Willie Creek

We left at 8:45 and drove a few kilometres North on the Cape Levique road, then turned West and followed the dirt road all the way to Willie Creek, a Pearl Farm tourist display.

However, we have been on the Pearl tour before and decided to do a little bit of fishing instead. Willie Creek is a very scenic inlet with turquoise waters in zany beaches. Although crocs live in the Willie Creek we were informed that they haven't seen the resident croc for about 8 weeks and the word was the croc caught at Cable Beach in Broome a little while ago was the one from Willie Creek. We are still careful and stand a few meters back from the waters edge, just in case!

The fishing didn't net anything worthy of a report but we did find a couple Pearl shells which Andrea had to retrieve from the water whilst we kept a lookout for crocs. One of the shells is still closed and Ilse is hopeful that it contains a big pearl. We'll find out as soon as we can work out how to open the shell.

On the way back we stopped at the James Price Point protest site (see picture) and got a briefing by the protesters about the dirty tactics employed by government and Woodside Petroleum to turn this region into a mine site. The issue is not getting a lot of media attention in the Eastern states, but it's certainly big over here.

Back in Broome we had lunch and then Alan and I went shopping for a roof rack for Alan's car and were once again impressed by the friendly locals which are very helpful - quite different to many of the other places we've visited. By the time we finished our shopping trip it was nearly dark and another day in this great place has come to an end.

Broome's Economy

Since we've been here in Broome we have followed the news on local radio and been fascinated by the stories. Since our last visit two years ago a lot of tourist operators have gone bankrupt yet all caravan parks packed full. For example, in 2009 there were three operators flying to the horizontal falls, now there is only one, the other two have gone.

These businesses are not exactly small, the one we went with last time had assets worth over $10 Million, now they're gone. Somehow this didn't make sense until this morning when I heard an interview with a Broome business woman who said that customers are just not spending money.

There are two distinct tourist typer here, the long term caravaners and the short term holiday makers which fly-in for their one or two week holiday and spend accordingly.

The caravaners are on a budget which needs to last between three and twelve months. In addition, most of the grey nomads are self funded retirees which have to cope with the increased prices of goods and services and the lower income from thier investments.

The fly-in holiday makers are not coming as the high Australian dollar encourages them to go overseas instead.

The result speaks for itself, the typical tourist shops fall by the wayside and the more basic tourist services survive. People are certainly not parting with their had earned cash.

Not much else to report, we have had a fairly lazy day today with a little bit of shopping and time at the pool during the hot part of the day. Our Broome days always end with a a dessert of locally grown Mango.

A girls day out

After a light brekky this morning we took the girls into town for a day without kids and men. Alan and I made good use of the time and did some shopping in the tackle shop and in the supermarket.

One of the products we've discovered in the tackle shop is frozen Mango, which is normally only available at the markets on Sat & Sun. The frozen Mangos make a great snack or can be thawed out to be used for all sorts of things. Yesterday we made our own Mango dessert sauce and poured it over ice cream. At this stage we are going through 1kg of Mango every day.

The caravan park had two resident chooks which grazed amongst the caravans and sometimes even entered caravans and cars if there was food to be had. Unfortunately, the other day, after a bit of commotion under a caravan a few doors up one of the chickens was found dead, apparently killed by a snake. Although we haven't found out what type of snake, we have it on good authority the the tree areas next to the caravans are home to a number of snakes.

By the time the girls had finished their shopping and I picked them up it was nearly 3pm. I spent a bit of time at the pool and we've had a very relaxing afternoon before settling down to a Mango Chicken Salad for dinner.

Sun Princess

Alan and I got up early to get pictures of the jetty at low tide around 7am. Alan's car wouldn't start so took mine for a drive to the port. The tide was so low that there was no water for the first half of the jetty, a distance of 400mt (see 1st picture). We took photos and talked to the fishermen on the jetty who had their lines busted off by rather large fish.

Back at the caravan Alan rang for roadside assistance which arrived soon thereafter but the car had to go back into the workshop by tow truck. The workshop is very busy but will hopefully fix the car tomorrow.

Later in the morning we left to go back to the port and watch the arrival of Sun Princess, a large cruise liner with over 2000 passengers. There were lots of people and media out to watch the spectacle which happened just on high tide around midday.

I took a few more photos of the jetty at high tide (see 2nd picture) to get a comparison with the low tide. On the way back we had a couple of quick shopping stops including the purchase of local frozen Mango (not in season). The frozen Mango makes a fantastic desert and is very good for smoothies.

Back at the caravan we spent the afternoon relaxing but didn't have enough time to go to the swimming pool. In the evening our German friends, (Uwe and Beate) called in to say hello and catch up on some more travel information. By the end of the night the 1kg pack of frozen Mango's was gone and we've also finished our tub of ice cream - looks like we need a shopping trip tomorrow.

Broome Crocodile Park

We've really settled in here at Broome. The lifestyle is great, the water is nice and the air is warm. The locals are very friendly and there is lots to do. This is our 3rd night in Broome and I haven't even had a chance to put up the TV aerial on caravan!

By the time we got organised this morning it was after 10am and we headed out to 12 Mile (a locality east of Broome) for a visit to "The Mango Place". This place is real touristy thing with all manner of Mango food to taste but the main attraction for me was the sourdough bread baked in their wood fired pizza oven.

On the way back we stopped at the Malcolm Douglas Wildlife park but not for visit, just to pick up a couple of shirts for Alexander. Back at the caravan we a bite to eat and then drove out towards cable beach where the Malcolm Douglas Crocodile Park is and where Malcolm Douglas used to live.

This place is up for sale as the whole operation is moving out to the Wildlife park but it is the original park, established in 1983 by Malcolm Douglas, to educate the public about crocodiles. At 3pm we joined the feeding tour and then admired the cute little crocs at the end which were handed from person to person to take photos.

We also saw the famous croc named Fatzo which came to the public's attention when a drunk climbed the fence during the night and tried to ride on this croc. As the croc wasn't hungry the intruder survived, albeit with server lacerations, and, after the attack, went back to the pub for some more drinking but was picked up by the ambulance instead.

From the crocodile park we split up, Judy and Ilse went shopping to Woolies whilst Alan and I got a few other things organised including the purchase of some Mango beer. Back at the ranch we tasted the Mango beer but it was just as bad for me as any other beer so Ilse will have to drink the remaining bottles.

No Gas Hub in the Kimberley

We started cooking the traditional Sunday breakfast before 8am but by the time we were finished and got going to the market it was 10am. A quick market stop got me another fruit thingy and Ilse purchased a couple of things for friends and relatives.

From the market we went to the jetty for a bit of fishing. We fished over the high tide but as we have experienced before, the flow under the jetty remains strong even on top of the tide where one would normally expect slack water. Very strange how the water flows in a circle at Roebuck bay.

We finished fishing around lunch time (no fish) and made our way into town to buy bread. We bumped into Jan and Nancy, a couple from Canberra, which we first met at Fraser Range station in May and few times since.

By the time we got back to the caravan and had a bite to eat we had to leave for Cable beach. Whilst I'm not a great fan of Cable beach, today was a beach concert in support of the Broome communities effort to keep Woodside Petroleum out of James Price Point. As this is a fairly controversial topic which has caused large police contingents to come to the area, the concert was not advertised as an anti gas hub event but ran under the banner "We love Broome - Families, Culture, Country".

The band (The Pigram Brothers) played on the aft deck of a very large sailing catamaran, called "Karma IV", anchored just beyond the low tide line, with the stern facing the beach where thousands of people had congregated. I have never seen anything like this concert. People were dancing in water, swimming between the catamaran and the shore and on smaller boats surrounding the catamaran. The atmosphere was great and the crowd was made up of all cultural sections from the community.

As the tide went out the crowd got closer to the catamaran and by the end of the concert the cat was fairly close in shore. At the end of the concert we signed a petition to protect not only the Kimberley but the unique life style of Broome residents which would be destroyed if oil and mining business was to move in.

Back from the concert for a brief rest and then off to see the famous "Staircase to the Moon" at town beach where they also hold a Staircase market. Tonights dinner came from the market and to my great delight I could also buy a fruit thingy for desert. The staircase was a non-event due to cloud cover on the Eastern horizon so we were back at the caravan by 8:30pm, very tired and ready for good night's rest.

Jandamarra

We knew it was going to be busy at the famous Broome markets today so we had a minimal breakfast and arrive at the market before 9am. My first procurement was a Fruit Thingy (finely minced frozen fruit) with Mango and Coconut, a bit like ice cream but much better and healthier.

We also tried some of the asian foods, listened to the many buskers and watched the wildlife demonstrations.

At 10:30 I took Alexander to Gantheaum point where we met with Cameron, the owner of Sentosa Charters) who has been Alexander's idol ever since he took us on a fishing charter in 2009. Cameron was kind enough to have Alexander work as a trainee deck hand on today's whale watching charter. At 11AM Cameron and his regular deck hand arrived and took Alexander out to the boat (Kai-Aura, a 50 foot twin hull) to start work and prepare the boat for the passenger which arrived at 1pm.

I went back to the market to pick up the others and then back to the caravan where we spent the afternoon chatting to the neighbour who is a retired agricultural researcher. After a late lunch we made our way back to Gantheaum point around 5pm to pick up Alexander but we had to wait until after 6pm and watched another sunset.

Alexander was very exited and had an excellent work day (first ever). The only bits of "real" work was vacuuming and polishing, the rest was just having fun on a boat - what a job!

We went straight to St.Marys school to watch an Aboriginal theatrical production called "Jandamarra". The production is touring the Kimberley and tells the story of an worrier from the Bunaba, his friendship with the white settlers and the way he was torn between the two worlds. The production was fantastic and one of the best I have seen in a long time.

Here is a link to the Jandamarra website.

Back at the caravan by 10pm we had a late dessert of ice cream with mango sauce followed by coconut milk which we drained from a coconut found in Broome earlier in the day.