Broome and surrounds

Our original plan was to spend five days camped at Middle Lagoon on Cape Leveque. However after taking the 4wd bus to the cape as part of our Horizontal Falls tour we decided that the road was just too rough to do so. I have no doubt that if tyre pressures were low enough and speed reduced we could have completed the trip without breaking anything. Ros was having a discussion with a lady at the caravan park on our return, who had taken a tent to Middle Lagoon. She described the 33 km access road into the Middle Lagoon campground to be much worse than the condition of the main road. There were many vans at the campground who had sustained damage because of the road conditions. 

We are really enjoying our time here in Broome. While we like to get down and dirty its also nice to spend some time in comfortable and enjoyable surroundings. 

The beach is about 50 metres from our annex, so we have been enjoying lying on the sand and swimming although I must admit it takes a while to adjust to the coolness of the water.

Sunset over Town Beach below the Roebuck Bay Caravan Park.

We celebrated my birthday on the 11th August at Matsos Brewery. We both started with a Pale Ale before ordering our meals.

Ros chose the vegetable plate which consisted of coriander and chilli corn fritters, marinated olives, grilled haloumi, goats cheese and beetroot panna-cotta and yoghurt dip. The menu suggested she try the alcoholic ginger beer which she did to her enjoyment.

My seafood plate included hickory smoked barramundi, exmouth king prawns, ika mata fish salad, pickled fremantle sardines and gravalax sauce. My beverage with my main was their Session Ale.

Today we ventured north to check out the jetty area. The live cattle trade appears to be back in full swing with at least five B-triples waiting to unload cattle onto a ship.

On another one our outings we spent time viewing the Japanese cemetery. 

The Japanese arrived here after pearls were discovered in the waters surrounding Broome. The first recorded Japanese burial was 1896. The most burials took place in 1914 when thirty three divers lost their lives to either drowning or the bends.

Today our Landcruiser was due for its 10,000 km service. The courtesy bus dropped us off in China Town and we wandered around the shops waiting for the service to be completed.

Streeter's Jetty is known to have been used since 1897.

It was built for pearl dealers and merchants E.W. Streeter and Co of London. It was used by the pearl luggers to deposit their 'Mother of pearl" ashore and is the only remaining landmark of its kind in Broome.

The Sun Pictures claims to be the worlds oldest operating picture gardens.

The seating above reminds me of the open air picture theatre at Parap in Darwin in the 1970's. Half the theatre was covered by a roof and if you were out enjoying the movie under the stars and it started raining there was a mad dash in under the roof.

The pearling museum has on display two restored luggers and they provide tours giving an insight into the hazards associated with diving for the pearls.

We had heard glowing reports about a restaurant in Broome called 18 Degrees. So we tried it out for lunch on our second last day. The menu is made of of share plates similar to a restaurant we have at home in the main street in Sawtell. The food was superb and I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting Broome. Little Creatures beer was on tap so we also enjoyed several of those.

Fellow Bushtracker owners Wendy and Peter arrived in our caravan park late this evening. They had driven east to west across the Gibb River Road. They described the conditions as quite rough with lots of corrugations. They described the condition of the 19km road into Silent Grove campground at Bell Gorge as very bad. It took them one hour to complete.

We toddled off to the Town Beach Cafe for lunch today after our swim. Its about 500 metres from our caravan park. Unfortunately we leave tomorrow and will miss this view.