Loving Broome so much we are sticking around a bit longer....

As you can guess from the title, we are still in Broome. We got to the end of two weeks then added a couple more days, then a couple more, then decided today, ahh what the heck. We love it so much here and it's not like we are on a schedule, let's stay another week. So that's what we are doing. I want to mention too, that if you notice the blog looks different it's because I got a little creative. I like this much much better than the old one. So don't worry, same old blog, just a new header :)

Haven't really done much over the past week though. The first two weeks were full of sight-seeing, and exploring the area. I'm an old hand now at driving into town - it took me a few days to figure out how as there's a lot of roundabouts shooting off in different directions to get into the town centre but the signage is good and as long as you know where the ocean is, you can get around fine. 

We have hung around the caravan park a bit this week, just kicking back, enjoying the hottish days. Today is a doozy actually. I must be getting used to the heat a little as I've run into heaps of people who all say the same thing... "Warm enough for you?" and yet I wasn't really feeling the heat - as yet. lol. I did have a red, flushed face this morning but that was more from the fact I was doing some hand washing in the laundry using boiling hot water to clean the stains from the clothes, as well as keeping an eye out for the rest of the laundry in the washing machine, ready to pounce when it had finished. There's four machines in the park and they are going all day every day, under great demand. It's usually first in best dressed. 

Have I mentioned yet where we are staying? We are at the Tarangau Caravan Park. Its situated behind the Cable Beach Caravan Park but at about a third of the cost less for a week. When I found out the boys wanted to stay longer (excellent!) I asked that maybe we could go to Cable Beach instead to stay. Not that there's anything wrong with this park - in fact it's pretty great except there's no pool. And I reallllly wanted a pool to swim in when it gets hot (the beach's are a bit dodgy this time of year with all the jellyfish.) So we ambled over to the Cable Beach one to have a look. It's a pretty park, really shady, and the pool is unreal. Just like a tropical resort pool but boy, are the vans packed in like sardines. I think there were 500 powered caravan sites alone. We decided against it. It really isn't worth the extra 100 dollars a week to stay there and where we are is fairly nice anyway. Tarangau is a nice shady park on it's own and is nicely spaced out so you are not crammed in together against your neighbor. The toilet and showering area is probably the best we have seen. They are enormous. Only four loos and four showers in each amenity but the space inside is really huge - a large terracotta floor and stainless steel sinks give it a really modern edge. I would give the park a 7/10... it loses a point for the grumpy woman behind the office counter lol.

Chris and I took a few hours away from the boys and went to the Buddah's Sanctuary last Friday. I heard there was this gigantic crystal Buddah at the sanctuary and an ornamental garden as well. It sounded nice and it was... very zen. They do yoga there a few times a day and there was soft music being piped through. Nifty. Below are the pictures.

After we had gone through Buddah's Sanctuary, Chris took me to a pearl shop. What the? We had a good look around and I scored a pretty pair of gold and pearl earrings. I mean, what's a visit to Broome if you don't indulge in their biggest past-time and biggest sellers. I was stoked. In a good mood we whisked ourselves off the this place we had heard about called Matso's Broome Brewery. It was so nice. A big beer garden with live music and the clink of glasses and chatter on a warm afternoon. What more could you ask for? Chris tried one of their special mango beers and loved it. I had a glass of red. We ate a shared plate of Japanese food and then we noticed they were setting up these bain maries. It was Indian food night. A huge plate of three kinds of curry with saffron rice and a papadam were on offer for 30 dollars a plate. We were sold. We finished our drinks, went back to the caravan and hustled the boys into the car. The boys in the end decided to forgo the Indian food (Chris and I had it though, there was enough for two on the big plate) and instead they tried crocodile and kangaroo on a mixed plate. The crocodile and kangaroo were gamie it was declared lol. There's something new they've never tried - and well, that's what this trip is all about. New experiences.  

This is the opposite side of the port. The view is from a little cafe (the picture below) that I often sit at drinking coffee and reading my book while the men fish.

The guys heading onto the port jetty to fish

The tide here at the port jetty is insane. Right now it's in but those rocks that you see at the waters edge are usually exposed right back to that big rock at the very left corner of the pic. It can drop as much as 9 meters over a few hours when the tide goes out. When the tide is out, it feels like you could seriously get hurt if you were to jump off the jetty, the water is that far down. It's a bit freaky.

Riley all set for fishing - rugged up against the midday sun.

The pretty Buddah at the Buddah Sanctuary. Not sure I would call this crystal (I had imagined a sort of see through rock) but it was still lovely.

A lovely day bed at the sanctuary, complete with yoga mats. A nice little corner.

More of the sanctuary.

Matso's beer garden. Hope we get to go again. It was lovely.

 

Hope you are all keeping well. Will blog again when I have more to share. When we leave Broome we are heading inland to Fitzroy Crossing, Halls Head and through Katherine on our way to Darwin. Looking forward to the next step in our journey. 

Carolyn xx