the current set. They are over 4 years old and have travelled to Cape York in 2006 and across Australia on some rugged tracks without a single puncture.

We arrived at Dampier mid afternoon and set up at the Dampier Caravan Park. The park is small and basic but has great water views looking over the iron ore loading facilities and the Dampier Peninsula. After setting up we drove back to Karratha to catch up with Pete and hatch a fishing plan for Saturday and Sunday.


The plan was to get away on sunrise and weather permitting head outside to the reef. I got a phone call from Pete at 6 00 am telling me that the wheel had fallen off the boat trailer. So I went to where Pete had broken down and by the time I got there pete had pulled the remains of the wheel bearing off and we headed into Karratha to wait for the shops to open to buy the necessary bits. To cut a long story short we got the parts and had the trailer fixed by 11 00 am and were on the water before 12 although the plan of heading out wide had gone out the window. Instead we jigged for live bait, chased and caught 4 big squid and fished on some reef between islands where we caught a large variety of fish from big Queenies, Sweetlip and Chinamen – one of the Chinamen Pete caught was around 10 kg and put up a great fight.




That night we had calamari and fish at Pete’s place – it was a great night the Lions won as well against the Dockers. Sunday was a catch and release day as we had filled the freezer in the Evakool. So we went Squid hunting again and landed another 7 and went along the rock ledges throwing lures at Trevally and Queenies, Jack had a ball.

20 July 2009 Day 31 - Monday saw us leave Dampier and head north initially with the intention of doing an overnighter at the De Grey River free campsite but we arrived there at 2 30 am and decided we’d drive for another hour so onto Cape Kereuden Conservation park where we got a great campsite on the banks of Cottenband Creek, unfortunately the tide was out and there was on opportunity for us to wet a line. After a good night’s sleep we got away at 8 15 am headed for Port Smith Caravan Park which had been recommended to us by a fellow traveller.



21 to 25 July 2009 Days 32 to 36 – Well what an absolute awesome place Port Smith is, its about 25 km off the main drag and the park sits about 600 metres from the Port Smith lagoon. Firstly about the Caravan Park, it is a family concern run by 2 brothers and their partners, its clean and tidy, the shop is well stocked, it has fish cleaning facilities and a 9 hole golf course that costs $2 a person to play.




Every Thursday night the park puts on a fish and chip night for $5 a head and the local aboriginal community band plays – what a talented crew and what a great night all for $5 a head. There are raffles and competitions, Jack won the male dancing competition and was very happy with the fishing gear prize. Me too because he has been loosing heaps so it was good to restock the tackle box.

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We’ve had the boat in the water every day and the 3 of us have been having a ball catching a feed every day, nothing big but lots of fun. It’s the first time I’ve experienced such large tidal variations with the tide range varying between 2 metre lows and nearly 10 metre highs the water races out of the narrow estuary opening which is about 100 metres wide. The out going tide forms large eddies and driving the tinnie through them was a bit unnerving at first with the back of the boat skipping from side to side. Once you got used to it, it was OK.

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On the third day Jack and I went about 5 km outside in the tinnie and although we didn’t land any fish we had great fun. We had whales surfacing beside the boat, Jack hooked up a big mackerel that took a lot of line before cutting the wire trace – it was real adrenalin pumping stuff.



We’ll be sorry to leave Port Smith but I’m sure we’ll return sometime into the future.

26 and 27 July 2009 Days 37 and 38 – We reluctantly left Port Smith and Headed the 160 km to Broome to restock the fridge and fuel up ($1.44/litre) before heading up the Dampier Peninsula to Quondong Point where we found a free campsite on top of the beach, yet another suburb spot with great beaches and views.



We set up and went for a long beach walk over a number of rocky points before coming back to camp and being invited to “happy hour” drinks with a few of our camping neighbours. By coincidence all the people, except for 2 French back packers were from South east Queensland – it certainly is a small world.

Today we woke up to strong winds and decided to head to the Willie Creek Pearl Farm to do the 2 hour tour. The tour involved a presentation about the farm’s operations and the detail of how cultured pearls are formed, a damper morning tea, a boat ride to see how the mother of pearl shells are farmed and an explore of the Willie Creek estuary and another presentation about how you look after pearls and the attributes of a good pearl. It was a great tour well worth doing and there was no hard sell to purchase their jewellery.



Tomorrow will see us pack up and drive to the northern side of the Dampier Peninsula to camp at an Aboriginal Community at La Djardarr Point where we will be able to do a guided fishing and mud crabbing trip with a local guide. We’ll use this camp as a base and explore to the top of the Peninsula without having to cart the camper and boat on what are reported to be fairly rough roads/tracks.

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