A late start today, up at sunrise & packing for our trip to Broome, its only 220km & on bitumen so fairly easy.  The only interesting bits, apart from the amazing boab trees that I always admire, were the single lane bridges over the various arms of the Fitzroy River & the need to give way to road trains on these bridges.  The trip was uneventful & we drove straight to the Cable Beach Caravan Park, booked in & set up. They have plenty of vacant spaces this week as there has been a mass exodus, the manager said that last week they were full, all 430 sites, this week they have at least 200 vacant sites.

After set up, John & Sue drove into the Post Office to collect his replacement shock absorber & then came back to the caravan park & fitted it to his car, he is much happier now.  Tereza & I went for a drive to familiarise ourselves with Broome, we went to the port (of course), then the boat ramp just nearby.  The Indian Ocean has such an amazing turquoise/azure blue colour, a totally different colour to the Pacific Ocean on the east coast.

Next we drove down onto the beach at Gantheaume Point where a lot of people launch their fishing boat from the beach.  We saw a very unusual boat that had three large motorised wheels under it that was used to ferry tourists from the shore out to a much larger boat.  The single wheel on the front of the boat was hydraulic & was lowered to allow people to climb into the boat with the hull resting on the sand.  The front wheel was then extended down & the boat driven into the shallow water until the boat was deep enough to float, when the wheel was retracted & the outboard motor started. The boat could also drive in reverse on the sand. It was fascinating to watch.

Chinatown was the next stop & we looked over a couple of old restored pearl luggers in dry dock as well as looking through & around 6 or 7 pearl shops.  The different colours, sizes & shapes of these pearls is amazing (as well as some of the prices).  The strings of pearl necklaces & matching earrings are a beauty to behold.  We had a very good seafood salad at the Roebuck Hotel for lunch before continuing to look through a few more pearl shops then reading the storyline of the Broome beginnings in the Johnny Chi Lane.  The planes fly very low over Chinatown when landing & add a bit of noise & excitement.

In the afternoon we went down to the famous Cable Beach for a walk along the beach.  There is car access to Cable Beach & there must have been over 100 cars parked on the beach, with people either swimming, socialising or waiting for sunset with some nibblies, wine & beers.  There are three lots of camel ride operators also plying camel rides along the beach & as we arrived they were all just starting out for the final ride of the day, the sunset ride where they get back just as the sun is setting.  It makes for great photography with a string of camels silhouetted against a setting sun with the ocean as a backdrop.  We took lots of photos, along with everyone else, then watched the last of the sunset from the top of the dunes.  The colours were stunning & again the photos don’t even begin to do justice to the beauty.

Dinner was a very simple affair after such a big lunch, not even a red.