“Broome – Beautiful Broome!”
I’ve been waking up every day since early July and saying these words. I feel like a traitor to my state of Queensland because I want to say “Beautiful one day, perfect the next”, but that’s exactly what Broome is like.
My first few days I was at the Pistol Club, which is an overflow camping ground on the way to the port and a fair way out of town. It was also ‘dog friendly’ and as I was still travelling with Nev and his little dog Cindy we couldn’t stay anywhere in town. Nev, Margaret and I got out and about thanks to Nev unhitching the 5th wheeler. One of our first visits was to the Pearl Luggers – after all, that’s what Broome and it’s pearling history is all about.
Nev also took us out to the Port, Gantheaume Point and the lighthouse.
- Nev at the rugged cliffs of Gantheaume Point
- Looking towards Cable Beach
- Posing!
And sunset at Cable Beach is obligatory when in Broome! We enjoyed lovely take-away fish and chips with Geoff Phillips out the front of Zanders Restaurant as we watched the sun disappear into the sea.
A few dusty days at the Pistol Club and then Nev and Margaret decided to continue their southerly journey….but not me! I thought there had to be more to Broome than what we had experienced, so I moved into the Roebuck Bay Caravan Park at Town Beach, set up camp in a great spot overlooking the beach and booked in for 3 nights. That was on the 15th July and it’s now the 31st! I don’t want to leave!!
I can catch the bus anywhere I want to go, there’s a coffee shop right in front of my camp, there’s some great fellow campers around me and a few Solo Travellers have turned up too. Not only that, my lovely step-sister Juanita, and her husband Barrie, are staying at Cable Beach Caravan Park so we have really enjoyed catching up for coffees, a Cable Beach BBQ and a camel ride.
- Cable Beach
- That’s Juanita next to me
- Riding into the sunset
Juanita and I decided to do one of the sunset camel rides after admiring them on the beach. There are three companies that offer the camel rides, the Blue Camels, the Red Camels and the Yellow Camels. We booked on the Yellow ones as Steve, the owner, followed my enquiry up so I figured he deserved the business! It was great fun and I have loads of photos to share with you here. The cameleers took our phones and cameras and took pictures throughout the ride, and some of them are really fantastic.
Tomorrow night is Staircase to the Moon and there’s a crowd of us going to the Mangrove Bar, where we will sip exotic cocktails as the didgeridoo plays and the moon rises slowly over the mudflats to create Broome’s famous ‘staircase’.
Broome – It just keeps getting better!
July 31, 2015 at 6:51 pm
Are you sure you’ll be on the road after the stairway to the moon? Sounds like you’re bedded in!
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August 3, 2015 at 7:57 am
Well it sounds like you have really fallen in love with Broome- I just wonder if we will ever see you back in Melbourne any time.
Your photos are really lovely and it looks like a great spot and what I see on the weather reports you’re not freezing like we are
Continue to enjoy- Krissi
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August 10, 2015 at 10:41 am
Great to hear you are enjoying Broome so much. Donna and I love the place. No doubt about it, you have to stay long enough to get into ‘Broome time’. It’s a state of mind. Hope you’ve learnt the trick of going to Matso’s earlier in the afternoon so that you score a table on the verandah. They make their own (alcoholic) ginger beer and a host of other beers and tasty finger foods. Nothing better than sitting back with a beer, a few nibblies and looking out across Roebuck Bay. Last time we were there they had just set up a curry kitchen in part of the garden. Or was it part of the parking lot? There is an incredible amount to see outside Broome too, especially to the north off the Gibb River Road. Don’t know how Brutus would stand up to the GRR. Best check with the council about road conditions before you head off. You should be able to at least get to some of the nearer places on the Gibb (e.g Windjana Gorge) if you take it easy. The nearer pearling farms like White Creek should also be within your reach in Brutus. Check road conditions carefully before taking Brutus further up the Dampier Peninsula though. When we were there last there in 2012 parts of gravel sections of the road had the worst corrugations we had ever encountered until our recent trip along the Gunbarrel ‘Highway’ (definitely not recommended for Brutus!)
Regards, G&D
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August 10, 2015 at 3:01 pm
Well, it’s now been a month since I arrived in Broome and I’m booked to leave on Wednesday, but who knows. A friend took me up to Willie Creek and I’m glad I didn’t attempt to take Brutus on that road as it had really deep corrugations – I would have found a few more nuts, screws and bolts on the floor of the van to put in the knife and fork drawer until something fell off – and then I would be able to say “Aha! that’s where that came from!”
I’m thinking I might do some of the Gibb on my return trip, particularly if I can time it earlier in the season before the road has been totally wrecked with speeding yobbos. I did meet people who did it early and they said it wasn’t too bad. Like you said, though, time is not an issue so I can go at my “snail’s pace”.
ps. I live in ‘Broome time’ all the time x
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