June 4-9 Broome

We arrived at Broome and it didn't take us long to find Cable Beach. Not sure whether it was the best beach we had been to or whether we were just longing to see a beach after spending so long travelling in-land, but we thoroughly enjoyed the beach. To our surprise, there is a section of Cable Beach where dogs are allowed. And off leash as well. So we, and the dogs, had a great time at the beach together. Not too sure if the dogs liked the idea of getting wet, but they did enjoy running around with other dogs on the sand. The town of Broome is a trendy little holiday town with supermarkets, cafes, pubs and anything else that we might be looking for. So, with the beautiful beach and the nice town, it looked like this was a place we could stay for a while.

Cable Beach looking south

Cable Beach looking north

Cable Beach at the border of doggie beach

Relaxing under the shade of a beach umbrella (availabe for hire at $4/hr)

Very relaxed... but unfortunately not for long. Too many other people and other dogs

But then we needed to find a place to stay and that's when our visit to Broome turned sour. We asked at the Information Centre about dog-friendly caravan parks. "Sorry, there aren't any." What? "There's a caravan park 34km out of town behind a petrol station and right on the main highway where you could stay." How bitterly disappointing. We met a local lady on the beach who told us about the Pistol Club as an overflow park in peak season. We had also heard similarly about the Police Youth Club. However, neither were open yet - not until June 21 apparently. The more we found out about how the caravan parks work in Broome during the peak seaon, the more annoyed we got. So we wrote a letter to whoever we could think might be interested - the local newspaper, the chamber of commerce,  the Tourism Centre, the shire council, even the local member. Only the newspaper responded and they agreed to print our letter in the paper.

Our letter printed in the Broome Advertiser.
Hopefully someone will care enough to fix the problem.

We found our own place to stay about 20km out of town. It was a gravel pit with no facilities, but we were able to get a few hundred metres away from the roadside (noise). We had it to ourselves the first 2 nights, but had the company of some other free-campers on the following nights. Our routine was to go into Broome each day, first stop being the Information Centre as there were good clean toilets there and easy parking. From there we would walk into town for a coffee and raisin toast. Then we would set up our van in the car park of Cable Beach and enjoy the beach. When we needed more water we would go down to the port, where we had found a tap. And the Information Centre had an outside power point that we took advantage of in the evening. Not an ideal lifestyle, but it was an enjoyable way to spend a few days. We felt a bit like back-packers and a bit like criminals.

The view of the jetty at "Port"

Another view of the beach at Port



Town Beach - a protected beach suitable for families with young children



Cable Beach at sunset - people come from all around to watch the sunset. So many photos taken.

Judith at sunset

Sunrise at our roadside campsite

The seagulls of Broome