Some family and friends have had the benefit of personalised updates however for the rest of you a few more tit-bits of our travel traumas. No, in actual fact after a day or so of feeling deflated our spirits have been lifted again and our bodies relaxing in the coastal beauty that is Broome.
After re-organising our gear, we left what we couldn’t take or didn’t require in the car and caravan trusting it will still be there when they arrive back in Melbourne in 2-3 weeks.
The lovely couple we met who pulled in to the site next to us the day after we arrived so generously and kindly offered to assist us. Firstly in loaning their car if we needed to drive around town for anything and then to give us a lift out to Geikie Gorge. We’d planned to go there, as had they, so we all bundled in to do the river tour Saturday morning.
The gorge was wonderful of course. It’s quite unique in its make-up being that of limestone largely that was formed from a fossilised seabed a long, long time ago. The limestone is wearing away both from rain and the yearly flooding creating interesting formations in the rock. A clear line and colour change is the evidence of the average level the waters reach each year during the wet season. Wild life is abundant (lots of freshwater crocodiles) and perhaps more so than in the Katherine Gorge as the dreaded ‘Alien’ – the Cane Toad, has not yet reached this far west as yet. To fill in the blanks here, the cane toad is responsible for a sharp and dramatic reduction in the numbers of many native animals such as larger lizards and freshwater crocodiles that eat them. The toad’s toxic glands kill them, as they’ve been ignoring the ranger’s warnings not to eat them!
Back to the Fitzroy River and Geikie Gorge… that floods each year during the wet season. There have been some particularly large floods in recent years and we saw some photos that were mind-boggling when you have references for them on the buildings around. Apparently once the river has passed through the gorge it spreads out to be up to 30kms wide in flood, turning the town of Fitzroy Crossing into an island! This can be the case for local cattle stations in the area also and lasting for weeks at time, food drops by aircraft are required.
The rest of our day was spent re-arranging our gear in preparation for catching the bus Saturday night. Our friendly caravan park neighbours Kevin and Heather continued to offer their help by driving us to the bus stop (at 1am!!) and moving our van to the storage spot the next day. It was a real blessing to have Kevin drive us with all our gear and help us load up, especially given there were a few rowdy youth hanging around making a bit of trouble.
The kids settled back to sleep well for the duration of the bus trip and we managed a few hours ourselves, with the journey ending in Broome around 6:40am at the local information centre. A taxi ride to where we booked a cabin meant we were way early for check-in however the cabin was cleaned and available to us by 8:30am! The rest of the day was filled with not that much really given where we were was not within walking distance to anything much… a little TV, Liz and the kids swam in the pool and we began making plans for our week.
Monday morning and a rental vehicle was arranged. The little two-door Suzuki Jimny isn’t much like the Prado, however even though it’s a tight fit both kids’ car seats and any bags we need for the beach or other outings just fit in, albeit rather neatly! Monday we just explored town, getting orientated with where the beaches and various sights were. We went to Town Beach for a swim where there was also a water play park for the kids. Then later drove to Cable Beach and had a camel ride. The half hour was just long enough, but ‘wow’ what amazing creatures! After a bit of a walk (tide was going out) and splash in the water at Cable Beach we watched the sunset which was amazing.
Come Tuesday and we headed north to Willie Creek Pearl Farm where we’d booked on a tour to learn about the pearl farming industry. This was an excellent tour and highly recommended! Very informative, well organised and set in a beautiful location 16kms as the crow flies from Broome at the top end of Cable Beach. After a talk about how pearls are grown, included were hot or cold drinks and a delicious freshly cooked beer damper – Yum! Then a boat ride showed us how the clams are suspended from rope on a chain, how they are cleaned and then a short run ‘up the creek’ introduced us to the local environment. There was a king tide which was rather dramatic. The tide can have a high and low difference of more than 24 metres explaining the long walk for our swim the night before! Scenic helicopter flights were offered and kids agreed they’d like to go, so we enjoyed a stunning 5 minute fly over the local area. Both Aidan and Missy loved it, though Missy did get a bit upset at one point as the doors were off on one side and wind blew her untied her all over her face! Liz made a small purchase however not from the local sea pearls as the prices are rather extraordinary!
On our return to Broome from the pearl farm we stopped at the road junction of the Cape Leveque and Manari Road where a blockade and peaceful protest was in place over a gas hub development at James Price Point. Suddenly it clicked for us that this was where the people were headed that stopped to help us when the car broke down. We’ll pick up from here in the next post that will solely focus on this matter.
In short summary the rest of our time in Broome has included more swimming at the beaches and pool where we are staying, the ‘Pearl Lugger’s Tour about the history of Broome’s mother of pearl industry and a hovercraft ride at low tide around Roebuck Bay, learning some more of Broome’s history and then seeing some fantastic fossilised dinosaur footprints. Now without the rental car we’ve had our feet up enjoying the weather, more swimming in the pool all before we fly home to the cooler weather, departing Broome Airport a little after 3PM local time Saturday.
Thanks to those that have given feedback on the blog. We’ll get more organised with photos when we return, posting more on line and compiling an album and video of our adventures so we won’t forget it.
