Broome with the
kids
What a great week we had with our kids!
Alan and I absolutely love the Kimberley, so decided it was
the perfect destination to fly Justin, Mel, Alexis and Tony up to celebrate
Alan’s 60th birthday.
Although his birthday isn’t until November we knew it would be too hot by then.
As it was, we had temperatures up to 40⁰C and there were a few sunburnt
bodies during the week.
They were only up here for 8 days, so we spent our first
night doing the most important thing – sunset drinks on Cable Beach.
Harvey Wallbangers to be specific!
The next day we took the little boat out onto beautiful
Roebuck Bay. Justin and Mel scooted
around, then Alexis, Tony, Alan and I squeezed in and realised a 12 foot tinny
isn’t big enough for 4 people and there were no fish out there anyway.
By the time we brought the boat back the tide was way out
and the concrete ramp really slippery. Being
an oaf, I slipped and fell, landing heavily on my leg.
Alexis and Mel ran to my rescue, and got me back onto my feet, but I’ve
done some nasty damage to my knee and leg, and more than a week later I’m still
having problems walking. My whole
leg is swollen and bruised all the way down to my foot.
Not the new knee, but the old one, although I’m not sure if that’s a good
or bad thing.
Next morning Mel took my bike for a ride down to Cable
Beach, but got a wheel caught in a rut and fell.
Justin ran to the rescue, and I jumped in the car to meet them.
A trip to Broome hospital and X-rays revealed a crack in her elbow,
gravel rash on one leg, a nasty bump on her forehead, and a completely snapped
off arm from her prescription sunglasses.
Justin became Mel’s left arm and was quite proficient at getting her hair
into a ponytail and doing her bra up (so we’re told).
Thankfully the timing of Mel’s fall still meant we had
plenty of time for lunch at Matso’s Brewery where we sat on the balcony under a
fan and downed plenty of Mango beer, Chilli beer, ciders and everything else on
the drinks menu.
The 2 bicycles got a good work out with early morning rides
to the beach for a swim, or just having a look around.
After 3 nights in Broome we left the caravan behind and
headed 220 kms north to Kooljaman Resort at Cape Leveque.
Kooljaman is owned by the Bardi people, and jointly managed by a select
board of members, and a smattering of white people.
The Cape Leveque Road includes 88 km of rough, red
corrugated dirt. We knew we
wouldn’t get all 6 of us in our car for the trip, so we hired a Mitsubishi
Pajero and loaded both cars up with food, alcohol, the boat and fishing gear and
headed off on a 3 day adventure. We
stopped off at Beagle Bay to see the beautiful little church with the Mother of
Pearl alter and picnicked on BBQ
chicken and bread rolls under the shade of a huge mango tree.
After lunch we continued north, arriving at Kooljaman a couple of hours
later.
Picnic lunch at Beagle Bay
church
We settled into our 3 safari tents overlooking the sweeping
beach and spent the next 3 days swimming, fishing, lazing around and watching
magnificent sunrises and sunsets.
We all went to bed exhausted each night, but woke up at the crack of dawn to
watch the sunrise (well some of us did anyway).
One day we drove 16 kms to One Arm Point - home of the
Bardi people. We wandered around
their spectacular beach wishing we could live there for a while.
Afterwards we stopped at Cygnet Bay Pearls for lunch and did a tour of
the oldest pearl farm in Australia.
We went mud crabbing one morning with Eddie a local
Aboriginal who lived a short distance from Kooljaman. Eddie’s 10 year old
granddaughter joined us, along with 2 crazy dogs, and we headed off at low tide.
Eddie’s hunting gear was an assortment
of bendable wire lengths, and his granddaughter had a traditional spear.
We were out for nearly 3 hours in the blazing sun, trudging
around his land in the mud, soft sand and pools of water and watched amazed
while he wrestled with huge mud crabs determined not to give up the fight,
hiding in mangrove roots or hollowed out tree trunks.
We saw some pretty weird and wonderful things during our time with Eddie,
including thousands of small army crabs marching to wherever army crabs go.
Eddie filled us in on traditional ways of knowing when the tide was
coming in our going out, and how the birds help them recognise when a crocodile
is about.
Jayne struggled with a useless
leg, and Mel with her arm in a sling, both of us trying to keep our balance as
we sunk into patches of quicksand and pools of water.
After a couple of hours Eddie had caught 4 mud crabs, but decided he
needed one for his dinner, so left us with 3.
We put the crabs to sleep in the freezer, and Tony had the gruesome job
of stabbing them between the eyes to make sure they were dead.
They were boiled in a pot leant to us by reception.
We cracked them open with a workshop hammer and brute force, served with
garlic butter.
We came back to Broome and relaxed on the last day before
the kids flew back to Sydney. We
had lunch at the Wharf Restaurant at the Port.
We watched as one road train after another arrived carrying live cattle
to be loaded onto the ship at the end of the wharf to be shipped to some Asian
country. All the trucks stopped
right next to our outdoor table and the cows looked out at us with their big sad
eyes. We all had seafood for lunch
and crossed our fingers and hoped they were going to be treated kindly on the
boat, and at their next destination.
Our last night was spent where it all started - on Cable
Beach watching the camels and the sunset.
Alan was presented with a birthday cake –not quite a cake,
but a slab of his favourite Darrell Lea Rocky Road, complete with “60”
sparklers. There were hugs and
kisses all round and we all agreed we’d had a great time together.
Lighting the sparklers for
Alan’s birthday party on Cable Beach
We loved seeing everyone enjoying their time with us -
playing in the waves, riding on the back of the car at the beach, and enjoying
what we love most about the Kimberley.
They understood the impact of the huge tidal movements – i.e. make sure
your car doesn’t get washed away when your back is turned down at the beach!
They loved the red dirt and the sunrises and sunsets.
Justin putting Alexis' hair in a
ponytail for her
Alexis and Tony riding on the
back of the car on the beach at Cape Leveque
On the day the kids went home, Alan and I
parked on the side of the road at the end of the runway and waved goodbye to
them as they flew over us.
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Fence surrounding the Broome Aboriginal Community.
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