Broome
Trip Start
Jul 26, 2006
1
33
90
Trip End
May 25, 2009
Where I stayed
Cable Beach Caravan Park
Broome, Australia
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
BROOME
(17-24 October 2006)
Tuesday, 17 October 2006 we arrive in Broome after leaving Fitzroy Crossing and head to Cable Beach Caravan Park. This was a big park, directly opposite the beach area with a big 30m resort style pool. We decided to stay here for one week.
Stroll on the world famous twenty two kilometres of pristine white sand that is Cable Beach, you can swim in the clear waters of the Indian Ocean and at the end of the day, take in another glorious sunset.
Broome reminds me of Byron Bay, it is a quiet tourist town with a hippie feel, open air markets and a casual relaxed lifestyle.
Once again the shopping is expensive as everything has to be shipped in. We soon discover that Cable Beach is by far the best beach. Main beach on low tide in one big mud flat.
We enjoy many sunsets on the water driving onto the beach to take photo's and do some fishing and have our afternoon happy hour.
Raquel does the local markets on Saturday and is surprised at how cheap some of the pearls made into necklaces and bracelets actually are. This may be because the pearl farmers now only get $15 per hour compared to a lot more in their hay day. Many of the locals grow herbs which are snapped up, but there is not a lot of other fruit and vegetables on sale. Like Darwin, Broome is also booming with the purchase of three new drilling holes to be started with an agreement with China and the Oil Companies. The town commences work on a village to house 2,800 workers. This is riding on the back of the already employment shortage. Some people who live in Broome fly in and out of the local Mines to work. It appears that the Mines are always looking for workers. The locals warn us about the wet season and how hot it can get up in the top end if we decide to stay, even though that we have plans to head further down south. We may try to get some work further down the coast, if we can get a site.
Along to the south of the broad expanse of Cable Beach on the Indian Ocean side of the Broome peninsula is Gantheaume Point. Here, deep red, rugged rocks are in stark contrast to the impossibly blue Indian Ocean. Dinosaur footprints, over 130 million years old are located at Gantheaume Point. Part of the reef, they are visible only at low tide but a plaster cast has been made of them and embedded into the rocks at the top of the cliff.
Anastasias Pool is also nearby, a chiselled-out basin carved by the lighthouse keeper so his arthritic wife, Anastasia, could bathe in the waters each day.
To the left of Gantheaume Point is a wide stretch of fabulous fishing beach that is covered in season by absolutely millions of tiny sand balls that have been excavated by sand crabs.
We did some fishing at the Cape or Marina on the Saturday afternoon and get chatting to a worker who is on Contract to work at Broome as a Bricklayer, building dwelling for the growing work force. He certainly seemed a nice enough fellow even though he was drinking quite heavily, he even offered Greg a job lifting and mortar bricks of Hebel 14kgs heavy for $2.00 a brick in the stinking heat. Greg could think of better things to do. It soon becomes apparent to Ashley that something is not quite right with this fellow as he moves his 4wd to be in a position in front of us and then pretending to take happy snaps of the area, gets photo's of our kids. When Ashley approached him about his reservations regarding him doing this, he discovers that he has eight photo's and Ashley hits the roof. This kind of puts a damper on sticking around and we decide to have a fish around the point more near China Town away from this jerk. We end up going crabbing near the Mangroves to no success, but discovered that our friendly photographer turns up there too, so we decide to hit the frog and toad. This is our first incident and hope it will be our last, best be on our toes when it comes to strangers.
Whilst we are here in Broome Ashley gets some work with the caravan park owner working on the new toilet block under construction and gets a week's rent paid for, which he is happy about. We leave them at Broome as they have got their 4wd booked in for a service because it was not going right.
We only wish in hindsight that whilst we were in Broome we went to Cape Leveque situated only 220 kilometres north of Broome as it apparently has the best scenic stretch of coastline. We were turned off by the distance of unsealed road with lots of corrugations and sandy sections in which you could not take your caravan. We did find out later that you could hire eco-tents when you got there which would have been great, but never mind, we will have to come again.
We have also been told that Derby would have been a great place to visit on the way to Broome, although the shoreline is one vast mud flat, which has the biggest tidal fluctuations in Australia, there is a lot to do there. There is the Windjana Gorge and also Tunnel Creek National Park to see (which is basically on the other side of Fitzroy Crossing 150kms). You can walk 750 metres through Tunnel Creek to the other side of Napier Range, wading through several permanent pools and watching for bats and the stalactites that descend from the roof in many places. Freshwater crocodiles are occasionally found in the pools which is a little scary.
