The week in Broome - Exploring Broome and surrounds
It was really good to catch up with the boys, but this time to have my own transport at hand. This gave me the liberty to explore at will. We had been plotting for a while now to do some fishing on Cable Beach in the afternoon and then withdraw to the dunes at a certain spot on Cable Beach and camp for the night.
We had prepared by getting into the bush earlier that day and cutting up some dead timber for the fire. The fishing was pretty uneventful and we had a long swim in between. Just before we stopped fishing I hooked a large stingray and landed it on the beach. It was really beautiful with electric blue dots on light beige wings. I pulled out the hook and returned the fish to the water, all the time carefully avoiding the tail that was whipping from side to side.
We drove along the beach for another kilometer and unloaded the wood. By then the others started arriving and we set up tables and chairs and got a decent fire going. The evening was spent catching up on the last year and a bit of gossip (J) It got to be pretty late by the time we got to bed. I rolled out my sleeping bag on a tarp and slept in the open air on the beach; very invigorating. The next morning we had a swim and packed up.
Fire Devil
Boat Cruise
One of the days in Broome we were booked on a day trip on the big Catamaran Karma IV. The boat is a 70ft x 33 ft Catamaran. See http://www.karma4.com.au/index.html .The agenda was to cruise across Roebuck bay to the Eco Beach Wilderness Resort, have lunch and then spend the rest of the day whale watching some 50 km out at sea.
We launched reasonably early at the boat launch place at Gantheaume beach. It is very pretty there with so many boats moored off the beach, just beyond the low water mark. Our boat the Karma IV looked resplendent as she waited for us. A shuttle boat got us boarded and we were off heading south towards the Eco village. That time of the year the seas in that area are calm and we had an enjoyable cruise. Refreshments were available all the time as we rocked gently across the waves in this big catamaran.
Gantheaume boat launch
Yours Truely
We arrived at the Eco village after two hours sailing. The eco village is across Roebuck bay some 40 kilometers away. When we arrived a tour of the village and their accommodation had been organized. I was very impressed with the level of luxury and the degree of self-sufficiency that had been designed into the place. A really great lunch had been organized at the village dining room that was situated on a hill behind the horizon pool that overlooked Roebuck bay. The buffet lunch had a huge variety of produce including heaps of King Prawns.
Once we had eaten all boarded the Karma once more and set off to the whale area. Tricky things these whales. Every whale we sighted, as we got closer, we could not see the whole whale at any one time. There was no breaching, no exposure of the whole whale on the water. It was almost as if they were playing silly buggers with us. Yet, I have a few pics below of half whales and ‘bits’ of whales. We got back to the launch place just after sunset.
Crabbing Trip
Jacko had purchased a boat and was keen to show off the new toy. Three of us took off in the morning from Broome beach and headed south towards Dampier creek. We reached the creek at low tide and set up 3 traps. We then trolled our lures in the estuary. My mate Jack caught a decent size shark and Neil and I caught a few smaller fish. The result was ok, but nothing to get excited about. At high tide we collected our crab nets but had only two small crabs for all our effort. Even though the result was not great we had a great outing in the sunshine.