We stayed at the lovely Sanctuary Beach Resort, which had gorgeous rooms, grounds and pools.
I LOVED our bedroom:
this boab tree,
and these flowers:
We even saw this big monitor lizard prowling around our apartment. Over a metre long, they are allowed to roam free in Broome, but they do bite!
On our first day in Broome, there had been a huge rainfall, and the tree frogs were all out. They made a hell of a racket, like barking dogs! (These frogs are notorious in Broome for tumbling into your toilet when you flush it, but that didn't happen to us once!)
Jack and Jonathon spent HOURS in this beautiful pool:
Down town, the shops are built in an Asian style, and referred to as Chinatown, after the many Chinese people who originally settled in Broome.
Palm trees line the streets...
and Cable beach was magnificent (much like Yanchep Lagoon),
but with one main difference: camel rides!
The camels were such characters, and during the ride, the guide walked alongside telling us the names and stories of each camel in the train. The other guide ran along beside us taking our cameras to get sunset shots.
There was a glorious sunset that night!
I felt so exhilarated during the camel ride, and Jonathon and Jack's camel kept sneaking up so I could pat him -adorable!
On another day, we went on the hovercraft ride which took us across the mudflats and over Roebuck Bay. The driver/guide had a great time doing bogan burnouts in the hovercraft, and it was quite thrilling!
Over the other side, at Gantheaume Bay, we all got out to have a look at the stunning rock formations,
and the ancient fossilised dinosaur footprints. Quite incredible to think a Brontosaurus had walked over this area thousands of years ago!
Jonathon was fascinated by the red dirt, known as pindan (said with an accent on each syllable, like pin dan).
He even collected some from here as a souvenir (ssh...Don't tell!)
Another great adventure was a visit to Malcolm Douglas' Crocodile Park.
It was a VERY hot place to walk around (really, if you ever go to Broome, take a bottle of water wherever you go!), but the crocs were such characters. They were called names like Chomp, because they had attacked people in the wild.
The pools of green water looked empty and then from out of nowhere, these massive crocs would launch themselves out of the water and clamber up the fence snapping their jaws!! Crikey!! (That's probably exaggerating a bit, but a couple of them did do that!)
You could only see the heads of crocs in the distance in the water, but when they were called to be fed, they all ran up onto the sand, fighting over who would catch the chicken and fish that were tossed to them. It was great entertainment, with lots of oohs and aahs from the crowd!
There were dingos at the park,
this cute owl,
and we even got to hold a baby croc!
The Japanese cemetery was interesting, with many headstones made of beach rock. All of the people buried here (919 of them) were pearl divers in the late 1800s-1935. Most died due to drowning, diver's paralysis, or in the 1908 cyclone in Broome.
We visited the Pearl Lugger's museum where we learned all about the pearl shelling industry in Broome.
A suit was invented to help the divers go into deeper waters, and it was extremely heavy. Jack had the opportunity to try on the helmet, which weighed 32 kgs!
These are the boots that the divers had to wear,
and here are two of the refurbished luggers that were used many years ago.
Broome is now known for its cultivated pearl industry, which you can see at Willie Creek Farm, although it is a four hour round trip, so we didn't go there this time.
We had some AMAZING meals in Broome. At the Pindan restaurant, which was at our resort, we had a yummy garlic bread made with Turkish bread, garlic butter and parmesan cheese (best garlic bread EVER!),
and other delicious things like seafood linguine, and creme brulee (oh my gosh!).
At the Sunset Bar and Grill, at Cable Beach Resort, Jack had the best lamb cutlets, Jonathon had an exquisite steak, and I had sizzling garlic prawns with ratatouille and smashed potato (heavenly meal!)
We were also pretty excited about the chocolate fountain with marshmallows!
Other great places to eat were The 12 Mile Cafe, the ZooBar and the Lustre Bar (all had delicious smoothies!)
Amazingly, we didn't see any flies or mozzies in Broome, but we did have to wear a hat and sunscreen outside during the day!
What made the trip even more enjoyable for me was indulging in some massages (my birthday pressies!) at the Sorbet Day Spa at our resort. Soooo relaxing, and the beauticians were lovely!
On a final note, reading this fantastic Di Morrissey novel about Broome in the early days was a very memorable read to accompany a very memorable adventure!
