Week Seven: Broome – Highlights and Lowlights.

Spectacular Cable Beach

When we originally said we would stay in Broome for three weeks we were worried that we would get bored and keen to move on. We rarely stay anywhere that long as GK gets cabin fever and wants to hit the road after three days. That hasn’t been the case as we have been busy, busy, busy helping Kell and Grace with their growing business, Fresh Peddlers, plus doing all the Broome touristy things. It has been fantastic and time has flown. We have booked an extra day to help the girls on Monday for their delivery day and then we are heading to Kununurra for some R & R. We need it after the week we have had!

When we reflect on our stay in Broome there have been some definite highlights and a few lowlights thrown in to keep us on our toes. An absolute highlight has been the quality time we have spent at Cable Beach sunning ourselves between swims and our favourite pastime - people watching. We have loved spending time with the girls, the spectacular sunsets and laid back, friendly vibe of Broome in general. The weather has been fantastic and we have loved the sunny days and balmy nights. We have embraced ‘Broome Time’ and enjoyed chilling out and taking things slowly. Well, sometimes.

Chilling out on Cable Beach

Poor little Yaris.

An absolute lowlight was waking Saturday morning to find someone had thrown a very amateurish Molotov cocktail under Gracie’s car leaving it a write off. Neighbours had been fighting and arguing through the night and thought it would be amusing to set bins and Grace’s very reliable little Yaris alight. A lovely neighbour found flames coming from underneath it when he returned home from night shift and very fortunately had a fire extinguisher handy to put out most of the fire before the whole car erupted in flames. The girls were so upset as it is their only means of transport apart from their bikes. The insurance company has given them a hire car for two weeks while they sort out the pay out which will be a great help. They lost some of their personal possessions in the boot as well as their banners and business cards for Fresh Peddlers. It has been a real blow for them but they will get over it and hopefully will be able to afford a used van for their business. Every cloud has a silver lining so they say.

Before photo of the Cubby de Squeals

It really dampened their enthusiasm and excitement after their huge purchase of a $500 caravan to store their fruit and veggie boxes in at PCYC. It was due to be delivered on Saturday morning so the girls had to get over the shock of the fire and supervise the transporting and relocation of their Cubby de Squeals as I have dubbed it. Their spirits soon rose as we have spent this weekend gutting and scrubbing it and we can really see its potential. GK came to the fore with his demolition skills and my clean freak genes (thanks Mum) have come in handy.  We can’t make a silk purse out of a sour’s ear but we have given it a good shot and with some more TLC it should come up a treat. The girls are thrilled with it. They are happy so we are happy. Win win once again.

 

Cable Beach Resort

Another highlight was redeeming our gift voucher the girls had given us for Christmas to be spent at Cable Beach Resort. We chose to have exfoliating scrubs at the spa, as our skin feels dry and gnarly with all the hard water showers at some of the free camps along the way as well as the red dirt everywhere. (A lowlight I have droned on about before).  As we entered the very ritzy spa, keen to be pampered and scrubbed of all our bumpy bits, I should have been more aware when our beautiful masseuse suggested the ‘couples room’. I said that would be fine but soon began to rue my decision.

We were led into a deluxe room with two massage tables swathed in towels. Despite the low, soothing music of the pan flutes GK still struggled to hear what our beauticians were saying when they said remove all our clothes, don the disposable underwear and climb onto the beds face down. I had to repeat the conversation and explain that we had to wear paper knickers. It took all the strength of my pelvic floor to prevent myself wetting my pants even though I wasn’t wearing any! The look on his face as he unwrapped his navy blue Chux boxer shorts was priceless. I had a tiny white ‘thong’ also made of Chux material and felt like a sumo wrestler in it. I couldn’t get on the bed quick enough to hide my head in the hole provided at the top. 

After our very relaxing almond scrub, the girls explained that we could step outside and shower before returning for our moisturising treatment. Again I was sorry I had chosen the ‘couples’ option, as we had to step outside in the nuddie to have our showers. I was in hysterics as we washed all the almond kernels off ourselves with only a low wall for privacy. I was totally out of my comfort zone. We had to shower, dry off and put on new knickers before the girls returned, as we wanted to spare them the sight of two old people in their un-ironed birthday suits. They were very gracious and polite when they safely returned to find us back on our beds, modestly covered up with our heads planted firmly in our holes, as instructed, to finish our pampering.  It was very relaxing but next time I wont choose the ‘couples room’.

 

All scrubbed and pampered enjoying a drink at the Sunset Bar.

We came out of the spa on a high and decided to have ‘one off the wood’ at one of our favourite places in Broome, the very aptly named Sunset Bar. It is from this vantage point you can enjoy the most spectacular sunsets while watching the camels returning along Cable Beach. The camel rides are a very popular tourist pastime but it holds no attraction for us, as we couldn’t think of anything worse than rocking and rolling on the back of a lurching animal ten feet in the air. Plus you have to be under 90kgs and someone doesn’t qualify. No names, no pack drill. 

 

Camels at Cable Beach.

Johnny Chi Lane

We love Broome’s unique architecture, which is an eclectic mix of Japanese, Chinese and Australian influences. Red and green feature predominately on most of the buildings and structures around town as the bottoms of the pearl luggers were painted with antifoul to deter barnacles, algae and marine organisms and the only colours it came in were red and green. The left over paint was used to paint the buildings. It gives the town a coordinated look and feel with the old and new buildings featuring these colours. It looks great. 

GK at Town Beach

Three weeks haven’t been long enough for us to see and do everything we had planned this trip. We will have to come up again next year to finish off. That wont be hard as we love Broome and having Kell living here is an absolute bonus. We have loved helping the girls fix up their caravan and GK has had more than enough of his Bunnings ‘fix’ to last him until Darwin where he can trawl the aisles buying his bits and bobs once again. As I said before we are looking forward to getting to Kununurra to have some lazy days around the pool and catching up on some reading. We have three nights of free camping on the way, which should be fun. We will let you know all about it next week. Until then, keep safe and love to all. 

After photo of the newly painted Cubby de Squeals

Before

After

Before

After