Broome WA. June 20 -24 2018

Hard to imagine but we needed a break after the big cruise. We had always planned 5 nights in Broome, but that is as far as the plan went. It's the sort of place where it's easy to do nothing, but we managed a few things just the same.

We visited the Bird Park, which is 20km out of town and 35km down a dirt road. It sits on the edge of Roebuck Bay and various people told us it was just the place to go and see as many of the migratory birds as we could manage.

Anyhow, when we got there, it is totally underwhelming. There are 3 things to go and see: the shade house, the hide and the viewing platform. All are within 100m of the office. We strolled over to the shade house, which appears to be the campgrounds camp kitchen but with one side in flywire and a small shallow bird bath on the ground just outside. We just went straight in as we would normally do. Well, it was like walking into someone else house. There were two women sitting at either end of the long table, facing out over the pond. One was cramming a bird text book and the other was busily making notes with a lead pencil, of what I know not. She hid her work the moment we came in and both gave us the big-chill treatment. So, we stood directly in front of her and looked out the window, at the tiny bird bath, the dirt, the tree branches, the rocks. Basically at everything except birds. Judy may have seen a finch, but it may have been a butterfly.  We went outside and tried to get a better view, but then gave up and walked over to the hide. Outside the hide window was a .... bird bat, rocks, dirt, trees etc but naturally no birds.

The viewing platform sounded interesting and it was a bit further around, across the Crab Creek dirt road we had come down, and out over Roebuck Bay. Naturally we had turned up at exactly the lowest part of the lowest tide. There were some white dots 1/2 a kilometre away on the edge of the water. They may have been wading birds or they might have been seagulls. who knows. Took some snaps of the bay and beach just for posterity.

Blasting down Crab Creek Dirt Track. Roebuck Bay WA

Broome Bird Watching HQ. Roebuck Bay WA

Best part of the Bird place. Roebuck Bay WA

Whats left at low tide. Roebuck Bay WA

Oh well, not everything can be fabulous. We headed back to ward town but took the turn toward Cape Levique instead. About 20km up the road / dirt track we turned left toward Willie Creek, which is 15km further down more dirt road and then across the dry mudflats. Why? Because Willie Creek is home to the Willie Creek pearl farm and factory. It's a bit of a surprise when you get there, the building looks so out of place way out here on a sandy mound next to the creek itself.

We had a delightful 'paddle' of salmon and prawns for lunch and a strong coffee for me, before we entered into the showroom. Someone came out VERY happy with herself and her new earrings.

End of the dirt road. Now for the mud flat. Willie Creek WA

High-speed mud flat. Willie Creek WA

Its a huge area that gets flooded in Spring tides. Willie Creek WA

Willie Creek Pearl Farm. WA

Willie Creek WA

Gantheaume Point down at the southern end of Cable beach is always worth a look, pretty spectacular rocks and a great view back up the beach. It was named on 24 July 1801 for Honore Joseph Antoine Gantheaume by Nicolas Baudin while he was cruising around New Holland trying to decide if the French could be bothered to claim some for themselves.

View of Cable Beach from Gantheaume Point. Broome WA

Gantheaume Point. Broome WA

Gantheaume Point. Broome WA

I wandered off to the museum for a look. Sadly it is pretty dismal. Actually, there's nothing to add really, except it is housed in an original 1880's shop turned Customs House turned abandoned building.

Museum in the old Customs House. Broome WA

The hub of Broome is basically three streets and half a dozen shops. I took some snaps to show you what happens here on Saturday Afternoons after the shops close.

Cnr Dampier and Short Street. Broome WA

Cnr Dampier and Short Street. Broome WA

Cnr Dampier and Short Street. Broome WA

Ok, so I'm 1 street back from the shops, but it felt weird all the same.

Back at the van park, we came across this little guy standing on the side of the road

Frill Necked lizard. Palm Grove CP. Broome WA

Our last hurrah was to go out on a Snubfin Dolphin watch cruise on Roebuck Bay. Snubfin Dolphins were only recognised as a species in 2005, they used to be called Irrawaddy Dolphins, but they have been found to be different. They are slow moving as opposed to bottle noses, and have no interest in coming up to the boat and playing in the wake. Here's a snap I managed

Snubfin Dolphin. Roebuck Bay Broome WA

The tender to Ballena. Broome WA

Of interest to me was this totally unique dinghy that they use to get to the boat. it has a separate motor that drives the wheels and raises them up and down. On land it kneels down just like a camel, but then drive it out into the water and raise the legs, it's a boat! An clever invention from those cunning Kiwis

Anyhow, that's it from Broome, we are off tomorrow, heading toward Fitzroy Crossing.

Broome VI

Our last day here. We picked up the tour of the pearl luggers, which was a quick walk around the two old crocks they have on display and then a fascinating talk and movie all about pearl diving that ran for an hour. After they gave us some 'pearl meat', the adductor muscle from a Pinctada Maxima, to try and stressed how exotic and expensive it was. All i could taste for the next 4 hours was the chilli that it had been marinaded in, but it has distinct possibilities.  Judy couldn't contain herself and bought yet more pearl bits, a hair clip thing this time. Mind you she was not right impressed when yesterdays purchase of an elasticised bracelet snapped and sent pearls everywhere. It's al god though as they replaced it right away

Last thing on the must do list was the Stairway to the Moon, a phenomena caused when the sun is just setting in the west, the moon is just rising in the east and the tide is right out exposing the mudflats. 


We're off in the morning, heading up to Derby for a few days and then back across toward Darwin.

Snap d'jeur:

Stairway to the Moon. Town Beach. Broome, WA

Broome V

Hi, well, I'm out of sync with the days as they roll on by but hey, what can one do? I'm just a little annoyed at Google right now because they have arbitrarily forced me over from Picasa web albums to Google+. Now I don't like or need Google+, so I've spend some time finding out how to get back to Picasa.

Highlight of yesterday was a camel ride along Cable Beach at sunset. After the test drive in Alice, I was pretty happy not to repeat the event as it's just damn uncomfortable. But somehow here we were saddling up for the one hour trek. Most interesting part was the cameleer, who at 18 seemed to have a an opinion on everything that was wrong with the world and politics and didn't mind sharing. God bless the zealots of the world.

Today we went and ogled the Dawn Princess that came into town. I was on the beach this morning as it rounded the headland - you could still see half of the superstructure as it slid by on the other side!

Took advantage of the local high school fundraiser and had them wash the car, mostly because the only car was in town looked derelict.

Went and had a few quiet minutes at the Buddhist temple where they have a 3.5m high Crystal Buddha. It's a very tranquil sort of place where they have piped 'oms' and lots of yoga.

Sat at the bar and watched the sunset again while demolishing a pile of mussels and drinking cocktails - ah, what a life!

That's it i'm afraid, I'm so cross with google i can't think straight - but wait - i've sorted it for the moment and added a bunch more pictures to the Broome, WA listing

Me and my girl upon a camel build for two. Cable Beach, Broome, WA

How about another snap, just because I can?

Judy and her fav foods, Pina colada and mussels. Cable Beach, Broome, WA

Broome, WA

OMG! We made it! Who’d have thought, just took 17 days and 5250 kilometres, but we is here, in Broome in Western Australia.

Found our van park, the Palm Grove Holiday Resort, right up near the world famous Cable Beach.  Pretty nice actually, even if it looks like more than a few are here for the Perth winter. Funny thing though, we’ve come all this way and seen 2 BMWs on the way, an X3 and a 1 series. Right here in this park there are now 3 BMW X5’s within 5 vans of each other. (Good, I thinks to myself, maybe I can borrow some bits to get my headlights working again!) 

Drove into ‘town’, and bought a few supplies and had a poke about. You have to laugh at this, there are signs all over the place that pedestrians must give way to cars, yet they still have pedestrian crossings. Why bother? Who knows or cares. We’ve booked a cruise for our anniversary, out and up the coast on an old pearling lugger to drink wine and eat canapés while watching the sunset over the Indian Ocean

On our way back, busting for a swim in the pool, I couldn’t resist it, had Judy drive the car down and onto the actual beach for the obligatory snap. 

Beemer on the Beach - Cable beach, WA - which is a little way up the road from Canberra

Good news, not-so-good news

The good news is that we are still going, albeit a few days later than expected.
When I say 'not-so-good', I mean that its good that the Basil Cell Carcinoma on my nose can be removed quickly and cleanly, it bad that I left it so long to get a proper opinion about it and the consequence is that we have to wait until Friday week to get the Doc's clearance.

On the same good/almost good news front, we finally have our spare wheel carrier completed and installed. On the back of the Nova we have the normal sort of bumper bar, which held the bike rack and the caravan spare wheel. As we are planning to go a bit feral this time, poking right up into the gulf and other places, I thought it might be a good idea to carry a second spare for the car. The plan was to mount it on the caravan bumper alongside the caravan spare. So I took the original spare wheel bracket off, measured it up and went looking for some metal to make another one. The first place I went wasn't the shop it used to be, but had been replaced by a brand new Metal Shop. They took one look and said they could not only supply the metal but weld it al up as well. Too good to be true, so I gave them money and left the parts and instructions. Wow, what a circus. The welder left the next day, they got someone else, they welded it up back-to-front, they remade it, they got another welder in and on and on and on. Finally after about 5 weeks it was actually finished. They had lost the two caravan wheel nuts, but I was able to replace them cheaply from Lloyds Caravans in Kembla Street Fyshwick, so all ended well.

Put the new tyres on the car, had it serviced and now we are ready to roll. Talk about being all dressed up and nowhere to go!

Ah well, wont be long now and we'll be away. We'll have to cut our stops a bit short to make up for the delay and still get to Broome on time. We've booked tours out of Broome and on the way back a tour of the Bungles so there's no turning back this time.

We've also decided that we can get into El Questro. We were put off by the Pentacost River crossing you hear all about, but it turns out that its the main one down the Gibb River road a bit. The actual crossing into El Questro is only ankle deep.

Can't wait.

Did I say 13 weeks to go...

Hell's bells - now there are only 10 weeks to go, time to get serious about some of these things i guess!

What we have done:

• Changed the dog'n bones to Telstra to get the better coverage 'out there', not to mention a rate pre-paid 15% of whet we were getting from our provider of 19 years. Too bad for them, eh?
• Put a complete new set of top-of-the-line Michelins on the X5 - ouch that hurts
• Had the X5 fully serviced including the chassis and the towbar
• Booked Coober Pedy
• Finished the CD's - then culled the 3300 tracks down to 1200
• Bought a used ipod from ebay and loaded the music to it - 1200 songs, some of which are later than 1969

Don't really know what else to do in the way of preparation for the car and van - we've used it extensively for 2 years and feel comfortable with their performance and reliability - maybe we'll just take off and see how it all hangs together.

Sometimes we are keen and excited to be going, other times we are just a little bit intimidated and apprehensive. The one thing that concerns me is the aspect of personal security and safety on the road. But hey, if you took everything too seriously you'd never leave the house.

Some things we'd like to do before we go:

• Check Insurance on van and car
• Check NRMA coverage - we'll find out if my 43 years Gold membership is actually worth anything outside the metro area
• Check out the cryovac machine - we bought one, just haven't opened the box yet! Last time we went and took a bunch of meat pre cryovacced from the butcher and it was excellent, even the bits we brought back and ate at home.
• Renew the 12 month prepaid on the wireless broadband modem - this is a Telstra unit and proved to be really good everywhere we've been to date - it's also how we'll be updating this blog, so better get it done.
• Get a UHF radio - probably a handheld would be all we need

The clock is ticking!!!!
Cheers, Judy&Brian