Broome and Bust

We arrived in Broom via tow truck.  The ute burnt out the front dif. due to a malfunction in the controller.  The main controller and wiring harness is not available and they have to be manufactured overseas which is an indictment on Mazda and Ford. In the meantime, the local dealer has not yet lodged our Warranty claim, so nothing else can be done until that is done.  We are still in our van near Cable Beach. Our booking is for two weeks, then we will probably have to move.  Population  of Broome is normally 10,000, but now, in the tourist season, it is 20,000.

 

 EXTRA!   EXTRA!   Today, Monday, we received permission from Ford's Warranty Manager to approve the work that needs to be done on our ute.  He rang the local company and gave them the precious Warranty approval number, so now we can move to step 2, to order the parts needed to do the job. The local company is not coping with the huge influx of jobs, with the tourists, and the staff seems to be taking it in turns to have nervous breakdowns!

 

 Broome is beautifully warm with blue skies every day, and few signs of clouds.  Sometimes the nights are chilly (15 degrees). We swim each day at the town pool. However, the beach is the most beautiful shade of turquoise as you will see from the photos.  Many people go to watch the sun disappearing over the western horizon, as it travels on its merry way to some other place.  The camels take riders at 3pm and at sunset. It is such a ritual here.  The 4 WD vehicles drive down on to the beach by the hundreds to watch the sunset and the camels. There is a nudist beach at the far end of the camel ride! Cable Beach is pure white sand and is in a big horse-shoe shape.   Lots of sand and lots of very high tides.  Staircase to the moon happens this week. They seem to be expecting thousands to turn our for that, even though it happens each month.

 

Broome is on a peninsula and there are two main beaches, Town Beach and Cable Beach. There is also a shipping terminal on the Town Beach side.  We saw many trucks arriving with hundreds, or more beasts to be shipped overseas as live exports.  The huge trucks, double story and with 2 or 3 trailers behind, drive right down the pier and can turn around there, as they unload the animals.  Lilies: Lying on the ground we see these beautiful lilies. The plants they grow on, look like Gymea Lily plants, but when the strong stem grows tall, it falls over and the flower heads may be quite a distance from the mother plant.  This means that you see these lively lilies lying in the most unexpected places on the ground and you think they must be plastic, until you realize where they have come from.  Birds: We have seen lots of beautiful birds. We don't know really what the birds are, you can inform us if you like.  I just felt the "Cuccoo Bird" looks like a face that only a mother could love, and he makes me laugh.

 

We have had the most fabulous support from everybody around us, firstly here at the van park but mainly at the church, where they offered us a vehicle to use, a place to park our van and a hoist with 3 mechanics to take care of our car.  However, without the spare parts, we can't do anything very much.

 

The history of the Pearling industry here is very important.  It has a checkered history, between the Chinese, the Japanese and the whites.  There are pearl shops everywhere. Now there are only 20 pearling luggers left. There used to be hundreds after the pearl shell, but now the oysters are seeded, the pearl itself has become the main object of beauty and  desirability. Broome also suffered Japanese bombing attack on 3/3/42 and 140 people were killed.

 

Camels on Cable Beach

Camels on Cable Beach

Cuccoo Bird

Green parrots at Derby

Lilies

Shipping terminal seen from Town Beach

Sunset at Cable Beach

Camels at sunset at Cable Beach

Sunset at Cable Beach

Town Beach