Broome

Broome

We spent 4 nights in Broome in the Roebuck Bay Caravan Park, on a site not ideally suited to the camper and removed the truck from underneath it.  This enabled us to use the truck to sightsee, restock the camper and catch up with Brenda and Mal (friends made at Gnylmarung).

A little bit of sightseeing ensured a good look at Cable Beach - this time with far fewer tourists.  WA visitors apparently leave for Broome after Mothers' Day in May and leave during August in time to arrive home by Fathers' Day.  It's a beautiful beach except for the hoardes of people and their vehicles.  A very enterprising chap rents beach umbrellas, sun lounges and surf boards - at exorbitant rates.  For 2 people, for the day, you can hire all of the above for $70. A free glass of water and a shot of sunscreen is thrown in, "free of charge".  The strange thing is that the sun umbrellas are mostly occupied!

We traversed the length of the jetty at the Port of Broome and visited Gantheaume Point, where the dinosaur footprints are said to be.  Wrong tides for us, though, as we were there in neap tides and you need spring tides to be able to view them properly. 

A stroll around the centre of town took us through Chinatown, where there a numerous pearl jewelry shops and art galleries.  The prices are well beyond our expectations and a local jeweler tells Brenda and Mal, that she can buy Australian pearls cheaper, overseas!
We searched the op-shop and clothing stores for suitable attire to go out to dinner.  Peter met with success, but not Sue! Clothing here, is expensive!

On Saturday we went to the Broome market, where we bought locally grown fresh fruit and vegetables.  We also sampled the famous mango smoothies and ate lumpiares. Most handcrafts were sourced from Indonesia, so we didn't purchase anything other than food.

The unsuitable campsite turned out the be an enormous hinderance when trying to put the truck back under the camper.  Some very kind neighbours helped guide us to reverse it into the right place and then left to do sightseeing of their own.  So then we tried to attach the tie-downs back onto the truck. This is where the fun and games began.  There is very little tolerance, so the jacks were put in and out of place, while we jiggled with the positioning of the truck for three hours until it was just right!!!!!