Last day in Broome

Today Hugh is happy as he got a bird list and now he can go off twitching as soon as he has finished saving the Kimberleys (that is why we are in Broome). I’m also happy as I visited the historical museum and picked up a heritage trail booklet. The Museum which is located in the old customs house is fascinating and I learn all about pearl diving and the different cultures and families that lived in Broome. I never knew that Broome was also bombed by the Japanese in 1942 and many refugees from Java died in the attack. Very sad. I also see a dinosaur footprint in sandstone which excites me as Broome is famous for dinosaur footprints that are over 120 million years old which can be found at Gantheaume Point but only at very low tide, so I won’t be able to see them on this trip. Broome apparently has very big tides.

Although soon dripping in the heat, I press on and visit a few architectural gems including the old courthouse and the very sweet Anglican Church of the Annunciation. Luckily for me the church is open and Minister Tim kindly shows me around explaining the symbolism of the unusual Chancel screen donated in memory of pearl divers who lost their lives in the 1908 cyclone. The Church has an extremely beautiful stained glass window depicting the visit of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary, and the colors are incredible. The Church has a lovely atmosphere and I think it is unusual but very Broome-like to see a church constructed of corrugated iron.

I also visit the old pioneer cemetery and have lunch overlooking Roebuck Bay. In my opinion the orange sand is much more interesting than the white sand of Cable Beach. There are plenty of white sandy beaches in the world but not so many orange ones. Although last night we had a lovely dinner watching the sun set over the Indian Ocean at Cable Beach sipping Veuve Clicquot – what a treat! It is so nice to meet such passionate and interesting people at these workshops.

On our last afternoon Hugh and I drive around looking at vast empty plains full of locusts and strange colored termite nests (all white like tombstones) and then go on to Gantheaume point to clamber over the fantastic rock formations which are a mixture of sediment layers and weird windblown shapes. Broome is a fascinating place and I can’t wait to come again to this part of the world and spend more time exploring the Kimberleys.

Broome with a view

So I've decided to keep bloggging whenever I travel. This post is about Broome in North-Western Australia where the heat and humidity hit you immediately you get off the plane and walk across the tarmac. A fine layer of sweat and stickiness quickly forms over my body and I know I am definately in the tropics. The flight from Perth to Broome is only 2 and hours but the landscape is extraordinary. A half an hour or so out of Perth and there is nothing but the Great Sandy Desert, hundreds of kilometers of this strange emptiness. I expected desert to be white or yellow but the colors of this desert are a dim reddish grey with scattered bits of green. Sometimes these strange lines appear going west-east which are the remnants of old dunes apparently. It is like nothing I have every seen.

Then the colors of the town hit you. Bright orange soil, the grey green of the vegetation called Pindan, the darker green of the mangroves, the turquoise blue of the Indian Ocean and the hazy blue sky. Just beautiful. Broome is a small town with real frontier feel. This is the land of the Yawuru people who have lived here on the Dampier Peninsula for 27,000 years. and are still closely connected to country. There is also a strong Asian influence due to the Japanese, Chinese and Javanese people who worked here pearl diving There are dusty orange 4WDs everywhere, and most of the buildings are corrugated iron with verandahs to protect you from the intense sun.

We are staying in a lovely resort south of the town, which has lush tropical gardens full of flowering frangipanis and a very inviting pool. It is great to stay in the air conditioned cool of the apartment but I am not here to be comfortable, I am here for South Sea or Broome pearls naturally! After a quick visit to the tourist information office, where I talk to the lovely Justin who is half Chinese and half aboriginal and used to be a pearl diver, I hit the pearl shops.

There is a whole street of them and every one has a different atmosphere. A few are like walking into a sacred temple, full of soft carpets and displays of orchids. Beautiful young women in elegant black dresses wearing the most incredible pearls stalk towards you and you immediately know that you will not be able to afford anything here and that you do not belong! But I find one shop that feels just right and fall in love with a beautiful pearl bracelet. Regretfully I find out the price and have to let go. It is very hard. But then I find this gorgeous tear shape pearl with an exquisite luster and realize I have found the one. The Shop assistant solemnly assures me that the pearl chooses the owner, not the other way round and instinctively I feel she is right. Dazed with happiness I walk out into the heat of the day feeling on top of the world.

But this trip is not all about Pearls, it is also about following in the footsteps of the Movie Bran Nue Dae which was mostly filmed here in Broome. It is a funny sad movie about an aboriginal boy sent off to boarding school in Perth who misses his girl and his home back in Broome. So I am on a mission to find the places – we literally bumped into the first right next to the café where we were going to have breakfast. Sun Pictures, the world’s oldest operating open-air picture gardens is fantastic – a rickety old corrugated iron building full of movie memorabilia. Very atmospheric. The second location is Matso’s brewery which is in a great location overlooking Roebuck bay and has weird and wonderful beers called Monsoon blonde and mango and chili flavoured beer. I learnt later that this is where the interior pub scenes were filmed. I was very disappointed when seeing the Roebuck Hotel, which although atmospheric, did not resemble the pub in the movie at all except for the hotel sign. Apparently the old cottage pictured was used to recreate how the exterior of the pub looked in the 1960’s. That’s movies for you.