Broome

17 June to 5 July 2012

Marble Bar to Broome is about 600km, and we took a leisurely 4 days to drive the distance travelling via Cape Keraudren nature reserve and Barn Hill Cattle Station. Both places were headland camping upon long white beaches, where the main pastime was fishing and swimming. Once again the fish alluded us, but the water was just the right temperature for swimming. At Barn Hill we watched a huge scrub fire with about a 10km front burn slowly towards us over about a 2 day period, but we were onto Broome before it caught up with us.

Broome was originally established as a pearling town, with the original divers being Japanese, Chinese and Malay. Chinatown is the original part of Broome with Cable Beach a newer addition. The pearl divers were mainly harvesting the mother of pearl for buttons up until the early 1940's when plastics took over. The pearling industry wained until cultured pearl technique were perfected by Mikimoto. Pearls are now big business here!

Japanese pearl divers cemetery

So how was Broome you ask?.... after a horrifically noisy first three nights at Broome Vacation Village .. if you'd like to read more on that have a look at the review we posted on TripAdvisor... we moved to the delightful, friendly, tropical Cable Beach Caravan Park for the remainder of our stay.

Cable Beach

Cable beach is one long stretch of white sand, where the sun sets over the water of an evening, and as a result is a mecca for tourists and locals alike.

Being only a few minutes walk from where we were staying we spent many an evening having a drink as the sun disappeared over Cable Beach.

Cable Beach bar

sunset cable beach

There were three different companies offering camel rides along the beach at sunset... red, blue and black... and we happily sat in the bar and watched them pass by.

camel ride

Our original plan was for 4-5 days in Broome before heading out along the Gibb River Road, but unfortunately, or luckily, the Land Rover early warning light started flashing 'suspension fault' while we were driving around town, and a trip to the Land Rover Dealership proved necessary. If you have to be 'stuck' somewhere Broome's not a bad place.

Staircase to the Moon

For our first few days in Broome our friends Gary and Jane from Sydney were here, so we enjoyed their company with dinners, market shopping trips and drinks most nights, it was good to see someone from home.


After that we patiently waited for the Land Rover and became tourists. We now know all about pearls, and are experts on the tourist bus route around town. We are also tanned and relaxed spending our time between the pool and beach. Luckily the days are 26C-30C.

Staircase to the Moon (king low tide & full moon) over Roebuck Bay happens only 2 nights in July and we were lucky enough to be here to see that occur.

The Land Rover is now back on the road, the camper trailer is packed, and we head out tomorrow for Windjana Gorge National Park.