Nomading - Broome - 30 July - 7 August 2021

After not sleeping last night and an early start we were on the road by 4.45am. It was still dark but at least we knew it would be getting lighter and by 5.45 the sky was showing a bit of sun. We had a bit of fog driving along, not what I would expect up here but we also had a few white rainbows over the road, maybe not as pretty as a colourful one but very dramatic. We arrived in Broome at 7.45am a bit earlier than we were told to turn up at 8.00am and drove to the caravan park that had given us a bit of hope of getting a site even if it was going to be an overflow site. We parked and I went to the office only to notice the office didn't open until 8.30am so we grabbed our iPads out and sat at the table in front of the office to have a read until the office opened. We were only there for 10 minutes when someone came out to tell us there was no hope for us to get a site, he offered a few suggestions but I had already tried the ones he suggested. I had a list of names and numbers and the Pistol Club was on this list and had been suggested to me by a friend so I gave them a call. They asked me to drive to the club and call them when I arrived which we did. We were told they would call us with availability and we were third in line, I wasn't too sure how to take this but we decided to wait and see what happened. We are so glad we did, we eventually had a call to ask us to drive through and we did and then I walked to the office to book in. The ladies here were most helpful and we were asked to wait out the front until someone came to take us to our site. The first site they tried didn't work for us at all so they moved us to another one which is perfect. We backed in and thanked the people helping us and proceeded to set up. It didn't take long and it was still early in the morning so we drove to the Broome Information Centre to see if there was anything we had missed out on last time we were here to see. We gathered all the information we needed and then drove around Broome to find our bearings. It has changed such a lot since we were here last time, there has been lots of development and tidying up along the shops, it is looking very attractive. We then drove out to Cable Beach to have a bit of a look and onto Zanders for a beer, this was the first time we had a chance to reflect on the day and how lucky we were to finally get a site. We are feeling very relaxed and looking forward to our stay here.

I thought this morning would be a good opportunity to go through all the information I had and think about how we were going to fill in this week. We were up a bit later than normal and I didn't think this was too surprising after the long day we had yesterday. I made our coffee and we sat outside the van plotting our time here. I listed a few small attractions we could visit this morning and the first one was Roebuck Bay lookout, we are not sure this was completed last time we were here. On our way to the lookout we noticed the Court House market was in full swing I had completely forgotten this was on every Saturday and Sunday morning. It is an excellent market so we found a parking spot and walked in to have a look around. We liked this market last time we were here, it has an interesting mix of performers, crafts, art, food items and food trucks. We ordered sushi from one of the food trucks and while we were waiting for it to be made up we walked around the remainder of the stalls. We were walking back to the Sushi Truck when we came across a gentleman doing haircuts, we have been trying to organise hair appointments here for the last two days without any luck, I really need a colour but he only does haircuts. Robb thought he may as well get his hair and beard taken care of so sat in line to wait his turn while I walked over to pick up our Sushi order. By the time I had returned I had decided to have a haircut too and I would catch up with a colour on our next time for an appointment. So here we are both trimmed up and appreciating how lucky we were to have found this short term solution to our hair problems. We continued on our way from here to Roebuck Bay Lookout which was only 3 minutes down the road. The lookout has spectacular views right over the mangroves out to the waters of Roebuck Bay. The lookout itself is a bit special as it has been designed in collaboration with high school students and indigenous people of this area. The roof of the top layer has been cut out with patterns of local wildlife and the sun shining overhead casts these patterns on the floor, it is an excellent effect. From here we drove to Gantheaume Point, we noticed on the way that there was a race meeting on at the Turf Club and it looked like some kind of cup because we saw all these beautiful young people in their finery walking through the gate. Gantheaume Point is just down the road from here so we continued on and parked the car. We walked the short distance down to the point, we had visited here last time in Broome but it is such a spectacular area we thought it was worth a revisit. We passed the house and the lighthouse, where there are still Ospreys nesting, down to the cliffs, I walked to the end and then back across the cliffs to take photos from different areas. The colours here are startling, these are the colours of Broome and there is no better place to see them.

Sunday was a bit of a disjointed day in that we were coming and going to different place throughout the day. We started with a visit to the Broome Cemetery, we had been here before but I was pretty impressed with the Japanese Cemetery and thought it worth another visit. We also visited the Chinese Cemetery again and the general cemetery up the back which I don't think we took much notice of last time. There are so many graves in the Japanese cemetery I believe made up mainly of early pearlers. All the inscriptions are in Japanese so it is difficult to learn much from them, the cemetery is very well organised and well maintained. There are a couple of graves up the back with both Japanese and English inscriptions but they seem to be people in the community in later years. We walked from here through to the general cemetery for a wander, there seemed to be a mixture of indigenous and white Australians buried here, I didn't take many photos because you could not be sure which was which and I won't show them here in case I offend anyone. To complete the circuit we walked through the Chinese Cemetery, not as well kept as the Japanese one but maybe a bit more detail we could read on the headstones. Broome has indeed had an interesting history. From here we returned home for lunch.

In the afternoon we were visiting Malcolm Douglas Crocodile Farm, it didn't open until 2pm and closed again at 5pm. There was a feeding tour at 3pm so we timed our visit to view this tour. As it turned out we arrived at 2.20 to find a feeding tour in progress, so we joined in here, we missed the start of the talk but not by much. We followed around with this group of people, it was difficult to see much because there were so many people you couldn't get a good spot by the fence, most of the time we waited for everyone to move on and then approached to take photos. After a while we left the tour and did our own thing, we did however get a bit of information and what we picked up was this was mainly a rescue facility, most of the crocodiles here had been rescued from other areas and were seen as unfit to send out into their natural environment, some were damaged in one way or another and others were just too nasty to be left out there. I managed to get a few great photos and you can't help but admire these amazing prehistoric animals, there was certainly some thought put into their structure. I probably have too many photos up here but I couldn't help myself.

Our last objective for the day was to visit Sun Pictures, the world's oldest pictures garden. I had purchased tickets the day before to see Black Widow an avengers movie staring Scarlett Johansen. This is a lovely outdoor cinema, the chairs are the type you see in old movies on the beach and a little difficult to get into and out off but we managed. There was a lovely breeze blowing through the cinema, some people had brought along cushions and blankets for the night but we didn't find we needed any protection from the weather. We both really enjoyed the movie which was full on action. We bought an ice cream and glass of wine each, we both enjoyed our ice creams and the wine was for me. We picked up take away for dinner on the way home and decided that all up we had a great day.

Tuesday we had a trip to Willie Creek Pearl Farm booked and we were to be picked up out the front of the Pistol Club at 8.57am. We were waiting outside talking to someone waiting to be called into the park when I received a call to say the bus was running a bit late, that was ok it arrived soon after the phone call. It was an interesting drive out to Willie Creek and we were glad we didn't take our own car, some of the roads were made but the majority were not and they were pretty rough. It wasn't too long a drive though and on the way we had a lovely chat to the very friendly driver/tour guide. We picked up another two couples on the way and when we arrived we were directed to the front of the building to wait for the driver. From here we were lead to a shed around the side where there are tubs that they grow the oysters in and our guide did a presentation for us on the production of the oysters in preparation for the inserting of the 'pearl'. From here we walked down to the boat where we were taken around the farming area and shown the different stages of producing the pearls and the care that is taken while they are growing. We saw a few fish jumping out of the water and a small shark chasing them, it is a stunningly beautiful area and very pleasant out there in the boat. We returned to land from here and walked up to the tables that had been prepared for morning tea. There was tea, coffee, water and cordial there for us and there was a choice of damper, chocolate fudge cake and fruit. We tried a bit of everything and it was all good. We walked from here down to another shed to hear about the process from when the 'pearl' is inserted into the oyster, the presentation was a mixture of demonstration and videos and we were given pearls of various qualities to see and were told the difference in the growing process between them. When this presentation was finished we walked up to the shop to see the end result of all this work. Their pearls are beautiful and I tried a string of pearls on that looked really good on me but I tend just to wear the same jewelry all the time and if I bought them they would probably just be locked away. From here we were driven back to camp after a quick swing past Chinatown for a bit of a look.

We started the day with a coffee and a read before getting on with things, we don't have many days when we can do this because we either have a tour to catch or we are driving on to our next stop. I am not complaining at all, I am loving everything we do but I must say I do appreciate these times we can just relax for 30 minutes or so. I had washing on the go so I hung this out before starting our day. I often make references to housework that I have to take care of and I do this deliberately because it is a part of life on the road and if you intend taking a trip like this then you need to plan this into your agenda and I like to show how it is quite manageable. Our first stop was Woolworths for a bit of shopping and then the chemist for painkillers for Robb and then we drove around to what we thought was going to be our first stop for the day, the Moontide Gin Distillery but of course when we arrived there it was only 11am and you cannot drink or purchase alcohol in public facilities up North until after 12noon and not till after 2pm in the Northern Territory. We said we would return later and from here we drove down to Chinatown which is always fun. We had planned to have lunch at the Dragonfly Cafe so we parked close to here and then wandered across the road to do a walk up and down. Out first stop was Yeun Wing General Store, I don't know about you but we absolutely love a good Asian food store and this is an excellent one. As you enter there are a mixture of general items including toys, lollies, souvenirs, bags and shoes but our interest is the food items so we turned left to walk into the grocery store where there are three aisles of everything fascinating in food. We obviously can't read most of the labels (some have the English name) but we have visited quite a few Asian grocers now and can recognise the items we like to use frequently so we walked around and picked up 5 or 6 items that took our fancy and Robb even found a pastry roller that will fit in the caravan, we were very happy with our loot because we love the Asian flavours. We walked further along the street and we came across a couple of clothing stores, I have been trying to find swimming shorts and top as I am a bit over wearing toggies, I enquired in one of the stores and was directed to Azure Beach where we walked directly to and after searching now for 5 months finally found something that I liked. Robb waited outside the store while I went in and I picked out a few items I liked, one of them you would need to be a Ninja Warrior to get in and out of but it looked very pretty. I was very conscious of Robb waiting outside and wondering if I had run away I was taking so long, lucky he knows me well and wasn't surprised at all. I don't like a lot of fuss so I settled on my next choice and came out with a pair of swimming shorts and a top, I am very happy with my purchases. We walked down the other side of the street to the cafe where we intended having lunch the Dragonfly Cafe. I wanted to return here because when we were here 4 years ago we had a few lunches at this cafe and each time I would have the same dish, I can't remember exactly what it was but it was some type of Vietnamese Salad, unfortunately it is no longer on the menu so we both settled for an eggs benny, Robb swapped the bacon on his for salmon and we shared a pot of tea. We haven't had eggs benny for such a long time we didn't even mind that the Hollandaise was from a jar and both enjoyed out meal. From here we drove back to the distillery to learn about their product. Everything in this distillery is produced on site and there is a very small staff to manage the process, they have been here for 12 months now so I gather they are still trying to promote their business. We were now welcome as it was close to 1.30pm after a quick look around we walked up to the area to have a free tasting and learn about the gin. The person who attended to us is one of the owners, she explained the process and requirements of making gin and then described the three different gins they have on offer. There are three different gins White Pearl, Black Pearl and Pride Tide there is also a bitters. We tried each one and strangely enough the black pearl with aniseed was one of my favourites, I really love licorice but don't like star anise so wasn't expecting to like it but it was quite nice. We purchased a tasting paddle and sat down to enjoy our drinks which were a white pearl, black pearl and a lemon, lime and bitters. We still have a bottle of gin in our cupboard but Robb particularly liked the bitters so we purchased a bottle to take home. We drove straight home from here and when we arrived I unpacked the car and took all our purchase inside to pack away and then set up to do the ironing, everything was dry by now so it didn't take me long. Because we were out for lunch we will have a cheese platter for dinner tonight so there isn't much more for me to do.

This is our last full day in Broome where we have a chance to have a look around, not that there is much left for us to see. We both like Broome but one week here is plenty because there isn't much outside Broome to see, the closest towns of interest are all 200+kms away. Tomorrow we will be on tour to Horizontal Falls and we will be starting the day at 4.00am. The Pistol Club where we are staying is on Port Drive so we thought we should really take a look at the Port and we always find them interesting anyway. We drove to the Port and remembered visiting it last time we were here so didn't walk down the jetty but turned the corner and drove towards the Point after taking a few photos of the port infrastructure. We are not sure if this area around the point was here last time neither of us can remember it so we parked the car and took a bit of a look around. The point is a rocky area and obviously good for fishing, there is a boat ramp here and there were a lot of fisherman on and around the rocks fishing into the shallower area of water. The sea was quite rough today but still that beautiful torquoise colour that is so stunning against the red rocks or Broome. I took a few photos here and then we were back in the car driving towards the Broome Recreation and Aquatic Centre. We had a quick look at the pool outside and then asked if we could take a look around and we were told that was fine. This is a huge complex with two indoor soccer/basketball rinks, a stadium for squash, outside tennis courts and the large fenced pool area. The pool area has a lap pool with about 10 lanes with a shallower pool beside it. The pools are surrounded by a large grass sector and in that grass sector there is plastic seating and change rooms/toilets. Outside the enclosed pool zone there is a kiosk with tables and chairs. It is a lovely area we didn't ask how much it was to enter and swim but there were a few people here and they had advertising around the fencing for various classes they hold. This would be a great place for retirees to Broome. Our next stop was Matsos Broome Brewery which is quite famous and well known and is on a couple of tours around town. Last time we were here we had one of their tasting paddles and we thought we would do the same today. Matsos is always very busy so we had to wait in line but when we finally arrived at the top of the line I asked about the paddle and they still do them so I was told just to go in and order our drinks and Robb went off to find a table. They now give you a choice of paddles and I chose the one that had a chili beer on in because I am more than a bit partial to chili and Robb is starting to enjoy it too. I took the paddle outside to try to find where Robb was, he was right up the back, the tables were all so full. I think I lost a bit off the top of the drinks but there was still plenty there to try when I finally found him. Robb really enjoyed the Ginger Beer, Pale Ale and didn't mind the Chili Beer. I enjoyed the Chili Beer, Stout and Lager. We didn't purchase any but it was fun sitting there trying all the different beers. Matsos have their business well sorted, the inside area with the bar is quite big, the bar itself takes up a bit of room, there is a section for ordering food and one for ordering your drinks, they also have cartons of drink on offer for purchase and about 15 tables inside for dining. There is a verandah surrounding the building and this is all allocated to dining while there is a small outside dining space on one side of the entry. Then there is a huge beer garden out the back which is where you now enter the brewery, this is where we were sitting. There are a couple of food trucks set up here in case the restaurant is so busy and you can't wait for your food you can purchase your drinks and then purchase food from the trucks and sit outside at the tables to eat, very clever. From here we set off for home driving past Foon's Store, another Asian food store and calling into the golf course for a bit of a look around. We had lunch at home and had a quiet afternoon at home, we will be visiting the Town Beach Market tonight and picking up dinner there.

Town Beach market in on Thursday nights and it runs from 4-8pm, we wanted to have a look at all the development at the beach anyway, last time we were here we had stayed at Town Beach Caravan Park and all this development has been started since that time. They have extended the playground quite dramatically, and they have developed a water park that is very popular with children. Because of the development the market has moved around a little bit from where it used to be, it took us a little while to find it. We had a walk around the market and had a look at all the craft stalls, there were some interesting items here but we just looked and didn't buy. We ended our time around the food stalls, we had planned to buy dinner here as they have great food trucks. We came away with Bao Buns, Spring Rolls, Satay Chicken Skewers and honey chicken and we shared it between us. We had an early night because we have to be up at 4.00am to get ready for our very special Horizontal Falls tour.

This tour had been on our bucket list since last time we were in Broome. We had intended to take it from Derby but couldn’t get a spot on a tour from here so we followed up on a recommendation from a friend and booked our tour from Broome. We still couldn’t get on a full day tour so we settled for the half day and it was an early start in the morning we were to be picked up out front of the Pistol Club where we were staying at 5.25am so naturally we were out the front by 5.15am and the bus was only a couple of minutes late. The reason for the early start was to fit in with the tides for the falls, they are dependent on the tides for the flow of water through them and there are times when you can’t go through them for safety reasons. The bus was to drive us to the airport where we would be catching a seaplane out to Horizontal Falls, neither of us had been on a seaplane before today so this really was an adventure for us. I think Robb was a bit concerned how I would go because I am a bit claustrophobic and he knew the plane would be very small, I did have one little panic moment before we took off but once we were in the air, I forgot all about it. When we booked the tour, we had to fill in our weight and before we were taken to the plane we were all weighed, apparently if you lie about your weight and you are a lot over what you have said they can refuse to take you, the top limit is 120kgs, the plane would have a maximum weight it can carry and the people who allocated the seats had organised this with regards to the total weight in the plane. The plane was much smaller than I imagined, we needed to crouch over to walk to our seats and there is only about 8 inches between seats, the seatbelts were a lap/sash configuration and there wasn’t much movement once they were on. We flew over Chinatown in Broome and then out over land which wasn’t very interesting jut the same scrub with little relief until we came to the coastal areas closer to Horizontal Falls. The views over the waters here looking down at King Sound and the bay where the Horizontal Hotel sits are stunning and they are enhanced by the red cliffs that make up the land mass. Time to land the plane which was interesting landing on water but if was very smooth and it wasn’t long until we were pulling up beside the pontoon that the hotel sits on in the middle of the bay. We all climbed out onto the pontoon, I should mention here that the scariest part of the whole trip was climbing in and out of the seaplane, there isn’t much of a foothold for the top two steps, luckily the pilot gave us all a hand up. We walk up the steps to the top floor of the hotel where we will be having breakfast, this is a beautiful open area with lots of tables and chairs and a small cooking galley up one end. There were two groups of people here, one was doing the full day tour and then there were the rest of us on the half day tour. Before breakfast we were led downstairs where there are two pools, one for swimming and one to feed the sharks, when they are feeding the sharks, you can snorkel in the swimming pool and watch them being fed, only a few children went in because the water was quite cold, even the children only lasted a short time. The rest of us lined up around the viewing area to watch the sharks and other fish come in for food. There were about 8 sharks that came in and a couple of them were quite big, I think they are some type of ‘Nurse’ shark I missed their name but they were quite gentle and the young guy feeding them has a bit of a relationship with them as he sees them all the time and he was patting them as they came up. The sharks were quite beautiful and they would roll over onto their backs when they were being fed, the sound they make when they take their food in was awesome, apparently, they have a vacuum set up in their mouths for feeding and the food would be whooshed down. From here we went back upstairs for breakfast, which was bacon, scrambled eggs, mushrooms, baked beans, tomato salsa and bread rolls. There was plenty there and we could have gone back for seconds but we don’t usually eat breakfast so we had enough. We sat around chatting after breakfast, we caught up with our friends who had suggested we try booking this tour and thanked them once again for bringing our attention to it and then it was time for us to all climb into the boats that would take us out to the falls. I love a good fast boat ride with lots of side movements and tossing about and this was one of the best. We stopped a few times on the way to the falls and our driver/guide explained about different aspects of the bays and cliffs surrounding them, it was very interesting. We stopped again just outside of the falls while he explained to us the working of the tides through these narrow openings, the widest opening is 20mts and the narrow one is 7mts wide. First of all went drove through the widest opening at very high speed it was so much fun, the driver then took us through another couple of times and we stopped outside the narrow opening while he explained the difference between the two. It is much easier to see the drop of the falls between the narrow entrance, this far away the narrow opening looks too small for us to fit through but as you get closer you can get a better idea of the size, apparently the boat is 4mts wide so we should have plenty of room, however, when you are going through at speed and the whirlpools are tossing you around you do tend to say a little prayer that you are not thrown onto the rocks. We did this ride through a few times; I am not sure if it was for our benefit or his because he did seem to be enjoying himself. From here we were driven back to the Hotel but he did do this at high speed which I think everybody appreciated. When we arrived back the seaplane was waiting to take us back to Broome so we all grabbed the gear we needed to wear and hopped on board, we knew the drill so it wasn’t long until we were all on board ready to take off. We took the scenic route on the way back which took us out over Koolan and Cockatoo Islands, through Buccaneer Archipelago, over Cape Leveque and Willie Creek and then back into Broome. It was indeed the scenic route and some of the views were spectacular, I had been wanting to see Cape Leveque so this ticked off another box for me. We were home by 11.30am both agreeing that this was one of the best tours we had ever taken and we would both recommend the tour to everyone up this way. When we arrived home, we noticed a note pinned to our table and it told us that one of the other caravanners on leaving had run into our car and damaged our driving light, it will have to be replaced and the person who did the damage is happy to pay for it, he has left his details to contact him which we will do. We can’t order another light until we are home but we will organise something and then contact him again, if he pays for it well and good but otherwise, we can’t worry too much. While we were sitting in camp in the afternoon one of the ladies from the office came over with a couple of Perspex covers for the light for us which we will use to rig something up just to get us home, we are worried if we hit rain along the way, it may damage the light so that we can’t use it. We had a big day today and we must be up early tomorrow because our next stop is 80 Mile Beach and they don’t take bookings, first in best dressed, it will be an early night for us tonight.