1st – 25th May 2015
After a
night anchored up in the deep sea marina we awoke to a view of paradise. The
still turquoise waters of the sheltered bay seemed enhanced by the rust stained
soils of the shoreline. A plethora of marine life inhabit the warm waters of
the west coast and it’s not every day you can spend breakfast spotting rays,
barramundi, turtles and a shark from the safety of a yacht.
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| The nights sky shrouded our view of land on our arrival but it was a welcome sight at breakfast |
No sooner
had we mopped up the last of the super noodle supply our sturdy craft was
boarded by a gaggle of immigration officials. We guessed from the fly overs the
day before that the Broome office would go all out and follow the procedures to
the letter but even a small amount of anticipation didn’t prepare seasoned
border crossers like us. The 8 member team interrogated Storm severely, lined
the rest of us on deck and requested our passports, visa documents and mobile
phones (which was a new one for us) as a rather friendly sniffer dog set about
the ship. The cabins were searched from head to toe and any remaining food
stuffs were bagged up for incineration. The food issue and ship search made
total sense as there have been quite a few high profile incidents with drug
smuggling between Australia and Indonesia. Foreign species are also a massive
fear here as Australia contains many species unique to the country that due to
their isolation are vulnerable to invasive plants and creatures but the
detainment of mobile phones seemed pretty odd. After a few hours of blatant
vandalism of the ship we were reunited with our passports and phones. It turned
out that they were checking for stuff like child pornography and ISIS beheading
videos. Josh was pretty sure that they just do it to look at pictures
of his misses but regardless of that we were finally allowed to take our first
steps on land for four and a half days.
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| The sleepy, quiet streets of Broome had an eerie "The Walking Dead" feel. |
Storm, Ben
and Josh couldn’t hang around in town for long as they made plans to catch the
first flight to Perth but were kid enough to treat us to a farewell pie and
coffee brunch in a café opposite the Broome YHA. Hopefully we’ll meet them in
Perth in a few weeks.
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| The Kimberley Klub: Amazing pool but lacking in friendly backpacker spirit. |
Our first
impressions of hostel life in Broome weren’t the greatest. The Kimberley Klub
YHA is a huge complex with an amazing looking pool, volley ball court and
kitchen area but all the facilities in the world fall into insignificance if the
social atmosphere is non-existent. In the three nights we stayed in this
overpriced YHA we met a total of two people willing to divulge in conversation
(both Australian I might add) which is rubbish when you consider the place must
house 150 visitors. Meeting open minded people who are happy sharing stories is
part of what makes backpacking a life changing experience and unfortunately for
Jono and I when you have spent pretty much your whole life doing the same
things (as most triplets and twins can relate too) it ultimately results in
neither of you having anything new to say to each other as you sit across from
each other with the look of a married couple celebrating a 50th
wedding anniversary. This can grow to boredom, resentment and falling out (I’m
sure some of my mates have suffered a similar scenario when they end up trapped
in a relationship where they are not allowed to meet their best friends for a
pint anymore) and the stupid thing is that it can all be cured by having the
decency to respond to someone when they have had the guts to walk across a room
and attempt to spark a conversation with a total stranger. The best thing about
our stay at the Kimberley Klub was that we stupidly decided to watch a local
band one night thinking that a social vibe might prevail, but it had all the
upbeat energy and enjoyment of a state funeral.
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| The Last Resort common area. Rough around the edges but a great find. |
Thankfully there
are other options for accommodation in town and two minutes down the road you
can find the smaller, cheaper and friendlier “Last Resort Hostel”. Unlike the
YHA this place offers discount for long term visitors and for every 5 nights
you book direct from the reception the house staff are kind enough to give 2
nights extra free. The manager/owner Pete is a wealth of knowledge on Broome
and the surrounding area and is always happy to answer any questions or even
help find casual work to build up your travel funds. The buildings not as
“commercial” as the YHA but still retains the same facilities as you would
expect. If anything the social side is better with a weekly killer pool
tournament for the chance to win free beer (helps if you work as a team with a
few mates to hustle the locals).
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With the
difficult days behind us and a few new friends we set about enjoying the
sleepy, sun-kissed, sub-tropical outpost and to help you get the most here is a
summary of the main sights we saw.
Matso’s
Brewery
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| That was a hiccup. Not rib-bit |
To those
that know me it probably comes as no surprise that a brewery would be listed
amongst my favourite places to visit in Broome but this small, quaint
establishment remains popular to all that visit because they believe in the
products they create. Both Jono and I love real ales and its fair to say that
after many months of having to drink the watered down, tasteless fizz known as
lager it was a real treat to finally have the opportunity to sample a plethora
of craft ales. At AUS$8 (£4) a pint (that’s an Aussie pint not the proper
thing) it actually remains reasonably priced by Western Australia standards and
with nice food, a garden terrace and yearlong sunshine to accompany the
beautiful beverages you are guaranteed a good time. Definitely try the ginger
ale and for those that dare try the chilli beer. Book inside for brewery tours.
Stairway to
the Moon
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| Sunset at Town Beach |
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| Apparently you can reach the moon if you run fast enough |
Town beach
offers the best spot to witness this natural phenomenon where the reflection of
the moon rise on the placid coastline looks like a staircase constructed of
moonlight. Locals and tourists descend on the beach not only for the “stairway”
but also for the market stalls, food stands and entertainers that set up shop
to make this a great local social event for all. Check out the tourist
information centre for accurate dates and times.
Cable Beach
 |
| Cable Beach: An icon of Australia |
Widely
known as one of the best beaches in Australia and quite possibly the world on a
good day (which happens more often than not) the perfect talc like beach that runs
all the way up to Gantheaume Point offers a great spot to enjoy the turquoise
waters for those who don’t mind the thought of being eaten by sharks. It is
possible to ride camels on the beach although we decided to give this activity
a miss. The beach is easy to get too even for those without vehicles thanks to
great bus links.
Streeters
Jetty
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| A local fishing for mangrove monsters |
This small
unassuming sight in the heart of Chinatown is the sight of the original jetty
used by pearling companies and traders to ship their precious cargo. It’s still
possible to walk along the dilapidated planks which offer a nice photo spot of
the surrounding mangroves.
Deep Water Port
South of
the town is the very port where we made landfall. A popular spot for boat
enthusiasts the port offers a great vantage point to spot a range of marine
life.
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It’s fair
to say that we spent far too long stuck in the centre of Broome but with no car
and Medicare cards and tax stuff to sort out we had little choice. Thankfully
by late May and after nearly a month of staying in one place (the first time
since we left home) the Bruvs were ready to hit the open road. This gave us an
opportunity to use an online tool we had yet to utilise “Gumtree”. This website
which I though was just used for advertising jobs, cars, laser pens and knock
off DVD’s is a great platform to meet like-minded travellers and arrange ride
shares and within a week we had found a small group to start an epic road trip.
The multinational group was made up of Dustin (German) who had a space in his
car for us, Bastiaan (Dutch) and Dave (English). They had just driven from
Darwin along the highway missing most of the Kimberley’s along with an Italian friend
Francesco (who was going to look for work in Broome) and were hoping to hire an
off road vehicle to do the Kimberley’s properly before heading south to Perth.
This plan was short lived once we approached the hire companies and discovered
there were no off road hire vehicles left and even if there was it would cost
around AUS$4000 for a week. Talk about distortion. This was a shame as I have
wanted to tick off the Kimberley’s for a while but you have to adapt and accept
that it just wasn’t meant to be and besides the Brightside was that we could
spend longer road tripping to Perth.
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