We left Townsville on a sunny day in mid April.
We were so excited to finally be on our way to a brand new destination.
We'd been talking about Broome for so long it seemed like it was never going to
happen. In the last few weeks we had major car issues, and delay after
delay dampened our spirits, so when we finally headed out of Townsville towing our Nova Caravan, leaving the east coast behind us, it was a wonderful feeling. Townsville had
been a great experience but after a year, we were definitely ready to move on.
We spent the first night free camping just outside Hughenden and as we sat outside
the van surrounded by forest we finally felt free. It's hard to explain
but if you have ever traveled for an extended time then stopped then started
again you will know what I mean. Our second night was spent free camping
just outside Mt Isa. The scenery was stunning and it still astounds me
how diverse our landscape is in this country and how rapidly it can change.
As we crossed the Barclay we encountered fire on both
sides of the road and it got a little scary as we drove through flames licking
at the van. Luckily we made it through unscathed. We decided to
stop at one of our favourite pubs for the night Daley Waters Outback Pub and
had a great time soaking up the atmosphere. Soon after we turned left at
Katherine we really started to feel like we were on our way as the scenery
started to change dramatically. We spent the night in a forest of boab trees in
Gregory National Park (spectacular) before crossing the border in Western
Australia. It was the first time either of us had been in W.A and as we
entered the Kimberley and stopped for the night at the stunning Mary Pool we
realised we were in for some special scenery in the west.
After 6 and half days we arrived in Broome. We
checked in to Cable Beach Caravan Park and after quickly setting up our caravan
site we raced down to Cable Beach eager to see what all the fuss was
about. OMG. It was beyond stunning!! One of the
most spectacular pieces of coast line I have ever seen. We watched our
first sunset over Cable Beach. The ocean here is the most beautiful pale
turquoise colour. It's like being in Tahiti. It's like someone has
painted the sea because you can't possibly believe that it can really be that colour. You MUST come here before you die. YOU
ABSOLUTELY MUST!!!!
Later that first night we went to see the stairway to
the moon. This natural phenomenon is
caused by a full moon reflecting off the exposed mudflats at Roebuck Bay
at extremely low tides, to create a beautiful optical illusion of a staircase
reaching to the moon. It occurs April through to October. We went to the Mangrove Resort and watched
the moon rise to the sounds of a didgeridoo player. I’d never seen anything like this. As we watched the horizon we saw a distant
light and then the tip of the moon started to rise. As it became larger the
glow started to reflect on the mud flats and it really did look like a
stairway.
On Good Friday we drove up
to Derby to go on a flight over Horizontal Falls. The Horizontal Falls in the north-west of
Western Australia has been described by David Attenborough as "one of the
greatest natural wonders of the world".
It is created by the enormous variation in tides - which are as much as
10 metres. The water level rising, or
falling, in Talbot Bay (due to the tide) causes a major height difference with
the water level in the inlet on the other side of the Falls. We flew to Talbot Bay over some spectacular
Kimberley scenery, including the Buccaneer Archipelago, a beautiful area
consisting of some 800 to 1,000 rocky islands with small embayments and
secluded white sandy beaches.
The rest of our first week
was spent traveling around the coastline of the Kimberley and hanging our in
Broome. We went to Sun Pictures, The
World's Oldest Picture Garden. Est 1916.
http://www.broomemovies.com.au/index.html and Matso Brewery http://www.matsos.com.au/ which started life as the Union Bank of
Australia Ltd and was built in 1910. It stood in Sheba Lane, which ran down the
edge of Kennedys Hill. The Union Bank was the first bank in Broome and was to
be a vital part of the financial life of the town for over 40 years. Sheba Lane was notorious as the Red Light
district of Chinatown and was the centre of the Japanese community in Broome.
Among the buildings there were opium dens, brothels and mah-jong palaces.
Broome was a very open town, catering for the varied needs of hardworking
divers throughout the region.
Life in Broome is
wonderful. The opportunity for work here
is enormous, however the lure of the ocean is great and if I could find a way
to never work again I would. I think I have
found my nirvana.
