19 April 2013 - Palm Grove Tourist Village, Cable Beach, Broome, Western Australia

Broome is one of those places that improves with time and could indeed get under your skin. This is true for many that we have met over the last couple of days, having come from all parts of the country or even the world, and are still here well past their intended time of departure. It is a melting pot of misfits and a collection of flotsam and jetsam although not quite to the same extent that Darwin is.

Darwin has far more rain that Broome yet seems to share the same level of humidity. But then the weather patterns this year are a little skewed so perhaps this current heat is a little out of kilter for the norm.

By the time I had hung the washing at about 9 am, my moisturising sunblock had left my face and my clean clothes were ready to be washed. Perhaps this would not be an issue if I wandered about the camp in an insy-pinsy bikini as the young female backpackers do. Thankfully I have a fine sense of decorum.

We chatted a while with our immediate neighbours who have timed their travel plans rather badly and are now twiddling their thumbs while they await the arrival of a family member. According to them, there is only so much one can do and see in Broome although with great sums of unallocated tour dollars, there would be more. The people next door are each consuming a book  a day; perhaps we will do the same in our last days here too.

Our first port of call today was the Old Catholic Convent, where the Sisters of St John of God set up the Relationships Exhibition in 2007, in response to requests from locals for a place where people could access photographs. It was originally meant as a temporary exhibition but demand has encouraged it to become permanent, now open six days a week. While the many rooms are filled with interpretative scrolls, photographs and memorabilia, the exhibition is a work in progress as aborigines who were caught up and ‘lost” during the time the Sisters undertook  one hundred years of "selfless service" to the remote communities in the Kimberley, are reconciled with family, an ongoing work.

While one could argue the case against missionary brainwashing, they were tireless nurses, educators and carers to so many whose lives were made better for the experience. There are videos, interviews with “veterans” of those times, some bitter as they view their lives retrospectively and some who are smart enough to understand the advantage this life offered them.

It was these Sisters who ran the leprosy hospital at Derby which we had read about in the museum there, and it was there in the Derby museum that my appetite had been whetted for  more information about the Sisters of St John of God.

Again the whole issue is one of controversy, of sensitivity, of no real answers. But these nuns, the first who arrived in 1907 and were coerced by their male counterparts who were more interested in savings souls,  into work in the bush with the women and children. They were indeed brave souls who gave so much, with even more love in their hearts. The exhibition is a worthy memorial to all of them.

Watching the live export of cattle

It had been our intention to visit the other museum here in Broome however after time at the Old Convent, we thought it better to save it for another day. Instead we headed off down to the Port situated on the eastern corner of the fifteen kilometre long peninsula. 

The Broome Port is an active working area and today there was a live cattle export ship in and loading. While we were there, at least half a dozen road trains came and went with their loads. Mentally I wished the cattle, their heads visible through the rails of the transport crates, a comfortable trip and a humane death when they reached their destination  While I did not support the sudden ban on live trade that occurred a couple of years ago, because both the commercial and husbandry implications were not thought through properly, I would support a scaling down of such export and finally a phasing out. Surely abbatoirs around the country and the export of carcasses is better for all? After all, we are now in an age of refrigeration and have been for about 120 years!

View along the Broome wharf

A couple of other vessels were berthed and receiving attention but all of this was well barricaded off from the ambulant tourist. For us there is an excellent walkway along the length of the wharf, the new wharf replacing the old back in 1966.

We thoroughly enjoyed our jaunt along the wharf, meeting a collection of fishing folk, young, friendly and all with stories to entertain and educate us. Beneath us in the clear blue water we saw queen fish, sea snakes , one of whom was in the process of manoevering a fish into its mouth, turtles, and several other species of other fish. Signs warned against swimming from the wharf because of stingers, sharks, sea snakes and the occasional estuarine crocodile. These are seas to be admired rather than swum in.

Rocks of Point Gantheaume

Finally we came away and headed across the dirt road that traverses the base of the peninsula to Point Gantheaume about five kilometres north east.  The Point is a geological artworks, amazing rock formations in deep orange, and is also home to the original Dinosaur footprints. Alas these are only visible on very low tides and today when we called, the tide was high and the sea crashing upon the rocks at our feet. The footprints are over 120 million years old, or so they say. Perhaps we will return one day at low tide.

From the point, we were able to look north east and see the white sandy stretch that is Cable Beach. We drove down an access point from where we could see half a dozen vehicles parked near the high tide mark, the owners fishing and oblivious to the fact that sea salt was making inroads into the vehicle structures. We turned as soon as we could, becoming stuck in the deep sand for a short while until we locked the wheels into four wheel drive and came on back up to the road.

The very bland and boring Cable Beach

After calling into the supermarket for yet more stores we drove up to the surf club on Cable Beach and wandered up to a vantage point above the patrolled section of the beach. There is no shelter or shade along this beach, just endless white sand, burning sunshine and today, a gentle surf. It is not our kind of beach however if you like that kind of beach, this is certainly for you. And as we walked back to the car following a young shapely woman, a good place to admire bronzed bikini clad babes.

For us, the camp swimming pool was a more appealing option and we were soon immersed in the cool refreshing waters under great sections of shade cloth. There were almost a dozen children in the pool this afternoon and we were reminded that next week will even be worse; school broke up for a fortnight today.