Monday, October 17, 2022

Broome

 Our journey has now taken us back to Broome, the birthplace of the kids!  They were both very excited to visit the town that they were born in, and Glen was excited to show them where he grew up!  We saw many sights around Broome which included a trip to the movies at Australia’s oldest outdoor movie theatre!  The movie was good, but the kids especially enjoyed the novelty of seeing the plane fly just over the top of the screen as it came in to land.  We were also lucky enough to be in Broome to see the ‘Staircase to the Moon’, this is a natural phenomenon where the moon rises over the mud flats and the reflection of the moon creates the illusion of a staircase leading up to the moon.  A trip to Broome is also not complete unless you go for a camel ride on Cable Beach.  We enjoyed a sunset tour with Haydan and Emmalisa on Jebbee and Glen and Laura on Mufasa.  Mufasa was a rather ‘friendly’ camel and kept getting up close to Haydan and invading his personal space, much to his frustration!  Haydan was just glad that they had put a muzzle on him so that he couldn’t get bitten!  Whilst in Broome we made the most of the clear skies and went on the Astro Tour and learnt all about the stars, constellations and ‘flat earth language’.  We learnt that we should not be saying that we are watching the sunset because we are in fact ‘watching the earth turn away from the place in the sky that the sun is in’…. but we still think sunset sounds better!  We wanted the kids to learn about the rich history of Broome so we went to the Broome Museum and spent the morning looking at all the artefacts and learning the history of the pearl industry, the bombing of Broome, the pioneers of the town as well as it’s multiculturalism.  While we were in Broome, it was also the last round of the Broome Speedway, so we took the kids to see some racing action!  There was also a Demo Derby at the end which was fun to watch but didn’t quite live up to the hype.  To round out our tours we went on the Willie Creek Pearl Farm Tour and learnt all about how pearls are farmed.  We all found this tour so interesting, and we were lucky enough to be there during the harvest and were able to witness several rather large pearls get harvested.  Emmalisa in particular fell in love with pearls and the magic of finding them in their pearl shell.  We also enjoyed a trip up the coast of the peninsula and camped right on the beach for a few night at Quongdong.  We enjoyed exploring the rockpools at low tide and were amazed to find a Bluebone fish swimming around in one of them!  The rest of our time we spent catching up with friends and family and enjoying some time to just relax and stay in one place for a while.  The kids and Glen were lucky enough to go out on Uncle Bruce’s fishing boat and came back with many stories of ‘lost fish’.  The kids enjoyed going to Yoga with Aunty Carlee and tried their luck with Uncle Zak’s metal detector on Cable Beach.  We particularly enjoyed days on the beach with the bogie boards, making sandcastles and just going for a walk along Cable Beach.  Another favourite thing for us to do was to drive down on the beach and cook dinner on the tailgate of the car while we watched the earth turn away from the place in the sky….. oh it’s easier to just say sunset.  Another activity we enjoyed doing on the weekend was go to the Courthouse Markets.  Emmalisa was in awe of an artist there and each week would check in on his progress on the painting he was completing.  She even bought her own print from this artist and it has inspired her art even more.  We also enjoyed walking through Chinatown and looking at the art galleries and unique shops.  The kids were also very amused to see the planes land basically in the middle of town.  It was a very relaxing and enjoyable time in Broome and we were all a little sad to leave.


Staircase to the Moon

Getting ready to ride the camels

On the camel ride on Cable Beach

Kids riding Jebbee

Mufasa getting up close and personal to Haydan!

Camel ride on Cable Beach at sunset

The loot from the morning with the metal detector!

At the Astro Tour

View from our camp at Quongdong

Enjoying a day out in the boat!

Kids learning to tie knots at the Museum's Sailmakers exhibition

Watching the racing action at Broom Speedway

The pearl we saw harvested while on the Pearl Farm Tour

Learning about pearls on the Tour

Emmalisa loved the pearls at the Willie Creek Pearl Farm

Enjoying a Broome Sunset

Entrance Point

We enjoyed playing, building sandcastles and walking along Cable Beach


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