Broome Part 3 - Shopping, 4WDing and Sunsets

I also loved the mix of shops at Broome. Having grown rapidly in the 1800s owing to the discovery of pearls. A big pearling industry was born, that attracted many people from countries as far away as China and Japan. Following its historical ties, Broome has its very own Chinatown, complete with Jimmy Chi Lane. There is a beautiful and eclectic mix of old and new, art galleries, cafes and the “usual suspects” of Coles, Target etc. We wanted to go to Sun Cinemas – the world's oldest picture garden still in operation – but there were no movies on that we could all go and watch as a family. A peer in through the open door looked so inviting though!

I enjoyed strolling around the Chinatown area and the pearl shops. At the Cygnet Bay pearl shop we got to see the world's largest fine quality round pearl. This shop is interesting as it provides quite a bit of information about pearls and pearl growing. We also visited the pearl luggers (pearling boats) which is run by Willie Creek Pearls. At the shop we got to hold the world's 5^th largest perfectly round pearl. Quite a long time ago it was valued at $100,000. Today it would be worth more and yet the lady in the shop let us hold it. We didn't let Rory touch it, given his ability to break and ruin just about everything! The lady in the shop was so helpful answering questions and pointing out things that would be interesting for the kids and us, including Tahitian Pearls (black), the outside shell colour determines the colour of the pearl, the polished pearl shells and so much more. She was so lovely to help us given pretty much everything in their shop was out of our price range, and that was probably obvious. We also visited one of the other jewellery shops to see the Argyle Diamonds.... oh my gosh!!! These little pink gems are soooo expensive! We saw a pair that was worth $46,000 and they were tiny, as in teensy, tiny. The pair of “so small as to be almost invisible” ones were worth $6700. I knew they were expensive and highly prized but had no idea just how much!

Sam Male Pearl Lugger (restored)

We made the decision not to go to Cape Leveque. Everyone raves about Cape Leveque – how beautiful it is with the red cliffs, white sand and turquoise-blue crystal clear water – and it is something I wanted to do, and have done since before we even left on our journey, but we thought about it and talked about it and I reconsidered. I would have loved to go and see what all the fuss is about, but it's a 2.5 – 3 hour journey one way, we couldn't take our van so we would have had to leave that in the caravan park ($20/night), accommodation in our own tent was $30-$40+ per night, the reviews indicated that the sites at the cheaper end of the spectrum were in full sun all day and given that it is crocodile territory, there is no guarantee there wouldn't be salties and with the saltie on Cable Beach thereby ruining all chances of me being willing to swim at Cape Leveque, we decided not to make that journey. I wonder if I will always regret that? Probably no point in regretting it – we made the best decision for us, based on what we knew, read and had heard and based on what we thought would work best for us. I think if we had lots of money to throw at some of the tours (pearl tours and Indigenous tours) then maybe it would be worth it, but one thing I've learned on this journey is that we have to pick and choose as we just can't do everything. So, as a consolation prize, we decided to go 4WD to Willie Creek, Quandong and James Price Point. This was a good option for us.

We got to 4WD along deep red dirt roads, some of them more of a U – shape than a road, and to see some beautiful coastline. You can free camp at Quandong Point and I can see why you would. There is no way we could tow our van there, and taking the car and tent wasn't an option as you need to be fully self-contained. But to spend a couple of days, on the cliff overlooking the Indian Ocean, in peace and quiet... it's not hard to see the appeal. There were quite a lot of vans and campers set up along the cliff. We climbed down onto the beach and explored some of the rocks, but didn't stay too long as it was very hot and we didn't want the kids (or us) getting burnt even though we had sunscreen on.

The beach near Quandong Point

Willie Creek is stunning. I was tempted to do a pearl tour but it was too expensive for us, and the main reason I wanted to do it was to explore the stunning river on a boat. Instead we had lunch on the banks and just enjoyed the view. The water was so clear and so inviting, but there is a resident saltie in it so we weren't tempted to try.

And of course, any trip to Broome wouldn't be complete without nightly (or almost nightly) sunset viewings from Cable Beach. Living on the east coast, our chances of seeing the sunset over the water are pretty limited so we made the most of this opportunity. One night we drove on to the beach so we could watch the camels come passed, which is the quintessential Broome postcard type of picture.