At last we reach fresh sea air after the arid landscape of t’outback. Broome is a small booming tourist town on the coast of the Indian Ocean, with the beautiful Cable Beach (of camel fame) with its white sand and blue sea.
We camped at Cable Beach a little way out of Broome and staying for a few days before we head south down the coast towards Perth ( still 2000 km away!). Cable Beach is beautiful at sunset and also known to be the best spot to view the staircase to the moon. This natural phenomenon only occurs when the moon is full and its reflection on the ocean is reputed to look like stairs leading to the moon. Unfortunately, the moon was only a crescent when we were there so we did’nt see it! We did see some lovely sunsets though and had fish and chips on the beach to watch the sun go down, which was great. We decided to give the Lawrence of Arabia impressions on camels a miss though luckily the starting point for the rides was a few km away!
Karen at Cable Beach (flip flops in hand)
Watching the sun go down at Cable Beach
Sun going down and falling into the sea!
Broome is also famous for its pearl industry. During the late 1900’s Japanese divers were recruited to using cumbersome copper diving suits, weighted boots and helmets to dive to the deep waters where the pearls lay. They were known as the Pearl Luggers. Many Chinese also came here and there is a small Chinatown community in Broome still today. Broome is an attractive town with its historic corrugated iron clad pearl lugger warehouses used today as gift shops and retail pearl outlets. The biggest pearl in the world is housed here. The world’s oldest outdoor picture gardens is also here.
Aha me hearties its a pearl lugger!
and another P lugger!
The biggest pearl in the world!
Broome is home to lots of sea shells too!
The oldest picture gardens in the world
Broome's Chinatown quarter