Broom....Broome

Thursday 5th October – Monday 9th October

A weekend in Broome – I thought we might spend quite a while here at Broome, having heard how beautiful it was, but it was sadly start of the close season, so was somewhat subdued. That said, we weren’t able to get into the backpackers, which was a shame, as it looked pretty cool, but with it being 40 degree’s, we just wanted some shade.

There’s a small Chinatown part here, which is part of the old pearling industry that kicked Broome off all them years ago. There was also a wicked outdoors cinema that we had to try – seeing Jindabyne there. We wanted to see 10 Canoes as well, an aboriginal comedy, but didn’t get time – the trilers looked funny as and if anyone’s seen it, let me know if it’s worth it. I might just see it anyway!

Friday night was a wicked night at the local Irish pub, where 3 lads were covering a number of choones. The music was that good, we decided to stay – or maybe it was that the pints and pots were half price – but either way, we didn’t get very far. Going outside was a chore, given the humidity – I have never enjoyed a cold beer and air-con blowing on my neck so much in my life – these aussie twats are onto something with their gay middy’s and pots – not wanting the beer to warm up.

Something that Broome is famous for is the ‘staircase to the moon’, which is a phenomenon that occurs only a few times a year – this was the last viewing apparently this year. The rising moon over the tidal flats at low tide gives the appearance of a staircase, hence the name. We got there about 10 minutes before ‘moonrise only to discover that a cloud was in the way – don’t you just hate that?! What I hated even more was the amount of people there to see it – low season my arse!! Why can’t they just fuck off, I wondered, but of course, they’re all travelling as well, so I’m just as guilty. Anyway, it was pretty ordinary and I wanted more beer so we wrapped up and got ready to ‘do’ Broome in the way of a mini-pubcrawl. I wondered if I’d feel out of place, as I did when traversing the East coast alone and while I did at first, the feeling of being instantly noticeable wore off with the beer. I can recommend Satsu’s to anyone trying a few different sherbs, as the chocolate ale they sell there is very nice, although pricy at 6 bucks for a poofter’s middy!! The Mangrove Hotel is also worth a squirt, especially if you can catch sunset here – the views are pretty cool!!

Must have been 'Kirk-esque'!

Highlight of the weekend for me though was the trip out to see the 400 million years old dino prints at the headland. Just south of cable beach, there are some rock formations where the prints of some bi-pedal meat eater mooched around looking for something more appetising than a 6 buck chocolate middy can be seen at low tide. The inevitable Nip’s were out in force, but European ingenuity won out in finding the prints ‘first’ by my enthusiastically jumping about near some dead baby box jellyfish (hidden from the Nips of course). As they headed over, we detoured via the low tide mark and found the prints. I noted with some amusement that they tried ignoring our exclamations and fingers the second time – once bitten, twice shy I guess;

...but the sight of me doing dino impressions in the footprints brought them scurrying over! I spent the next 10 minutes trying to lurk in the background of the Jap’s shots pulling faces and poses.





Simple things huh?! Great sunset though!