Sunday, 31 May 2026
This morning we headed to the Broome Courthouse Market. The market is held on Saturdays and Sundays in the heritage-listed gardens of the Broome Courthouse on Hamersley Street. Even arriving two hours after the market kicked off, we managed to secure a parking space not far from the action. The market consists predominantly of clothing and jewellery stalls with a few food trucks thrown in for those wanting breakfast or an early lunch. As per usual, I found myself tempted by some earrings. These ones incorporate a pearl as the full moon, in a setting inspired by the staircase to the moon phenomenon that Broome is well known for. Haven’t seen it yet, but hope the weather will behave on Tuesday night when it is supposed to be at its best.
From the market we wandered over to the Chinatown area of Broome on Carnarvon Street. We ambled along, browsing in a few of the surf shops along the way. The bottoms of my bikini are getting saggy (from so much use on this holiday!) so I was of a mind to buy some surf shorts that would co-ordinate with my bikini top. Bernie was also keen to buy another pair of board shorts that looked a bit more like shorts than his current boardies. Bernie found a pair of sober, grey board shorts in Ripcurl and I found a cute pair of board shorts in Azure Beach & Resort Wear. I think that technically they are men’s shorts, but they are pale blue with pink flamingos that will go perfectly with my pink bikini top so purchased them regardless. Better still they were discounted by $30.00.
We found lots of information boards as we wandered around, so learnt many things about Broome’s history from the Salt-Water people, the original inhabitants of the land, through William Dampier’s passage in 1688 and the pearling industry. Expanding on what we have learnt about connecting Australia to the world via telegraph through the centre of Australia, when Western Australia was eventually connected, it was via a cable that came ashore at Cable Beach!
After walking both sides of Carnarvon Street and a detour along Short Street to Streeter’s Jetty, we walked back to the Courthouse to collect the truck. After a latish breakfast, we still weren’t really hungry for lunch but, with everything closing at 1.00pm we had to eat now or risk going without lunch … or resorting to food from the pantry box. We found something delicious at the Short St Café. Another vegetarian focaccia for me and a Mediterranean bagel for Bernie. Bernie was a bit distraught that they had no Coke No Sugar. I was delighted that they had some kombucha options and I was shocked when Bernie decided to sample a ginger beer kombucha.
Before leaving town we visited the Roebuck Bay Lookout for an excellent view over the mangrove trees and turquoise waters that surround the town. On our way back to the Discovery Park we stopped in at the Boulevard Shopping Centre to fill a prescription for Bernie. Back at the park we decided to christen our new swimwear in the pool. With no shade over the pool we didn’t stay in long, not wanting to risk sunburn. We’ve been pretty sun smart so far so didn’t want to blow it now.
This afternoon we really indulged ourselves at ice-cream o’clock, making our way down to the Kuld Creamery ice-cream caravan at Town Beach, just a short walk from our cabin. Bernie had a tried and trusted scoop of vanilla in a home-made waffle cone, while I decided to have my vanilla ice-cream in coffee as an affogato. Yum!
Heading towards 4.00pm it was time to start thinking about sunset. Broome is located on a funny nub surrounded by the waters of Roebuck Bay to the east and the Indian Ocean to the west. Last night we watched the moon rise over the bay, this afternoon we wanted to watch the sunset from Cable Beach. We drove first to Gantheaume Point, which is famous for its dinosaur footprints. These can only be seen at low tide and tonight low tide was going to be after dark. We still had an interesting wander around the rocky point, before jumping back in the truck to make the short drive to Cable Beach.
Bernie was keen to photograph the sunset camel safari, to try to capture the camels silhouetted against the setting sun. We didn’t really think about riding the camels as we have done camel rides in Egypt and Jordan and, these days, it has almost become politically incorrect to ride animals solely as a ‘tourist experience’. This was top of mind, since I had an article about the cessation of donkey rides on Welsh beaches come up on my Facebook feed recently. Anyhow, you can’t photograph the camels in silhouette, if you are on one.
With our sunset photos taken, on another glorious evening in the Kimberley, we made our way back to our cabin to cook ourselves some dinner. Bernie cooked our meat on the BBQ while I peeled the tops off the prepared salads that we purchased at Woolies yesterday. So easy!
We need to have an early night tonight as we have a very, VERY early start in the morning for our Horizontal Falls Seaplane Adventure. We are being picked up at 5.05AM from the front of the park. It is going to be EPIC!
Steps: 14,462 (8.88kms)
