Broome Entry One - Cable Beach

Our trip to Broome was a fantastic. I have zillions of photos so I picked some of the best and most relevant to my journal entries.

On the first few days we went for morning walks/ swims at Cable beach. In the evenings we watched the sun set over the ocean.

On Monday after brunch at the Old Zoo cafe,

we went to Willie Creek Pearl farm to see how they culture the pearls.

When we were on the boat this magnificent Osprey was flying around.

Then we went to the Old Zoo Cafe for a delicious dinner. Tuesday morning we caught the bus to Ganthuame Point and saw the light house and old pool in the rocks.

Then headed on the long walk back down the beach. Cooled off with a swim in the ocean.

Packed up our things and took it on the bus into town and dropped it off at Mangrove resort. Got groceries for dinner and went back to our cabin at Palm Grove. We had beers at the beach on top of the sand dunes before going back to cook fish and rice for dinner.

Broome Entry Two - The Kimberley

On Wednesday morning we got picked up by the 4WD bus to be taken to the Kimberley’s. We traveled to Geike Gorge. Along the way, we stopped to see termite mounds, a giant Boab tree that is predicted to be around 5000 years old.

Then we drove on to the Fitzroy River the line on the cliffs is where the water usually gets up to during the wet season. At Fitzroy Crossing we went on an entertaining Ranger guided cruise along Geike Gorge to see the spectacular cliffs and the freshwater crocs lounging around on the banks of the river. As well as the crocs we saw two wallabies up on the banks of the river.

Towards sunset, we arrived at the Fitzroy River Lodge where we set up our tents and swags under the Kimberley night sky. Our guides Mark (who was from Wales) and Heather cooked a barbeque dinner. We fell asleep gazing at the clear black sky spattered by the Milky Way.

After breakfast we traveled to Tunnel Creek, along the way saw the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen! I wanted to get out and explore at my own pace, but it all whizzed past in a blur. There where jagged rocky cliffs of the Napier Ranges jutting out of the earth (an ancient reef system which was under the ocean millions of years ago). And there the beautiful Boab trees grow out of the yellowed grass and even out of the rocks themselves. There where spindly bushes growing all about with floppy yellow flowers and no leaves at this time of year.

We arrived at Tunnel creek a 750-metre cave system carved through the Napier Range, a Devonian reef system 350 million years old. Here, we made our way through the water in the dark and came out the other end at a natural pool.

Two women went for a swim while the rest of us sat and took in all the life whizzing around us. There where bright orange/ red dragonflies and two Water Monitors. We saw two varieties of bats living near an opening of the cave.

There are examples of amazing indigenous rock-art all around these caves and outside. We also heard the story of

Jandamarra, the freedom fighter who used the tunnel as a hideout in the late 1800's.

Mark then drove us to Windjana Gorge for lunch. We walked into the Gorge where we saw the fossils of sea creatures in the rock face.

The guide Mark showed us an ants nest made of leaves which you can eat. Apparently the abdomen of the ant tastes like sweet limes.

Heading towards the water we saw a young trout fish and striped black and white fish. There are hundreds of freshwater crocodiles living in the waters along the banks of the river. We walked along the beach and past the pink Fertility Rock and saw some crocs.

This large croc was eying off my legs. The cliffs of Windjana Gorge are lined with gum trees where white Corella's call to each other.

On the way back to Broome we stopped at the traveling trough in the Kimberley cattle country.

Broome Entry Three - In Town

Getting to

Broome

we arrived at our new motel the Mangrove Resort at about 7:30pm feeling very tired but excited by the new experiences and things we had seen. We fell into the shower with relief and had dinner at the Mangrove resort bar. We had dinner by the water with large black crickets jumping around our feet while we ate. I had a seafood curry of Balmain bug and local reef fish. Our waitress was a friendly French backpacker and other people from our tour where having dinner at the Resort as well.

On the way back to our room we saw a grey/ brown moth the size of a small bird. And seeing more black crickets hopping around the place we realised we really were in the tropics.

In the morning I took a photo of the ibis feasting on crickets outside our window.

On the Friday, we explored the town of Broome. We found a fantastic book shop where we wanted to buy all the books. We had lunch next door at the Frangipani Cafe where I had this scallop and prawn salad which had a watermelon vinaigrette. So good.

We visited the Old Sun Picture theatre which is said to be the oldest surviving outdoor cinema in the world.

At sunset we went on a hoovercraft ride over the mudflats of Roebuck Bay.

We hopped out of the hoovercraft to see the large dinosaur footprints left in the rocks on the beach.

We caught the sun setting over Roebuck bay, which creates a staircase effect on the mudflats.