The Long and Lonely Road to Broome

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June 2nd 2014

Published: July 3rd 2014

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Backpackermatt

Pot of gold at the end of a bloody long road

Cable Beach

After spending six nights in Exmouth, the road-trip was back on again in earnest as we hit the road to tackle the 1400km haul to Broome. With nothing particularly worth seeing and no towns to stop at along the way, Thursday (29^thMay) not surprisingly turned out to be probably the most boring day of the trip so far. In fact it wasn't until about five o'clock in the afternoon – with Exmouth already 600km behind us - that we finally passed through our first and only town for the day, Roebourne.

An hour or so later, with the last light of a spectacular sunset fading from view, we finally pulled into a free roadside rest area beside the Peawah River - where we were greeted by the sight of numerous cows roaming around amongst the dozen or so caravans and campers that had already assembled... one of whom left a rather large deposit beside our van during the night!

Having unexpectedly ended up covering almost 700kms on Thursday – exactly half the distance between Exmouth and Broome – Linda and I had decided to push on all the way to Broome on Friday, and so we spent our second

Sand stretching as far as the eye can see

Eighty Mile Beach

consecutive day passing hour after hour along the Great Northern Highway; though at least for the first couple of hours we had some impressive scenery to watch as we passed through the more mountainous topography of the Pilbara region.

With a strong wind blowing against us for much of the day our fuel consumption rose dramatically (much as it had done on our way back to Perth from Esperance in the old van a few weeks earlier), meaning that we had to fill up at every roadhouse we passed along the way... which with the price of fuel getting progressively more expensive the further we went made for a very costly day indeed. Having paid a comparatively reasonable $1.68 per litre when we filled up in South Hedland, we were shocked to find that the price of fuel at our next stop, Pardoo Roadhouse, was $2.05 per litre!

Aside from being the most expensive fuel that we had encountered on the trip so far, it meant that the cost of fuel had risen by a staggering 37 cents per litre in just 200 kilometres! After taking the nine-kilometre detour to Eighty Mile Beach and back for a swim

What happens when folks have too much time on their hands

Random collection of hats at Sandfire Roadhouse

and some lunch to break up the monotony of the day, we fuelled up once more at the Sandfire Roadhouse (where we paid 'only' $1.97 per litre) knowing that the next available fuel would be 290kms away at Roebuck Plains – which we were no guarantee of making it to given our rising fuel consumption!

Thankfully though the wind eased off somewhat during the afternoon, so that we were able to make it all the way through to Broome without incident. And though we missed the sunset at Cable Beach by about fifteen minutes, there was still enough light left in the sky to go for a most invigorating swim, knowing that the longest continuous stretch of driving of the whole trip was now behind us. All that was left to do now was to backtrack ten kilometres or so to a large roadside information bay/rest area, which despite being devoid of other travellers we had decided would make a perfectly reasonable overnight stop.

There was just one tiny problem – or should I say about a hundred tiny problems: mosquitos. With the temperature only dropping to the low-twenties overnight we had decided to leave the windows down

If ever a beach was worth driving 7000kms to see...

Cable Beach, late afternoon

slightly, but with no-one else around to pick on it seemed as though every mosquito within a hundred metres descended upon our campervan... and sunk their teeth (or whatever mosquitos have instead of teeth) into Linda!

By the following morning Linda was covered in bites; while the rest area was full of campervans - another dozen or so having turned up during the night. This was also somewhat problematic, given that Linda and I had been hoping to take advantage of an ongoing offer from Wicked Campers for a free day's rental – by sending in a nude picture of ourselves in front of our van! On countless occasions our impromptu photo-shoot was interrupted by fellow travellers – most of whom were oblivious to our actions – but our persistence eventually paid off and we were left with a couple of pictures that we were prepared to e-mail through to Wicked Campers... only to then discover that the offer of a free day's rental in return for our (nude) pictures was no longer valid!

Without question Broome's biggest drawcard is Cable Beach – so named because a telegraph cable stretching over a thousand kilometres from the Indonesian island

Sandy Curve

Town Beach in Broome

of Java came ashore here - and upon our return to that famous landmark on Saturday morning it was easy to see why. With a wide swathe of beautiful white sand leading down to the sparkling azure waters of the Indian Ocean, Cable Beach truly is a travel promoters dream, and exactly the sort of reward you would hope to find at the 'end of the road'.

Having taken a look around the centre of Broome – which gave us both the impression of being a pretty liveable town for somewhere so remote – we stopped for lunch at an Egyptian-themed cafe, after which we decided to find ourselves a caravan park to spend the night in so as to avoid suffering the same mosquito-related fate as the night before. Ending up at a caravan park not far from the beach, we were both content to laze the afternoon away in the shade of our campsite, before returning to Cable Beach in time for what was a truly memorable Indian Ocean sunset.

Our third and final day in Broome began with a trip to the weekend markets in the centre of town, before we headed to the Town

Sparkling Seas

Gantheaume Point

Beach reserve for a picnic lunch - after which I went for a swim in the soothing waters of Roebuck Bay while Linda tried to have a snooze in the shade... only for a group of Christians to suddenly appear our of nowhere and start up a Sunday afternoon concert only metres from where Linda lay on the grass!

Next up was a visit to Gantheaume Point about five kilometres south of town, where the red earth has been fragmented and uplifted, leaving a jumble of irregularly-shaped boulders looking like giant jigsaw puzzle pieces scattered around a scenic headland separating Roebuck Bay from the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately the tide was far too high for us to be able to check out the dinosaur footprints at the base of the cliffs – which are only exposed during very low tides and for which Gantheaume Point is famous - though the views of the nearby coastline as the sun sank slowly toward the horizon were reason enough to linger.

Inevitably though we did as all visitors (not to mention countless locals) do when faced with an impending sunset in Broome - slowly making our way back to Cable Beach just

Indian Summer Sky

Nearing sunset at Cable Beach

in time to watch another day come to a glorious end; while I managed to sneak in what could turn out to be my last swim in the sea for months.

With our time in Broome coming to an end (and to celebrate my eight-year anniversary as a backpacker) I then took Linda to Matso's Brewery for dinner and drinks, where the only craft brewery between Perth and Darwin occupies the former site of a Japanese grocery store not far from the shores of Roebuck Bay. And if there is a better treat for the taste-buds than the nightly curry plate from the Curry Hut out the back paired with a refreshing Pearlers Pale Ale from the bar, then I'd certainly love to see it!

But our night still wasn't done yet. With bellies full we headed back into the centre of town to check out a movie at the historic outdoor Sun Cinemas – the oldest continuously operating 'picture garden' in the world – where we revelled in the opportunity to sit back underneath the stars and enjoy a recently-released Australian movie ('Tracks' – about a young woman who walked across the Australian Outback in the 1980's

Lingering Light

Dusk over Cable Beach

with only a dog and a few camels for company) from the comfort of our lounge chairs.

Finally though it was time to bid Broome a tropical farewell and head back out of town to spend the night at the same information bay/rest area that we had stayed at on Friday night... though this time we set the van up for bed-time before leaving town, so that as soon as we arrived at our overnight stop we were able to jump straight into the back of the van and hit the sack before any mosquitos could infiltrate our sleeping quarters! And with that our weekend in Broome came to an end - it had taken us five weeks and 7000kms of driving to get there, but it had been worth it!

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Aboriginal settlers arrived on the continent from Southeast Asia about 40,000 years before the first Europeans began exploration in the 17th century. No formal territorial claims were made until 1770, when Capt. James COOK took possession in the name...more history