Broome

Saturday 29th August to Monday 07 September

Lorraine: We’ve been enjoying our stationery lifestyle here in Broome; it’s such a lovely town. I’ve been at my job for a week now, learning the ropes. I have all the keys, the codes and the petty cash tin so I better not run amok! It’s not the most exciting job in the world and certainly nowhere near as interesting or fun as my previous job at Showgroup but being a government job, I get paid an extraordinary amount of money to do very little so I can’t complain. Every Thursday I get to cut out any relevant clippings from the local newspaper and scrapbook them for posterity. It’s a tough gig I’m telling you.

After three months of not working it’s been a rude shock to be up and at work on time for my 8am starts and to have a working wardrobe cleaned and pressed in advance of the working week but the early finish of 4pm is great. I cycle back to the campsite where Gary awaits with a chilled glass of wine or beer and we usually barbeque our dinner overlooking the retreating tide of Roebuck Bay as the sun sets. Even though I’m working 5 days a week, it’s not so bad you know?

This weekend just gone saw the opening of the weeklong Shinju Matsuri Festival or the Festival of the Pearl. Broome began as a pearling town and its population was mostly made up of Japanese, Malay and Chinese pearl divers so this festival is in honour of the town’s history and multicultural society. The opening ceremony was on Friday night with a Parade of Nations involving locals of ethnic ancestry parading the flag of their forefathers followed by a concert performed by local school and dance groups. The big ticket item was the “awakening” of Sammy the Chinese Dragon who will remain “awake” for the week long duration and he’ll be put back to sleep at the closing ceremony next Sunday. It’s all good fun and we’re lucky that our time here has coincided with the festival.

Another Broome feature that we’re fortunate to see is what’s called The Staircase to the Moon. This event occurs for three nights running when the moon is full. Tourists and locals alike gather to watch the moon rise over the corrugated sand bars on the tidal flats which supposedly evoke an image of a staircase rising to the moon. This monthly event really galvanises the town, almost everyone turns up to watch this and they have market stalls and food stalls and musicians to really make a night of it. The maxim of “if you build it they will come” is really lived out here in Broome. These guys will come together to celebrate anything!

Gary: I can only think that I’m over qualified, it’s been over a week now and I still haven’t found any work, doesn’t anyone want a well travelled ex mechanic with dodgy office skill and a funny accent?

Broome is good though, as mentioned before a little alternative where strange facial hair, tattoos, alternative clothing, drunkenness and a near absence of footwear sit happily alongside the more sober multimillion dollar pearl and tourist industry.

As for highlights Lorraine has mentioned sunset over Cable Beach, Staircase to the Moon and all that stuff which is OK but for me Broome will always be remembered for its crab racing, how silly and yet how wonderful. We have also driven out to Cape Leveque which was very pretty. We met a lovely Argentinean couple who have driven their 1928 Graham-Paige (A real Bugsy Malone gangster style car with running boards and wooden wheels) from their home in Argentina via Alaska and now round Australia. When they left 9 years ago it was just the two of them, they now have four children in the car with them; life at a top speed of 28 miles an hour (45kmh) and no television has sure been good to them, we just had to buy their book.

We also caught up with Steve Moore, an old Guerba driver friend of mine which was great and not surprisingly ended up with great conversations of our shared memories of Africa in the local pub. I wonder if the car would like to go on a boat to Africa?

Car: Get stuffed weird boy.

Sep 7, 2009

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