Broome beckons

After 375 K’s we arrived in Broome. On the way we had to pass through massive bushfires which were burning out of control and being fanned by very strong winds approx 100 K’s south of Broome. We drove through a fire front which was about to jump the road and was amazed by the intensity of the heat radiation in the car. It was a scary experience and will think twice about attempting it again – we could have lost everything including ourselves.

Broome was going to be a week of veging out. We have booked ourselves into an ensuite site which is where you have your own private toilet and shower block. After 5 weeks of showering in ablution blocks and having to walk long distances (at some places) just to go to the toilet, this is luxury. Also the annexe we ordered in Perth just before we left was waiting for us and we put it up as you can see. Now we are starting to get things together.

Broome was not quite what we expected but we were not disappointed. It is a very busy place and the tourists make up a good proportion of the population here. Everyone we met here was friendly and the town has a really good vibe to it. Because of the bushfires, the smoke from them was being blown out over the ocean and made for some stunning sunsets especially over cable beach. Broome is good for shopping and we bought ourselves some nifty little knick knacks for our travels plus there is a good selection of shops in general. We noticed there are a lot of pearl shops and we were wondering how they stay in business as they were mostly empty every time we walked past one. A couple of times we called into the Roebuck Hotel for a couple of quiet ones which is a pleasant place to kick back.

Our aim when we get somewhere is to explore the place and not necessarily go to the touristy places which is what we did here too. Apart from a few visits to Cable Beach we did visit Malcolm Douglas’ wildlife park and crocodile farm. This is not to be confused with the crocodile park in Cable Beach and was definitely the highlight of our trip here. We learnt a lot about crocodiles which is handy seeing we are going further into croc country!

We finally found a good fishing spot on the main jetty at the port. Needless to say we didn’t catch anything, but we saw a sea snake and a turtle swim past which was quite a surprise – pity I didn’t have my camera with me at the time. We just enjoyed the experience and was never ceased to be amazed by the tidal movements up here. We were having such a good time here we extended our stay by another couple of days before we have to hit the road again, so our stay was 9 days instead of 7.