Sunday, 20 July 2014

Broome Part 2

Well our time in Broome has come to an end with a great 11 days.

This week we watched a few more beautiful sunsets on Cable Beach and of course we loved watching the camel trains most days.

This week we have been to and seen

-  Town Beach, great to see all the different tides and of course 'The Staircase to the Moon'.
-  Staircase to the Moon, one of Broome's most natural sights, seen across Roebuck Bay.
-  The Famous Cable Beach, beautiful white sand and stunning blue water, and some days great waves.
-  Horizontal Falls Seaplane Adventure.
- The Roey, for another good dinner and to watch the footy.
-  The famous Camel Trains on Cable Beach.

Today's Trivia - Broome does not have any traffic lights


Town Beach
Tides in Broome can vary by up to nine metres.. One minute the roots of the mangroves and the rocks on the jetty can be seen. Minutes later, the water has risen and only the tops of the mangroves can be seen.
Town Cafe, Broome
Town Beach Cafe
Staircase to The Moon
Of course the big highlight for us was 'The Staircase to The Moon', which is a natural phenomenon caused by the rising of the full moon reflecting on the mud flats, at extremely low tide, creating an illusion of a staircase.

The Staircase to The Moon Phenomena
We had planned this whole trip to Broome around this phenomenon which only happens twice per month, only from March to October, and we were NOT disappointed, it was amazing.  It was very difficult to photograph with the equipment we had, but here are a couple of shots Jeff managed to capture.

The Staircase to The Moon Phenomena
There were markets set up to cater for all the people who come to witness this event, they were pretty good with entertainment and lots of food stalls. 
The Staircase Markets at Town Beach
We got there early with our chairs and it was good that we did, we bought some dinner and just enjoyed sitting there watching the glow from the setting sun behind us and then of course the moon rising. The only downside was that it was freezing cold and we had hours to wait.
Us all rugged up waiting for the moon to rise and highlight 'The Staircase'
There were hundreds of people lined up across the beach, we actually moved out onto the breakwater, we thought that must be the best view as most people were out there.

As the moon started to rise it was a bright orange-red color and it lit up the staircase.  It happened very quickly and it was very beautiful.


The Staircase - it was just starting to break up
Cable Beach
Cable Beach is named after the telegraph cable laid between Broome and Java, Indonesia in 1889,  and is situated 6kms from the town centre.
 



Cable Beach is named as one of the top five beaches in the world.  It stretches for 22kms, the sand is pristine and the Indian Ocean is a glorious clear turquoise color.


We had some great fun on the beach and in the surf, and enjoyed several fantastic sunsets.






The Horizontal Falls
There are only two waterfalls in the world that run horizontally and both of them are at Talbot Bay a short flight North East of Broome.


The Horizontal Falls, or The Horries as the locals call them, is the name given to this natural phenomenon, described by David Attenborough as 'one of the greatest natural wonders in the world"

Despite their name, the Horizontal Falls are a fast moving tidal flow through two narrow, closely aligned gorges of the McLarty Ranges. The direction of the flow reverses with each change of the tide. As tides here can reach 10 metres, a peak tide gives rise to significant difference in the sea level on either side of the gorge.

The northern most seaward gorge is approx. 20 metres wide, and the southern, more inland gorge is approx. 12 metres wide.  But today there was an exceptionally high tide and the openings were much narrower.  In fact the southern gorge was less than 7 metres wide today and deemed way to dangerous to enter.




We experienced the trip of a lifetime when we took our trip to the Horizontal Falls.  We were picked up at the caravan park with a few other couples and taken to the Broome airport where we boarded the 14 seat turbo prop jet seaplane for a direct flight to the Horizontal Waterfalls.



The weather was a bit  threatening and we experienced a fairly rough take off, being buffeted with some nasty crosswinds.  But our pilot was great and we were in the air in no time.



This fantastic low level scenic flight took us across Broome township, Cable Beach, Willie Creek Pearl Farm, Beagle Bay, Lombadina, Cape Levique and the thousand island Buccaneer Archipelago before we got to experience a spectacular landing on the pristine waters of Talbot Bay.
 




Before landing the pilot flew very low so we were able to get a birds eye view of the falls and some amazing photos.





We were then transferred to the pontoon and onto a new custom built twin engine 600hp boat, Full Throttle, for a thrilling ride through the falls. 



We experienced several exhilarating runs through the gorge in this very powerful boat as it powered through at very high speed with lots of 180 degree turns creating lots of foaming splashing water. The effect of the water movement is amazing, creating whirlpools and washing machine effects, with the water moving through these gorges at approx. 1,000,000 litres per second.




After these amazing thrilling rides we returned to the pontoon for a delicious lunch consisting of barramundi steaks and a variety of salads.

After lunch we returned to the boat for a more gentle sightseeing cruise up 'Cyclone Creek', so named because in the event of a cyclone any boat or pearl lugger in the area would enter these waters to wait out the cyclone. This area is very beautiful with many high cliffs, red bluffs and escarpments which stretched for miles, it was very sheltered and you could imagine the pearl luggers hiding out here.




We then boarded our plane again for the return trip to Broome with the sun was setting out our window - magic.



We had the most fantastic day, a day we will remember for a very long time.




The Famous Camel Trains
The Camel Trains have been taking people on camel rides along Cable Beach for around 20 years.


There are three camel trains on the beach and we chose to ride the Red Sun Camels.



We decided on the red for the saddle cloth color which we thought makes for the best photo shoot and we certainly weren't going to do the ride without plenty of photos, and because someone told us the red camels are the best behaved.





The ride was great fun especially the mounting and dismounting which looks scary - you just have to listen to the instructions, lean back and hold tight - easy!



Try to take absolutely NO notice of the camels loud grumbling, voicing their opinions, turning their bottom lip inside out and baring their teeth.........let's just say it all adds to the experience.



Wangai - our camel

I believe they are mostly quite sweet, certainly our camel was, not too sure about Jude's camel though, she was riding directly behind us and her camel kept slurping on Jeff's shirt

Tonku - Judes camel
Our camelier girl was snuggling up to them and she displayed a genuine affection for them.

Jeff and I were on the one camel, and Jude had one to herself, Laurie didn't ride, he was being our photographer.




There were 18 camels in our train and we travelled up and down the beautiful white sands of Cable Beach for over half an hour


The iconic camel ride along Cable beach is a must to do when in Broome, we are so glad we did it.
Tomorrow we leave Broome to head south down the coast to another beautiful beach, hopefully the boys might be able to catch some fish.








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