We rapidly make our
way to down the western coastline, after experiencing rain and a cold snap in
Fitzroy Crossing, and spending a couple of nights up Derby.
Being a few days
ahead of schedule, we are not able to find accommodation in Broome, so we
decide to do some free camping just north of Broome. We head down the Cape Leveque turnoff,
passing the rubbish drop off; we need to take our rubbish back out
with us, as there would be no bins further north from this point.
The road is rough
and corrugated, for fear of damaging the caravan and the contents within, we
drive 20kms/hr on average with the tyres let down.
Getting on darkness, and with the road not to
our liking, we make a decision to head to the Willie Creek free camp site. At least with this site, there is the Pearl
Farm a few metres away, where we can use the amenities after purchasing goods
from their shop/café.
As we arrive to the
site, we sight some campervans and caravans to the right, with plenty of spots
available. Not happy with the first
spot, as I thought the site would be a thoroughfare for people heading down to
the water for fishing, I try heading deeper into the path. The sandy quickly gets softer and deeper, and
as I try to make a hard right hand turn, the wheels start spinning. Without wanting to churn up too much sand, I
stop the car and let down the tires further.
I've not been letting down the tires, as we do not have a suitable
compressor to pump the tyres back up to the required pressure. I'll have to buy a suitable compressor in
Broome, as there will still be a lot of sand driving that we need to do.
With the tyres let down, the car in 4WD mode, I rock the car back and forth to get some grip, and reverse the caravan back to the first spot. I position the caravan so that people are able to walk behind the caravan, if they want to walk down to the water.
With the parking and
setting up completed, we speak to some of the people who had been here for a
few weeks already. There was Scotty with
his family, they've been coming in and out of the camp site for weeks at a time,
going into Broome for a few weeks to stock up and charge batteries, before
heading back. Their twin 8 year olds
look like kids out of Mad Max, their hair brown and stiff from not being washed
for weeks/months, their clothes dusty and smeared with dirt, their whole body
grotty and dirty.
We soon find out
that the sand around this spot contains fine dirt, and anyone walking or
playing in the sand will soon become dirty and dusty. The dust will become the bane of Jackie's
stay at Willie Creek, and it does not take long for Emma to start looking like
a kid from Mad Max.
Our little Emma is
anything but precious, and she has no inhibitions about getting down and dirty
with the local crew, doing cartwheels, covering herself with the sand and dirt,
and discarding her thongs and clothing as she sees fit. All this, combined with the mess on her face
left from previous meals (she does not believe in wiping her mouth after
eating, and she eats with such veracity and speed that she always leaves a ring
around her mouth of whatever food she is eating at the time), she is the
complete feral package. Couple this with
her spunk and attitude, we have full time entertainment on our hands.
I also meet
Campbell, a smiling young single guy, who has been camping at Willie Creek for
a while, and is on a recovery/discovery trip, with no fixed destination or
timeframe. I later find out he has a
motor neuron condition, and has taken time out from his life to get better and
enjoy life. Campbell looked healthy for
now, and he was always happy and cheery, an seemingly genuine nice guy.
Without having
checked out the location the previous night, I duck out early next morning down
the water beside the caravan site. This
is still crocodile territory, and we're told there are three crocs located
within Willie Creek, so I stand back from the turquoise water whilst fishing.
I'm not sure what to
expect or whether I will catch anything, as I cast away the large soft plastic,
surveying the scenery and surrounds whilst I fish.
Campbell comes down,
and I chat to him about fishing in general and what his plans are after Willie
Creek. As I wind and lift the rod, the
line becomes taught and I am onto a fish.
The fish feels big, and is caught not far from the bottom. It's certainly not a flathead, and the fish
is running hard and deep. Certainly not
a pelagic, as it is remaining deep, I am thinking or perhaps wishing it is a
jewfish. The fish takes some spirited
runs, and heads towards some of the boats and moorings across the way, I turn
the drag up and try to stop it. After a
while, the fish tires, and as I see colour, I can see the distinct diamond
shape of the fish. Campbell calls it for
a Diamond Trevally (DT), and right he was.
This was the first DT that I'd ever caught and like other trevally, it
put up a very good fight. Campbell
confirms the fish is good eating, and wanting to try one for the first time, I
decide to keep it for dinner.
Buoyed by the DT
capture, I cast away again. Not much
longer, I hook up again, this one being a smaller fish. By now one of the English backpackers had
turned up, surprising that he was up so early, as a bunch of them had had been
partying past midnight the previous night, with their party music blaring like
an Ibiza nightclub. Luckily they had
taken up residence over the other side of the road, and their music was a mere
thud heard by the time it reached our caravan.
Witnessing the second hook up and seeing the DT, the backpacker runs off
to get his fishing gear. This second
fish was a Trevally, not huge but a keeper and would go down well
with the DT.
No other fish were
caught, despite the backpacker's effort with his frozen pilchards, and with the
tide half way out, I pack it in and head back to the caravan. Scotty and the other campers were surprised
to see the trevally caught, as they had not caught anything of note down there,
since they had been there. We cooked the
fish on a fire pit that night, along with foiled potatoes. The smokiness from the fire really added to
the fish and potatoes, with the DT being very sweet and soft, and the golden
trevally being firmer fleshed. We all
preferred the taste of the DT, however the golden was still very tasty indeed.
I manage to sneak in a morning fish with the kids on our last morning at Willie Creek, catching another Trevally.
Whilst at Willie
Creek, we visit the Pearl farm, where we have fresh damper and jam for morning
tea. We take a tour of the farm, seeing
displays of the pearling industry and a Barramundi enclosure. The pool that the Barra were inside had a
dark bottom, and it was interesting to see how the fish had adapted to their
environment by darkening their colour, so much that one had to look really
close to see that there were actually fish in the pool, the only thing giving
them away was the white of their eyes.
Inside the store were some impressive pieces of jewellery, some well out
of my price range. The imported Chinese
freshwater ones on the outside walls were more my price range, however Pearls
don't particularly interest Jackie, much to my relief.
Before leaving
Willie Creek, we get to explore the creek bed, oyster lined rocks and sandstone
shelter. This was the longest we'd free
camped, and the kids and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Jackie is coming around to free camping,
however the dustiness and dirtiness of the place was a big turnoff for Jac.
Onto Broome we head,
a destination we'd heard a lot about, but we did not know what to expect. The town itself is not big, and is split up
into port, industrial and residential areas.
It is large enough to have all the hardware and auto stores, so we
pulled into Bunnings to grab an inverter to allow the charging of our laptops
and small appliances via 12v, and a heavy duty compressor.
On top of our To Do
list in Broome were the camel rides, Cable Beach itself, visit the iconic
Malcolm Douglas wildlife park, Staircase to the moon (the dates happened to
coincide with our stay) and of course some form of fishing.
After stocking up on
groceries, we meet up with Wayne and Caroline on Cable Beach. They'd been in Broome for a while now,
soaking up the sun and enjoying the turquoise waters (a change from the brown,
silty water we'd been experiencing for the past few months). Cable beach is long and beautiful, the waves
small and inviting. Although we are
still in crocodile territory, the locals assure us that it is safe to swim on
the beaches, after all there is a patrolled section in the main part of Cable
Beach; Jackie is still not convinced.
After taking some
snaps on the beach, watching the camel rides and Wayne putting on a drifting
show in the Ranger, we head to our caravan site just back from the beach. The caravan park was on the pricey side, not
unexpected as Broome is fast becoming a tourist hub, and we were lucky to have
secured a spot in the park, as our friends who had not booked a spot prior
arriving, were not able to get into the park.
The park itself was
very clean, great amenities, facilities, fish cleaning tables, plenty of
activities and a large pool that was often filled with grey nomads doing laps
in the morning, or participating in the aqua aerobics (which the kids loved to
watch and mimic). The occupants of the
caravan park were mostly the older generation, with a smatter of families here
and there; the senior ladies all loved the children, often reminding them of
their grandchildren.
The next morning,
Wayne and I had hired a boat from Boab boat hire, with a view to catching a
Spanish Mackerel, Sailfish or Coral Trout.
We met up with the boat hire owner on the beach, had a brief with the
guy and he launched the boat on the beach.
The launch and retrieve service was an additional $50 on top of the boat
hire, however I consider it money well spent.
Launching a boat on a beach in Broome is like nothing I'd ever
experienced before, and the retrieval of the boat was also a unique
experience. Because the beach was quite
shallow, the guy had to dunk half his car under water, to release the boat from
the trailer. We're talking about a 6.5
metre thick plated (surveyed) aluminium boat, so it's quite heavy. After a few attempts at nudging the boat off
the trailer, and getting his car really wet, I was finally separated from the
trailer and was able to start the engine and reverse out over the small
waves. Quite an experience, one I would
not want to do when the waves are of a decent size.
Retrieving the boat
was probably more unique and eye opening.
The guy had an engine on top of his ute tray, as we approached the
trailer to hitch on, we cut the engine, and he attached the cable to the bow of
the boat. He then cranks the engine, and
puts it into gear, which starts winching the boat onto the trailer at a rate of
knots, will all the people and gear on the boat. Again, I could not envisage myself doing this
with my car, so the launch and retrieval cost was well spent.
After we'd lunched,
and Wayne had jumped onboard after picking up some ice, we set off
westward. There was no real hint or clue
provided by the boat owner, just to head west and start dropping the lures when
we reach a depth of 20+ metres. So West
we went, not know what Broome had install for us. Luckily the GPS still had the trail markings
from a previous charter, and the markings confirmed we were heading in the
correct direction.
After rigging up our
rods with deep diving lures and wire traces, we let out the lures once we reach
an area we thought met the criteria. We
were hoping to snare a Spanish Mackeral or Sailfish, so we put out two deep
divers and a skirt in the middle holder.
Whilst trolling, we saw a few schools of huge Spanish Mackeral jumping
out of the water, chasing baitfish. They
were always a distance away, and travelling quite fast, there was no way we
could chase them down and try to tempt them with our lures. But it was exciting and encouraging to see
the Spanish Mackeral around, we just hoped we would run into a large school of
them sometime soon.
We'd trolled for a
while without any action, as we approached an area that had been well marked
and used by the previous charter of the boat.
As soon as we hit the same patch, Wayne's rod goes off and we are on. The fight was not long, and there was not
much of a bend on Wayne's new overhead combo, so we knew it was not a big
one. As we see colour, we realise it is
a School Mackeral; not a Spanish, but a Mackeral nonetheless.
We continue trolling
the area for some more School Mackeral, but we could not find the Spanish we were
after. After catching our fair share,
and releasing some fish, we decide to head elsewhere to find the Spanish or other
fish.
Sadly we did not
find the Spanish Mackeral after some further trolling, so the decision was made
to do some reef bottom bashing. Wayne
had gone on a fishing charter a few days previously, and had marked some GPS
co-ordinates, so we headed out towards the first few stops they had visited on
the charter. The first spot already had
a boat on the spot, so we decided to head out to the second spot. Getting close to the marks, we sound around
the reefs to see if we can locate any fish on the sounder. The sounder did not indicate there was any
fish below, and we drive around for a while trying to find a school on the
sounder.
By now, we were
about 40 nautical miles offshore, beyond the point where one can see land. We did not want to go out any further, and
since we had already come out this far, Wayne made the call the drop anyway. My experience with fishing in Sydney was that
if there were no fish on the sounder, then there was no use in dropping, so my
confidence was low that we would catch anything.
Wayne wasted no time
in dropping the California squid he'd bought down to the bottom, and not long
after, he is onto a good fish. I was
surprised, and the sight of Wayne hooked up spurred me into rigging up a paternoster
rig in quick time. And so for the next
hour or so, we would drift over the reefs and catch reef fish, one after
another. This is not my type of fishing,
but surprisingly some of the reef fish did put up a good fight, and the
constant action certainly made it entertaining.
We caught a wide variety of fish; Chinaman, Grass Emperor, Red Emperor,
various Cod, Bluebone and others we could not identify. Unfortunately we did not catch a Coral Trout,
another fish on my hit list for this trip.
After getting sharked a couple of times, and getting close to the time where
we had to pick up the family at the beach, we headed off to do some more
trolling towards the beach.
We'd promised the
kids that we would take them on a cruise in the afternoon, to do a spot of
whale watching. So we picked my family
and Caroline up at the beach, and headed west again. Not long into the cruise, we saw a sea snake
basking on the surface, one of a few we'd seen throughout the day. Wayne and I had seen lots of whales
throughout the day, however it took us a while to find them once we had the
family onboard. We managed to find a
number of whales, and get close enough to get some good footage, the kids were
excited and content with seeing the whales.
Before we headed
back to shore, we stopped by the famous Broome jetty, a place renowned for some
large fish. Wayne and I threw plastics,
poppers and hard bodies underneath the jetty, in between the pylons. Some massive Trevally and other pelagics
followed our offerings, with one grabbing my popper for a fraction of a second
without a hookup. The sight of the big
fish following our lures got me excited, but frustration kicked in when we
could not tempt them; myself becoming more animated as the near misses
continued, much to Caroline's amusement.
The hiring of the
boat in Broome lived up to my expectations, where Wayne and I had a full days
fishing on our terms and came back with plenty of fish for the freezer; of
which we would eat over the coming weeks of our trip. We also had a great time with the family
onboard in the afternoon. Certainly, if
I was to return to Broome another time, I'd be wanting to hire another boat for
the day.
With fishing ticked
off the list, I was content and the thought of fishing further in Broome did
not cross my mind, it was time to tick off the remainder of the list.
We rode on the
camels on Cable Beach, very touristy, but something Jac and the kids really
wanted to do. The whole experience took
about an hour and a half, the kids having a ball. The highlight for me was the mounting and
dismounting off the camels, as the ride itself was quite slow and bouncy. Another activity ticked off the list.
On the third night we were in Broome, we went into town to watch the Staircase to the moon. To save those who are not familiar with this "phenomenon" from Googling it, it is simply a period of time each month, where the moon and tides align, so that you can witness the reflection of the Moon on the muddy banks of the bay in the middle of Broome. We had no idea of where the best place was to witness this phenomenon, so we drove around a few bays looking for the spot. We eventually found a spot where a mass of people had parked, and being late (the phenomenon takes place for a few minutes only), we parked behind some cars and jumped up the top of the car roof racks to await the moon rising. Whilst atop the car with the whole family, and waiting for the appearance of the moon, the thought occurred to me as to how someone came up with the concept of Staircase to the moon. Was it some romantic, scientist or just another invention by a town looking to attract further tourist dollars from the tourism bucket? I posed this question to the kids, and the reality of why we were sitting atop the car on a coldish winter night hit them. We laughed and joked about other things towns could do to attract tourists. This mocking did not go down well with Jacs, unbeknown to me, she'd been very much looking forward to this "romantic" event, and I'd just ruined the moment for her. Another foot in the mouth moment for Ophet. I did manage to take some pictures, however were not in the best location, as some shrubs had stopped us from seeing a full sized "staircase", it was more like a step ladder. So I drove around to the other side of the bay, and tried to coax Jac out to go and see the full ladder. She eventually got out, and by the time she got there, the moon had risen too high, and the ladder had turned into a light saber. I slept in the doghouse that night.
With the daytime
temperatures still in the late 20s, and the beautiful Cable beach at our
doorstep, we had to go down for a dip.
We'd previously seen how beautiful it was from the lifesaving club
overlooking the beach, when we were completing Jac's PT assignment one day, so
we had to go down and have a swim.
Unfortunately the last couple of days the beach has been closed, due to
sightings of crocodiles in the water.
We're told that when a croc is sighted, they are compelled to close the
beach for 24hrs after the sighting. With
the beach being closed a couple of times, Jac was not keen to let the kids
swim, however I was still intent on swimming, if the beach was open. My thinking was that this was a patrolled
beach, and if the lifeguards thought it was safe enough to open to the public,
then it was good enough for me. Also, my
reading told me that crocs did not inhabit beaches, but used them to move from
one river to another, to find suitable territory. So it was less likely to attack someone, as
it would be intent on trying to find a new home.
Onto the beach we
trudged, Jac setting the expectation that the kids were not to go into the
water. The beach was lined with hire
chairs, and plenty of tourists sunbaking and swimming between the flags. The water was clear, with visibility being
very high, the swell down. There were
lifesavers positioned on top of the hill and near the surf club, obviously
looking out for further crocodiles along the beach. There was also a nippers race being held
outside the flags, with two rubber duckies escorting the swimmers throughout
the course. With all the precautions,
and people looking out for the crocs, I was happy to swim on the beach. Of course, once I was in the water, the kids
slowly made their way to the water and started wading in the water. Jac soon became comfortable with the
situation, and gave the kids the approval to swim. Quick as a flash, the kids were in the water
and swimming with me, although we did not venture out too far, just in case..
On the last day before leaving Broome, we visited the Malcolm Douglas Crocodile Park. During our travels, we'd come across numerous wildlife parks and attractions, and to date we'd resisted visiting them, mainly due to my preference to see the animals in their natural environment. Malcolm Douglas has been a childhood idol of mine, I can recall watching his countless Kimberley videos, showcasing the rugged region to the rest of Australia, well before the region became a tourist attraction and there was any reasonable form of road access to the area. I knew Malcolm had a passion for crocodiles and other native animals, and that his park would be focussed more on the conservation of these animals, as opposed to the commercialisation and exploitation of them. I was greatly saddened by his passing, but his park is a great legacy to his work and passion.
Upon entry to the
park, you are met with a large lake that is covered with moss like weed and
lillies, underneath which lay hundreds of crocodiles. Seats are laid out the front of the lake, as
guests assemble for the guided tour.
The show begins with the introduction of crocodile baby crocodiles for guests to hold. Although small, these little crocodiles can still inflict some damage with their little jaws. It is amazing that crocs can impart immense downward force with their jaws, but do not have the same power when opening them, to the point where a hair tie is sufficient to keep their jaws closed.
After playing with
the baby crocodiles, the guide then proceeds to feed the huge crocs that had
now started to assemble in the pond in front of us. The thud of their snapping jaws reverberating
around the lake, reminding all of their power, as they devour the fish scraps
donated to the park by local fishermen and shops.
We are then lead to
the fresh water crocodile enclosure, where the "freshies" are clearly
more timid and docile, but still not to be messed with. Their jagged teeth have
been known to inflict damage to people who've pushed it too far, or accidently
startled the placid creatures.
The tour group is
then split up and moved onto the individual crocodile pens, where the large
notorious crocodiles are kept. Each pen
holding a croc with an infamous past, where they have been relocated to the
park because of their danger to communities or where they've taken pets and
livestock. The guide provides insight
into the animal and it's hunting instincts, it's ability to sneak up on it's
prey without as much as a ripple in the water, and the enormous power if it’s
jaws by allowing the crocodile to chomp on large rubber buoys; and then there
was the death roll, demonstrated a few times when the crocodile tries to rip
apart it’s meal.
After the guided
tour of the pens, we are then set free to roam the park for 45 minutes, before
the park closed for the day at 3:30pm. Along with all the crocodiles on
display, there are large enclosures which housed dingos, emus, kangaroos and a
plethora of native birds; the kids having fun getting a parrot to repeat
"hello".
Our time in Broome
was up. We did not get a chance to fully
enjoy the beautiful Cable Beach; a few more days basking in the sun and
swimming in the clear, clean waters would have been magical. It would have been nice to drive up to the
top of Cape Levique, and seen more of the untouched beaches and waters north of
Broome. Alas, time is ticking away, and
the rest of WA awaits. After spending 5
nights in the relative luxury of the Broome caravan park, we reluctantly head
further south west towards the Pilbara.
Broome, you were magnificent, we will be back another time.
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