Broome and Beyond

-

We left our intrepid  adventurers perched on a cliff overlooking Pender Bay without a hand brake. It is an amazing place with red cliffs and blue sky. We spent the next day on a cultural tour with Bolo Angus and Johnny from Southern Cross tours. We and a few more guests followed them in our 4wds to his Lullumb country on the Dampier Peninsula by the King Sound. We really enjoyed this insightful tour through the creeks and mangroves to a stunning small cove and the oysters, fish and damper lunch.






We spent another day in Pender Bay waking to the sight of humpbacks cruising by and walking and swimming.

We reluctantly left Pender Bay and went to Broome where we were joined by our friend  Bronwyn for a break from the van in a nice AirBnB by Town Beach. In Broome we managed to eat and drink at many fine restaurants,  breweries and cafes, view incredible sunsets at Cable Beach, swim at Cable Beach, walk and tour through the historic older parts of Broome, do another cultural  tour through the mangroves and sand flats and generally have a great time.









Lost and Confused  in the mangroves 


While in Broome we took the chance to live beyond our means and do a luxurious day cruise to Horizontal Falls. This was a fabulous (if long) day out. We rose at 4 am to catch a bus back up to the tip of the Dampier Peninsula to the Cygnet Bay pearl farm where we rode out on the sand flats on our tenders with wheels until we could float then motored out to our boat. The boat passed through King Sound and the Buccaneer Archipelago to the Horizontal Falls while feeding us 4 courses for breakfast and a 7 course lunch. We then proceeded on tenders to the mouth of the falls. Altogether an amazing  experience. We arrived back by 8 pm exhausted but buzzing and not just because of the excellent wine. 








The car finally went in to be fixed on the day we were meant  to leave Broome.  So I spent the day being stressed and just possibly grumpy. We finally got our car back round 6 pm after putting it in at 7 am.  The mechanics were still going when we left, working consistently 12 to 14 hour days during the dry to keep up with demand. We bid Bronwyn goodbye and had a night back in the Broome Gateway before leaving the next morning  for the Pilbara. 






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Savannah Way and (mostly) averted disaster

-
Image
First some good bits. From our great site at Lake Tinaroo we started west. We pulled in at Undarra to do the Lava Tube tour. This  is a a must do. Amazing geology and landscape, and a well run, and informative  tour. We loved it there and wished we had more time but we had a booking at Talaroo Hot Springs. Talaroo was an Indigenous run site at an old station near some hot rock springs by the Einasleigh River.  Great campsite with friendly communal fires and a enjoyable tour by a young Ewamian guide who explained the history and culture of the Springs followed with a soak in a pool fed by the Springs We  had a slap up dinner for our 36th wedding anniversary. See photo below. After a few nights  at Talaroo we headed out excited for our next stop in Cobbold Gorge. This is where things fell apart. Not far from Talaroo  on the road to Georgetown we heard a loud screeching noise from the car wheel. I looked for a rock but couldn't find anything, so we...
Read more

Penultimate Post

-
Image
We are nearing the finish line and our thoughts have turned to home, but there are a few more bays and piers to explore.  From Tumby Bay we drove up to Lucky Bay SA to catch the ferry across the Spencer Gulf to the Yorke Penisula. This takes two hours and was a nice calm journey. We then drove down to Edithburgh on the heel through fields of ripening wheat with old rock walls and nice old towns.  The campsite was nice enough, but maybe we should have taken a hint from the many nearby wind turbines as to how windy it would be. The wind did not stop us exploring the Yorke. We enjoyed the wild coast, the pink lakes and the Dhilba Gurranda-Innes National Park on the toe. The scallop surprise from the nearby Coobawie pub did not disapoint. From there we travelled to Elizabeth where we dropped off the van for a well deserved service.  We drove on to a nice hotel in Adelaide. We arrived fairly dishevelled from the wind in our casual camping clothes and were asked by the receptio...
Read more

Eyre Peninsula

-
Image
Our journey down the Eyre Peninsula continued with a trip out along the wild west coast to the Point Labatt Sea Lion colony. You peer down at the sea lions from high on a cliff overlooking  the rocky shelves and beaches where the sea lions congregate. It was  fun to watch the young ones play around while the big males just lie in the sun. We also visted Murphy's  Haystacks an interesting rock formation on the way to Coffin Bay. We stayed at the excellent camping facilities at Yanga Bay where emus and wallabies wandered through the campsite. We four wheel drived further into the park and did more walks by the wild coast. After a peaceful few days the weather turned wet and windy again. We headed into Coffin Bay town for a lovely seafood lunch watching the white caps on the bay and then closed the Domino's hatches in travel mode and bunkered down in the town caravan park as the rain and wind swept in. The next morning was slightly calmer so our Coffin Bay Oyster tour went a...
Read more