Broome is a great place. There are lots of things you can do there - like tours of the pearl farm, trips up the coast, shopping, exploring history and culture............... or you can just go to the beach. Cable Beach is apparently regarded as one of the top five beaches in the world - and it's not hard to see why it would receive such a rating. It is 22km of white sand, with gentle but consistent waves great for boogie-boarding and not even cold! The sunsets are remarkable and they even throw in a few dozen camels for an exotic (if rather smelly) effect. We spent most of our four day stay on the beach, including boogie-boarding and body-surfing, camel riding for the girls and happy hours at sunset. We did also wander around the old part of town - Chinatown - whose origin is in providing accommodation for the Asian workers on the pearl luggers, who were not supposed to live on land at all because of the white Australia policy from which they received a partial exemption because the pearl diving industry couldn't manage without them. We learned about pearling and its history in Broome - including visiting the Japanese cemetery, where over 900 people are buried, most of whom were pearl divers who died as a result of the job - especially during cyclones. The museum was great: Kendall loved the personal shell collection of a previous resident, Kirralee read accounts of cyclone survival and Tahlia read the visitors' book. Kendall and I were both fascinated by the story of the bombing of flying boats in Roebuck Bay in March 1942 - the planes filled with Dutch refugees from Indonesia. Their wrecks remain out in the Bay but are only visible at very low tide. Also visible at very low tide, on a different beach, are dinosaur footprints (so they say - we had to satisfy ourselves with the replica on the cliff top). The coast is amazing because it has this deep red rock that comes down to the sand, creating a vivid contrast.
The other thing we did while in Broome was vote. This felt very surreal, partly because of being so far away from home, and partly because we'd seen virtually nothing of the election campaign - except some WA-specific anti-Labor adverts. It still feels surreal, because as far as we can work out, there hasn't yet been a result. Maybe the government is going to remain in suspended animation, like us, until October.
And talking of beaches.......... when we left Broome we stopped at Eighty-Mile Beach for two nights. I don't know if it is really 80 miles long but it certainly goes on as far as the eye can see in both directions, covered in shells and so tidal that when the tide is out, you can hardly see (or hear) the sea at all - just a massive expanse of wet sand, almost like a salt lake. All you can do there is fish, walk, collect shells and watch the sunsets - which we did in spades. The caravan is now half-full of shells!
Fishing statistics
Andrew - one stingray, three salmon
Kendall - one shark, one catfish, two salmon
Captions for pictures
- Amazing red Pindan rock (Gantheaume Point)
- Dinosaur footprints (yes, honestly!)
- Trying on a $29,000 pearl necklace
- One of the upmarket beauty salons in Broome (note it accepts male customers)
- Classic Broome shot (just to prove I could)
- My favourite picture: a restored pearl lugger (boat) used for tourist cruises
- Broome: "Oh what a feeling!"
- Shells on 80-mile beach
- Shells collected and sorted (teachers note maths activity!)
- My "staircase to the sun" picture. Sun reflects in pools of water across the tidal flats at low tide
No comments:
Post a Comment