Western Australia

Another adventure begins on the flat West Island. Our start at 5.00am on Saturday morning had us in Perth by 2.00pm so a fairly long day by the time we positioned ourselves in the prostrate position. We were fortunate to be picked up by Colleen, an elderly friends daughter who now lives in Perth. We spent a lovely evening in her home rather than commercial accommodation.

Sunday we met up with our Australian friends, Pam and Sandy Lennox in the Perth Airport and flew 2 hours north to Broome. Once the cabin doors were open we began to believe the 35 degrees and realise that the winter Olympics weren’t going to be held here any time soon. We hired a car and drove to our Air BnB and broke open some refreshments to ward off the temperature.

We have done some exploring about the town of Broome, a smallish rural town with a population of 4500 but thousands more tourists in the peak season between May and September.

We watched the sunset set on one beach then jumped in the car and drove 5 kms to watch the moon come up on the other coast and view the “Stairway to the Moon” effect which was quite spectacular but unphotographable with our limited knowledge of how to operate the DSLR. You can’t put things on hold like this while you read the manual. We wandered through a night market but couldn’t be tempted into buying anything. At some stage in your life you find you have everything you need and even a delightful imitation porcelain koala in a tree is not really necessary. Still delightful though.

We have checked out the local museum, an art gallery, some shops, Matso’s brewery, a lighthouse and the port. We went to the beach a second time to watch the sunset and photograph a camel train. Many tourists ride the camels at sunset and while this was enticing we didn’t fancy standing in line at the local chiropractor to get ourselves back into walking condition.

Our major reason for the Broome visit was to experience the “Horizontal Falls” an attraction some 200kms north on the Dampier Peninsular. We were picked up before the sparrows had passed wind and headed north in a 4x4 bus, a crew of 12 of us and “Cob” the driver. We visited a little old church on the way built in 1917 by French Trappist Monks, (you’ll have to Google them), in a Germanic style with Aboriginal influences using the mother of pearl shells that were harvested for years in the area for buttons. During the drive we passed several active roadside vegetation fires and I was feeling compelled to get out and give them a hand. It wasn’t until we got to the 3^rd fire that I realised that “Them” weren’t in attendance. These fires were just another of natures’ deliverances, like a shower of rain but probably more common. 

We stopped at Cygnet Bay pearl farm. While we were shown how to culture the pearls and even though a small one costs $500 it didn’t look like easy money to me. They take 2 years to form and involve a lot of maintenance. No purchases were made in our group but it was interesting.

We were then flown from Cygnet Bay to land on the water by the Horizontal Falls Hotel, a floating establishment. We were quickly ushered into a 3 engined juice guzzling (100 litres per hour per engine) speed boat for a trip through the horizontal falls. This is a tidal phenomenon where the water rushes through 2 small gaps, filling then emptying Talbot Bay. We dropped about 2 metres into the swirling boiling type water in the bay then rushed back through, several times. Great fun. A lunch of fresh cooked BBQ barramundi and then a boat ride amongst interesting upthrust rock formations that make up the Kimberleys.

We flew home in a Cessna Caravan, an hour back to Broome. It was a long day but although they describe themselves as the “Best Horizontal Falls Seaplane Adventure” I thought they sold themselves short. It was expensive but it was a great day out…..35 degrees all the way.

One last day today in Broome and we are off to Darwin tomorrow.