Travels in Oz: Day 49 Broome

I got up early this morning and went for a walk along Cable Beach. The tide was well out and I was surprised to see that two lots of people had slept on the beach in their sleeping bags. There was lots of rock pools and the colours were amazing. I was surprised how many people were out walking.

Just before sunrise at Cable Beach

A veiw over the rocks

The lovely waters of the Indian Ocean

Can you see the person in the sleeping back only just above the high tide mark?

Another person sleeping on the beach

Patterns made by the Sand Bubbler Crabs when the tide goes out

Zanders Restaurant above Cable Beach

Park next to Zanders

Later we went for a drive to Chinatown which was the original commercial and industrial centre of Broome and was once a bustling hub of pearl sheds, billiard saloons, entertainment houses and Chinese eateries. It is the main shopping area of Broome. Not all of the shops were open but we went to a few of the pearl shops. Peter had said that he was getting me something from Broome for my birthday ( I assumed a Broome pearl) but when I saw the prices I thought it might be a bit of Mother of Pearl unless we took out a second mortgage on the house! We booked a tour of the Willie Creek Pearl Farm for tomorrow while we were there. I think Peter was hoping they might give away free samples.

There are two separate main shopping areas. There is the Boulevard Shopping Centre which has Woolworths, Target and lots of other shops and then there is the Paspaley Shopping Centre which is in Chinatown and has Coles, Best and Less and a few other shops. There are also a couple of other smaller centres.

In Chinatown,opposite the Roebuck Hotel, we saw the life size statue of the Hard Hat Pearl Diver which pays tribute to the role the hard hat diver played in establishing Broome as the centre of the world's pearling industry in the early 1900s. There are also three life like statues of three men who were pioneers in the cultured pearling industry in Broome.

The Hard Hat Pearl Diver

The monument to the Pearl Divers

Monument to pioneers in the pearling industry

After lunch we went for a drive to the jetty at the port. Although you aren't allowed on the jetty itself, a walkway has been built attached to and alongside the jetty. Lots of locals fish from this jetty and we had a chat with them as we walked out to the end.

The jetty in Broome

Then we went to Gantheaume Point which has Broome's only lighthouse, a racecourse, dinosaur footprints, Anastasia's Pool, interpretation boards about the area's natural, traditional and European history and amazing rock formations. Anastasia's Pool was named after the former lighthouse keeper's wife. He made it for his arthritic wife so she could exercise her limbs in it when it filled during high tides. The location is stunning, surrounded by beautiful rock formations looking over the ocean. You can only see the dinosaur prints at a low tide of 2.16cm or less and there is a plaster copy of the tracks at the top of the cliffs.