Broome -
Sunday 11th july
We pulled into Broom about 1pm, the weather is unbelievable, and the town sooo pretty. Looking for a place to stay so we can get settled early seems to be a bit of a challenge as everything is booked out, we finally get a spot at M.C.G ( Mango Camping Ground) this place is pretty rank. Filled with backpackers, and the smell of a certain green burning plant like matter I can't quite put my finger on. I first thought it looked like something out of Woodstock. After about half an hour I realised it was just slum like camping set ups and feral people who didn't wash, or sleep, or shut-up. The bathrooms were another story, absolutely disgusting!!! Ben likened them to the bathroom scene out of Trainspotting, so you get the picture.
We left our camp spot and headed off to check out Broome and all it had to offer, Cable Beach being the first on our list. This beach is freakin' awesome and the best bit is you get to drive your 4WD down there. Surprisingly Ben hadn't surfed the whole trip up here due to bad surfing conditions but Cable Beach had a few little waves going and Ben jumped at the chance to get his board down off the roof racks. As I sat in the sun soaking up some well deserved rays and Ben caught some waves Camels come cruising past on the sand, I thought about the fact that it's winter and freezing back at home in Perth, let alone in Melbourne!! And here I am sitting in my bathers reading a magazine!!! This was what we've been waiting for….
After watching the sunset and cooking our dinner on the beach we headed back to camp to sleep…or try to. With foreign hippies left right and centre and the local bingo championship blaring away down the road this proved difficult.
Monday 12th
We packed up early and got the hell out of the M.C.G, my shower there consisted of one giant hairy mother of a spider crawling out of my towel and a huge green tree frog lurking around my head and staring at me with giant bulging eyes, anyone who knows me knows my relationship with things that crawl, so you can imagine….Ben decided not to have a shower.
Heading off to McDonalds where the wifi is free we were determined to find a better place to stay…We wanted to be staying here for about a week after all. Cable Beach Caravan park had one unpowered campsite free and we jumped at the chance to get in. And boy did we get lucky!!! This place is like heaven, with giant mangrove trees and beautiful palms we couldn't believe our luck, not to mention the gorgeous people running the place. THANK GOD!!! After setting up our camp and settling in, most of the rest of our day consisted of chilling out, sleeping, eating, chilling out by the pool, swimming, napping…..etc
Later that afternoon we checked out Matso's, a local brewery here that specialise in a few pretty different types of ales including Chilli beer, Ginger beer, Mango Beer etc. I was super keen to try the Mango Beer as friends of ours Mel and Lee had been raving about how rad it was, especially in hot weather. It definitely lived up to it's hype, I have to say it might just be my new favourite thing in the whole wide world….YUM!!! Ben tried a Smokey Bishop which is their dark ale, he really liked it but it would probably be better suited to a cooler climate.
My uncle Steven is up here for a few weeks so we were keen to catch up with him, he is a mad keen fisherman so we were hoping to get some tips from him on where to go and what times to go, you really have to know your stuff here in Broome as it's very tidal, with generally a one to two hour window in some places where the tides are right for catching anything.
We headed over to Steven's place over at Palm Groves later that night to have a few beers, he was staying with an old family friend Greg and his son Sean. It was really nice for both of us to sit down and talk to other people for a while! hehe! after talking about fishing, and surfing, and fishing and surfing and fishing and surfing for a few hours we decided to stumble back to our tent and hit the hay. We really needed a good nights sleep. After late night driving stints and drug crazed hippies, Cable Beach Caravan Park seemed like an oasis of sweet dreams, about a thousand sleeping retired couples and plenty of Zzzzzzz's…..Sweet action. x
