Broome

We drifted into Broome fairly early, given that we had spent the night in a ‘parking area’ where we could hear/feel  the occasional road train go past so there was no need to sit around and soak up the atmosphere (dust). It was a sweet summers winters day, the sun was shining and it was 30 degrees. First stop was as usual the Information Centre – we hadn’t booked any accommodation in Broome and were anxious about getting a spot! Luckily a few parks still had space, so we quickly picked up some brochures and then headed to the cheapest van park we could find – Roebuck Bay Caravan Park. The brochure had looked alright so we thought we were getting a good deal, turns out we were actually placed in the ‘back-packer slums’ with no allocated spots, just an odd little paddock where young‘uns were fighting for a grassy spot instead of the dust. The bathrooms were demountable and the camp kitchen was somewhat of a dirt cabana with a sink and gas burner. So not great, but considering the price and the fact we’d be out and about a lot we decided to settle here for a couple of nights. We popped our mat down to reserve our piece of land and headed out of town to check out some local places of interest.

Our first port of call was The Mango Place, a cute little open air café with live music, a funky feel and you guessed it – Mangoes! We decided on an alcoholic spider – made with apple cider, homemade lemon myrtle liquor and top off with a huge scoop of mango ice-cream – Delicious! Then sat beneath the shady mango trees listening to live music and enjoying the sunshine. Before long it was time to get moving – we didn’t want to miss the feeding of the crocs at the Malcolm Douglas Wilderness Park.  

Croc Feeding Time!

The croc place was huge and much to our delight was extremely interesting. Michael and I have decided we have a morbid curiosity about Estuarine Crocodiles, “Salties”, and the park seemed to feed this interest. We started off walking around the park staring at the massive crocodiles and then looking at all the other exhibits. The park housed a number of Australian animals including birds, bats, roos, dingoes and of course crocodiles. Soon it was feeding time, the crowd huddled around the fence as the ocker Aussie worker threw food into a pen of roughly 70 adult male Salties and spouted out all sorts of interesting facts, made all the more interesting with the crocs snapping at the food and each other. We then followed the guide to the alligator pen, where again we watched him throw chickens and fish into the lake where the alligators quite literally snapped it up. We then tottered down to the fresh water crocodile pond and again saw these animals in action. Truly fascinating!

One of the rough crocs at the park..

Then it was time to feed the big ones – the crocs that were individually housed due to their size and aggressive nature. Watching these prehistoric creatures defend their territory (the guide would throw a buoy into the croc enclosure to entice him over as the croc would see the bouy as a territorial threat and attempt to destroy it) and feed was both frightening and exhilarating. I can help but hope that we never see them up this close without a wire fence in between! At the end of the tours several baby crocs were handed around and we got the chance to handle them and see them up close and personal. Overall this was a ripper experience and now that we were finally in croc country it was a well needed wake up call to respect these animals.

Maybe I'll get one as a pet? I dont think so!

We left the park nie on sunset and decided to race down to Cable Beach (said to be one of the top 5 beaches in the world) to see the sun sink into the ocean. We were not disappointed by the beach, it was spectacular, with kilometres of white sandy beach and beautiful blue water stretching as far as the eye could see. There was even a 4x4 beach access track so we were able to drive down to the beach and enjoy happy hour with the Hulk as the sky turned all shades of purple, pink and red.

Happy Hour at Cable Beach

The next morning we were up and at the Courthouse Pearl Shop before Michael even knew what had happened. There was a free talk on harvesting and appraising pearls that morning, with the chance to win a pearl! The talk was fascinating and after it was over I knew exactly what to look for in choosing my pearls! You see Broome is well known for its South Seawater Pearls and I simply couldn’t leave without getting my hands on at least one. In the end I settled for a pair of earrings, so two pearls and Michael coughed up the money like a good boy because he likes to see me happy. We spent the rest of the day adventuring around town, enjoying Cable Beach – which after going on a drive up the beach we found out that the 4wd side of the beach was also the clothing optional side of the beach, eeek – and then going to Gantheaume Point where we scrambled down several rocks to see ancient dinosaur footprints that are only visible at low tide. Pretty neat.

Footprints from the past.

The next day it was time once more to stock up and ship out, but not before Michael got a haircut from a travelling French hairdresser next to the camper in the middle of our camping paddock. Looking spiffy, we then went and filled up our gas bottle, turns out the burner wasn’t misbehaving, we were actually out of gas… ooops! Now it works a lot better! We checked out the largest A grade Pearl in the world then we did our usual Coles shop, then were absolutely devastated to find out that because of the grog laws up here we couldn’t get any of our beloved goon/cask wine. Instead we had to be classy and settle for glass bottles – it’s a rough life!

Bonnie's Beautiful Pearls! Mine!

Late that afternoon we drove out of Broome and headed north for the Dampier Peninsula – also sometimes called The West Kimberleys. We were finally in the land of sand and sun and planned to enjoy ourselves as much as possible!

Lesson of the week/few days of Broome: Pearls are expensive – if you want the big, round , lustrous ones – settle for a few craters, no one will notice.