The Dampier Peninsula extends North of Broome for almost 200 km to cape Leveque. Connected by only a single (still mostly unsealed) road, it's a beautiful backwater, with only a few aboriginal communities and some relatively low-key tourist development. We spend a couple of days there, exploring secluded bays down the sandy 4WD tracks of the area, going mud crabbing with a local guide (catching and eating some of the biggest and best crabs I've seen!) and just enjoying the beautifully unspoiled coastline. No doubt in a couple of years they'll seal the rest of the road and it will be invaded by hordes of grey nomads in their caravans and backpackers in Wicked Campers, but for now it's a welcome respite from the tourist rat race up the WA coast (ie NOT having to fight for a campsite with hordes of caravans and their noisy generators!).

Can't get away from those catholic missionaries either- the area was the centre of one of the early missions and there's a couple of interesting little churches at Beagle Bay and Lombardina.