YoungNomads: Broome and Cable Beach

Reaching Broome for me was a bit of a milestone, in my mind it was the top of WA and therefore as far away from home as we were going to get and then from there we’d be travelling closer to home (not necessarily so but that’s how my mind was working).

Our Broome experience was going to be a week of relaxation and enjoying the warmth so northing too strenuous for us! We booked into the Cable Beach Caravan Park as that would mean we were walking distance to the beach and that was important. Given we were going to be here for a week we set up the annex which worked rather well. We thought we’d be lazing around the pool a lot, but given the temperature of the pool water was close to arctic we only indulged once!

We spent a good part of the first couple of days orientating ourselves with Broome and its surrounds and shops….. (wow we get excited when if there is a shopping centre in any town now and find it very easy to buys stuff!! For example I needed a good filleting knife, Geoff needed an additional tv and of course gas refill, alcohol stockup etc etc) hahaha!

We loved our early morning walks along Cable Beach, we did several of them. Its stretches along the coast for 22kms and was named after the telecommunications cable which was laid between Indonesia and Broome, 1650km long in 1889. Its so wonderful to get out and breath in that wonderful ocean air. Cable Beach wasn’t totally what we thought it would be, you never see any images of the rocky outcrop or the hundreds of jellyfish that wash up onto the sand every day. But it was so lovely to be there and I thought, wow am I dreaming?

Morning Walk

Morning Walk and Silliness!

Look carefully and you can see the washed up jellyfish!

Cable Beach's Rocky Outcrop right out the front of the Resort

A rather large jellyfish!

Broome is home to Matso’s Brewery, so we just had to go and taste most of the beers and cider that they brew…. the chilli one was almost undrinkable!! (hot hot hot), it had a great atmosphere and was lots of fun!

Two, four, six, eight......

We did a tour and learned a whole lot about the Pearling Industry and life working on board a Pearl Lugger. I was even lucky enough to wear a strand of pearls around my neck valued at $9,000 but Geoff wouldn’t come to the party so I had to hand them back. I loved the Mother of Pearl jewellery and shells, it was great to learn all about it.

Check out the Pearls

Pearl Diver

Restored Pearl Lugger

Next it was on to the Broome port jetty, there were quite a few fishing but nothing being caught. We were able to see some of the inhabitants of the water ie jellyfish, sea snake and turtles! Of course the seagulls and sea eagles were around too.

Sea Snake

Turtle

We also went to Gantheaume Point and at low tide you can see 130 million year old dinosaur footprints, there is quite a bit of history around this area including Anastasia’s Pool, which was modified by a former lighthouse keeper for his wife as she suffered with arthritis, the water seemed to sooth her limbs, it is located at the southern end of Cable Beach. There is also an amazing rocky outcrop which we just had to climb around.

We drove down onto the beach and were amazed at just how many cars get onto the beach, we saw some horses being exercised in the water.

Looking back at Cable Beach

We treated ourselves to a lovely sunset dinner and drinks at the Cable Beach Sunset Bar, amazing!! We decided not to ride the camels on the beach but we saw them coming back while we were dining. We couldn’t get over how many people watch the sunsets there – and how many vehicles go down onto the beach, but no wonder its so beautiful!

We even dusted off the red dirt from our bikes and took them for a spin around town, one of the places we visited was the Sun Cinemas, the oldest outdoor cinemas in the southern hemisphere! It was really interesting and wonderful seeing the old memorabilia.

On one of our last nights at Cable Beach we decided to pack a picnic happy hour and walked down to the beach first for a swim and relax and then we cracked open a bottle of bubbles and watched the most amazing sunset…. We have seen plenty on this trip but this one was special! Wow we kept thinking how fortunate we were to be there and in fact to journey around this fabulous country of ours and have so many adventures and experiences!

Geoff reckons I can make a platter anywhere!

Special!

A jellyfish kinda sunset!

On our last day we rode down to the beach for one last swim (dodging the jellyfish!), lovely to cool off. After a week of exploring, walking, riding, swimming, eating and drinking, it was time to say farewell to Cable Beach and Broome…. what an awesome week!