Broome: the final chapter of The Six Ride Again

Broome is somewhat touristy, but in a nice way. The old town around the original wharf contains original pearler's houses and buildings now utilised as shops,galleries and cafes. We had some excellent food here. My board shorts no longer fit me. Although that began happening due to the excellent food Hidden Trails fed us on the horse ride, Broome did not help my waist line. Our first activity was an astronomy tour/talk conducted in a clearing in the scrub out of town to avoid any light pollution. Greg Quicke, aka Space Gandalf, is a self-taught astronomer who appeared with Brian Cox on TV but also has his own show and books. He used very strong lazer lights to point out features in the sky, and answered questions. They had about 20 telescopes of different kinds for us to look at Saturn and it's rings, and other nebulae, etc.

We took a tram for a history tour around the town. I knew Broome had a pearling history, I didn't know the Japanese bombed it in WWII.

We explored the shops, had lunch at a Mango Farm and went to Cable Beach where I watched four of the group on a camel ride and then we had cocktails and watched the spectular sunset. So many photos!

We hunted for dinosaur footprints on the rocks beneath the red cliffs at Gauntheame Point. Found three!

We all went kayaking around the point, under the main wharf to a sandy mangrove and red cliff lined beach where we had snacks and raced hermit crabs. Mine kept falling into footprints which slowed him down. The tide rose 2 metres while we were on the beach. 9 metre tides are common here. We did see a turtle popping its head up but it did not come close to us. Then we paddled back to a boat ramp. Love the colours of the water and rocks!

We drove on red dirt corrugated roads to Willie Creek Pearl Farm for an excellent tour that showed us the entire life cycle of the pearl oyster including the seeding and harvesting of the pearls which are basically pearl snot around a piece of gritty rubbish and take about 2 years to form, and which can be sold for thousands of dollars, one of which Lisa purchased.

Back in town, we inspected the original (restored) town pier, now surrounded by mangroves and were fascinated by fish, large hermit crabs in cone shaped shells and hundreds of small bright orange crabs.

We explored the interesting cemetery which has sections for Japanese, Chinese and everyone else.

Then we ate dinner at the market on the town beach and watched the new Top Gun movie in the historic outdoor cinema.

On the final morning, I was booked on a seaplane flight to see Horizontal Falls but it was cancelled 'due to staff shirtage' so there was just enough time for a walk on Cable Beach which is 22kms long.

Then we went our separate ways. Deb had already joined her partner Jack for a few lazy days at a luxury eco resort, and the others dropped me off to collect my campervan home for the three weeks before they returned to winter on the other side of the country. Huge thanks to our very excellent tour organiser, Loretta. Love your work!