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Published: June 11th 2012
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Cable Beach
...am I excited to be here? you betcha, another tick off the bucket list! Broome
31st May 2012
Leaving Barn Hill we headed North again on the Great Northern Highway towards Roebuck Roadhouse and the turn off to Broome.
This has been the one destination that Trisha has waited to get to, not only on this trip but ever since arriving in Australia all those years ago. I can hear her on many occasions saying “when can we go to Broome?” Well guess what baby, you are now here!
Where the sky meets the land, the desert meets the sea, where white sands, red rocks and cobalt blue waters come together, on a peninsular not more than 15 klms long here rests the town of Broome.
William Dampier was the first European to visit this shoreline in 1688 and Roebuck Bay was named after his ship, HMS Roebuck. However it was not until 1883 that Broome became a town and was named in honour of the then Governor of WA, Sir Frederick Napier Broome. The discovery of Pinctada maxima the largest pearl shell in the world, in the waters off Roebuck Bay led to the start of Broomes’ Pearling industry. In the first decade of the twentieth century, Broome produced 80% of the world’s Mother
of Pearl shell, the lugger fleet peaked in 1913 with 403 registered vessels. This industry alone has created the mystique and romance that is Broome today (for me anyway) and tourism has done the rest. The 1980’s brought a new industry to Broome, tourism, and today has an influx of over 100,000 tourists a year. Cable Beach is one of the most famous beaches in the world, described as having stark white sands and the beautiful turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean lapping its shoreline. Yes, it was a great beach but Barn Hill was better, in my opinion!
The shopping at Broome was impressive and Trisha was back in full on mode as she strolled down ‘Pearl Street’, Dampier Terrace where shops such as Cygnet Bay pearls, Galway Pearls, Kailis Pearls, Linneys Pearls, and Willie Creek Pearls to name just a few are situated. After coming out of Willie Creek Pearls I was informed that we were booked to do a pearl farm tour the following morning (oh no this sounds expensive!). Every shop/service you would need to service a community that is predominantly ‘high end’ tourism is available here and with the new shopping mall with ‘Woollies’ and
Cable Beach
Zanders at Cable Beach many specialty shops it was like being back in a major city. However we had heard of a ‘Broome attitude’ by businesses and ran into this in a few places, but fair to say not very much in the retail sector where they were keen to take your dollar.
One of Broome’s most popular tours is Willie Creek Pearl Farm and after doing this tour we would agree. We chose to drive ourselves out there saving $70 and enjoyed the trip out, but they should advise that it is a trip only suitable with a 4WD vehicle. We arrived about 20 minutes before the tour started so I was taken on a tour by Trish of all the Pearls that were for sale, I pretended to be interested but not enough that the message would be ‘buy one’, there was some fantastic jewellery on display, but my messages must not have got through as the wallet was out and all of a sudden we were in full buying mode, but the right one was not there, damn! The first part of the tour we were shown all the vital parts (organs, I heard gonads mentioned!) of Pinctada maxima , the
Cable Beach
A 'coldie' at Zanders pearl oyster and how they were ‘seeded’ which we found fascinating and informative. Then we had morning tea, damper and cool drinks or proper coffee, yum! Next we boarded the boat to view the Pearl Panels suspended in the creek and see how a pearl farm operates. There were only 1000 pearl oysters actually in Willie Creek the other 280,000 are around the corner at Quondong Point. This tour was brilliant, but back to Broome and into ‘Pearl Street’ I was directed by ‘you know who’ and straight into Willie Creek Pearls and yes, we purchased a beautiful Pearl that looks sensational on Trish, what a magnificent memento of her wish to visit Broome. But, that was not the only thing on her agenda!
Approximately 8klms from the town centre is Gantheaume Point, a beautiful scenic area of red craggy cliffs and is also home to the original Dinosaur footprints. The footprints are over 120 million years old and can be seen at a very low tide. As it was late in the afternoon we decided to head back in to town to Matso’s Brewery for a beer tasting. Matso’s brewery is an award winning micro-brewery which is the only
Broome
Carnarvon Street full mash hand crafted brewery in Australia’s North West, (I wonder why with 100,000 tourists a year staying here mostly in 4+ star resorts). Trish and I had a ‘paddle’ of five of their hand crafted beers including Ginger beer, which, on a hot afternoon was very refreshing.
After another shopping expedition Trish came back with two tickets for a sunset Camel Ride on Cable Beach, this was another thing on her ‘Bucket List’. Broome Camel safaris, the camels in Blue, Alison Bird, the owner has lived and breathed camels for 29 years, travelling for seven years throughout central Australia with them. Arriving at 4pm for our sunset ride, we were given a quick chat about do’s and don’ts and how to get on and then we were off. We were two to a camel and I was on the back (two humps!) and our camels name was Amos, all very biblical! Slowly (quicker to walk, not sure how Burke & Wills did it!), we made our way down the beach, (give me a good stock horse any day!), and from back I knew Trish was smiling the whole time. One of Alison’s assistants took our camera and took a
Broome
Dampier Street ( also known as Pearl Street) number of pics for us which was especially good when the sun was actually setting. Yes, there is photographic proof of me on a camel doing a touristy thing at Cable Beach. When we were nearing the end of our ride we spotted Jackie taking in the sunset on the beach with The Girls, Linda and Kristy, and when Trish called out her name, the look on her face said it all, What the xxxx are you doing up there on that thing!. Trish fed her camel a carrot at the end and to this day the smile has not gone from her face, she loved it. An awesome Bucket List tick for Trish.
There is a lot to do in Broome, some of it expensive, other things you can do reasonably, our final night was spent having fish and chips on Cable Beach at Sunset joined by Pete and Sue and their two boys, Tom and Charlie, a perfect way to see off Broome.
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Brian
non-member comment
Broome
Looks a bit dry from the photos on Google Earth and bit red at the beach. What has happened to your photos? None posted for a few blogs now. Fish and Chips on the beach, just like being in the UK!!!! Brian