World Australia Western Australia Broome

Round Australia with Ev and Az

Day 72 & 73 – Broome – Turkey juice Oct 2, 2009

First morning in Broome and we started with a walk to Cable Beach. Again I am lost for superlatives. The iridescent blue water gently lapping onto the 22kms of uninterrupted beach is just amazing, and after being away from the ocean for so long, for someone who loves the surf so much, it was divine.

What struck me most was the sand, like Jervis bay it is incredibly fine and clean. It is so fine when you walk on it it’s silent, no squeaks, but when you walk to the water’s edge it takes on a texture almost like walking on velvet. Yes I have been away from the surf too long…..but we are on the coast all the way home!!!

Again the afternoon was spent driving/looking around town. We went out to see the dinosaur footprints- that are in all the tourist books. However once you get there you realise it is under water 90% of the time - we had this sorted as we planned to be there at low tide. Unfortunately once you get there, there are no signs to show you where they areas the environment is ‘too fragile’. So apparently you can use it to attract tourists but they can’t actually go out to see them.

One guidebook helpfully tells you that if you take a bearing of 117 degrees from the light house approx 1km away you will find them. It fails to mention that there is a cliff face in that walk and it is hard to maintain a bearing while plummeting to the rocks below…..beside I think I left my compass behind….when I left the Scouts. I have learnt to navigate underwater when diving but as Antarctica did not melt yesterday there was no chance to try this.

Helpfully the locals have made a concrete replica and put it at the top of the cliff, with no signs. Our guess is most tourists see these, take a picture and go home happy thinking they have seen a prehistoric imprint (made by the Bunnings-asaurus).

We attempted to try some beers at the local micro brewery but were kicked out as a private function was being held there. Now by my count that is the first time Az has been kicked out of a drinking establishment, the second for Ev and for me…..well ….errr…..probably the first before I actually purchased anything.

As we were back in civilisation it was time to splurge on a good dinner. Better than my BBQ steak and snags, not possible I hear you say, but yes. Heading to a restaurant next to the caravan park , Al and I demolished a magnificent seafood platter for two and washed it down with a very nice Pinot Gris (Al’s choice.) Civilisation does have its appeals.

One thing that stands out in Broome is the significantly higher percentage of English tourists (Scientific name – Pommie Lobster). Now who in their right mind says, “hey, we live as close to the north pole as we currently are to the equator, We can handle this?” Judging by the number whose skin you could measure with a geiger counter, a lot. Lily white skin and Northern Australia sun are not a good mix. There will be a lot of sore people tonight. Even us southerners have worked that one out.

While thinking of ‘lily white’ (and bagging Europeans), one comment to our german friends. Shower cubicles are for your privacy and our decency. You walk in, get undressed, shower, get dressed and walk out. I do not need to see your lily white behind in the shower block at every opportunity.

Anyway I digress but what else is new.

We have worked out that time wise we are about halfway through our trip, without actually reaching our furthest point from home. If we take more than 70 odd days to get home the fat guy in the red suit will beat us home…..to be honest if we did everything we wanted to do, the Easter bunny may just get in front of us too. Here is the question, how can 5 months not be enough time to drive around an island?

Evs comment of the day. I was having a beer, Emu export, a WA brewed drop that logically has a picture of an Emu on it. Evs comment. “Dad, are you having a turkey juice?”

For our second full day in Broome I was given a father’s day present, a scenic flight over horizontal waterfalls in another light aircraft (a Cessna 210 if you are playing at home). We tracked out of Broome direct to horizontal falls which are basically two narrow crevices in rock walls where the huge tides that occur in the area have forced their way through the limestone ridges. This creates such a back up of water, a horizontal waterfall is created through the openings. The tides were not the best at the moment so it looked something more akin to two sets of rapids.

Heading back we flew over the Buccaneer archipelago, a collection of approx 1000 to 1300 islands, the number depending on where you call the high tide. Only two of these islands are inhabited and both with iron ore mines. Scenic

We landed (after one go around due to strong winds) at Cape Leveque, Bishops hat in French. Initially I was not keen on an hour long stop here as there did not appear to be much to do. I was thinking I would rather get back to Al and the boys. After a quick morning tea, the pilot suggested a walk to the beach. Glad I did. STUNNING, absolutely stunning. The swim was divine, the sand was like velvet underfoot, the water was like a bath and scenery was, as you can see, absolutely beautiful.

Tracking back to Broome, the pilot referred to the waterways as ‘humpback highway’.. I thought he was talking it up for our benefit, besides I never see whales. Today we saw nine - four pairs of a nursing mother and calf and one solo. Amazing even from 2000 feet. The picture I have added is a long range shot but it is just off Cable Beach on final approach to Broome.

Again we tried the local micro brewery, Matso’s, The beer was OK but not worth $7 a bottle they were asking so we quickly exited stage left.

To finish off an amazing day we did the sunset camel ride along cable beach. It’s a Broome cliché but it had to be done.

Now there are three operators of the camel trip. All do the same trip at the same time for approximately the same cost. How did we choose which one to do? Well the one we chose firstly had ‘kids free’, our two favourite words and secondly made the claim that it had the camels that had starred in the movie Australia.

As frequent readers will know, we saw where they shot the ‘town’ shots in Bowen, where they shot the outback scenes in the Kimberley and now we may have ridden on the same camel that once carried Hugh Jackman’s behind. You just don’t come that close to fame every day.

We have so much exposure to this movie we may be forced to do something dramatic and actually watch it…..nah. Actually I started thinking how the movie would have looked if a camel had played the part Nicole Kidman did. I’m thinking more facial expressions.

Besides all that, the ride was brilliant. It is very well organized and the four of us managed to squeeze onto one unfortunate camel, Connor (named as he was found at the base of Mount Connor NT). No one fell off which is good and Aaron actually managed to briefly sleep in the backpack while the camel strolled up the beach. The camel behind him trying to eat his toes probably woke him up.

All up we took 250 photos in one day today. I hope you enjoy the selection of (what we think is) the best here. Broome has been great fun and we have enjoyed it immensely. We will be back again I am sure.

Tomorrow we head to 80 mile beach, a small van park (and not much else) halfway between here and Port Hedland. I don’t expect internet coverage, phone coverage and electricity is only a 50/50 chance.