25/7/21 Broome 5

     Back again , and still in Broome , time has been spent catching up with travelling friends , swimming , cycling and playing some golf - more than I've played for quite a while . Finding somewhere to stay has been crazy , I think half of Australia is here in Broome .

   During a walk around Town Beach we had a look at the Pioneer Cemetery and some of the old graves - like most cemeteries - has a great view over the bay .

    Time for Stairway to the Moon again , so we decided to go out to Entrance Point . Being low tide , you can drive down the boat ramp and park on the hard sand . Arriving before sunset was an added bonus , we actually pulled up just after a wedding had taken place , the bride & groom were over on the rocks behind getting some photos done . 

A stretched Trike - complete with dickie seat arrived full of passengers . 

    We got to do sunset as well .

    We had about 20 mins from sunset to moon up , so went back and cracked a beer and some snacks , and sat back & enjoyed the show . The moon appeared on the horizon and looked huge .

   While we didn't have mudflats to create the stairway , they still appeared in the water .

   We were very close to the Port , all lit up .

    After a few more days of relaxing , we headed out to Crab Creek again , this time at high tide . Stopping at one of the pull off spots , gave us an idea of what was to come as the tide went out . The colours are on show again . The edge of the water was red from the pindan , the bay was a beautiful aqua blue , green mangroves and a bright blue sky.

     Of course the drone came out for a look from above - and didn't disappoint - it was stunning !!

     And only got better !

     The high tide created a thin red strip separating the beach from the water . This is looking toward Crab Creek .

     We moved up further and went for a walk along the beach , some White Herons were enjoying it as well .

     After the walk , we sat and had some lunch , the drone came out again and showed the changes as the tide had moved out , the red strip was now several metres wide .

     We went back towards the boat ramp , stopping beside a long stretch of pindan cliff - the photos explain themselves .

     To finish the day , the drone took a panoramic photo - stitching together about 18 separate photos , to result in this photo .

     We had a look at the markets in town , seeing a sign advertising cheaper cruises - courtesy of the covid lockdown over in the east there had been cancellations - so we enquired - Bugger the 2 for one offer had been sold , we missed out , but they did have another interested couple to email . I do think they probably put the sign up to get people interested , and never really had any 2 for 1 deals at all .

   Broome is booming with travellers at the moment , some apartments are missing out a bit due to cancellations , but there are quite a few shops opening back up after being closed for the last 12 - 16 months . 

   That's it for the moment , stay tuned .

 

14/7/21 Broome 4

     After a few more days on my own , my beautiful wife returned to my side , having assisted our daughter with her broken shoulder for the past 3 weeks - It's very nice to have her back too !!!

   Some wonderful person decided to set alight the scrub about 100m from where we are staying , fortunately the fire brigade and police were onto it very quickly . The local birds - Whistling Kites - were having a ball , there were about 30 of them dive bombing whatever was being flushed out by the fire - they are smart birds and have been known to pick up a burning twig and drop it in other unburnt sections to flush out more food !! This was the view over the fence beside us .

     We headed out to Coconut Well again for a look , this time we drove down to behind the beach , parking on very different ground . This time we were parked on limestone rock , and looking over to the beach we found a reef slowly being exposed by the receding tide .

     Now here's the total contrast from my other posts & photo's - we had a grey/off white coloured rocky cliff edge - no red or orange out here !! 

    As we walked down the beach , we spotted a white bellied sea eagle on top of the low cliff - it wasn't particularly worried by us , I think it was more interested in the fish it was eating - you can see it's tail just below the eagle - it's a reasonable sized fish ( about 250-300mm ), and a very healthy eagle .

     We walked down the beach , then returned to the reef area - the water had dropped about 1m and there was plenty of it showing now .

     Here's a broader view of it . When we arrived there was 2 other people , all of a sudden there was about 30 people - must''t have got our email about staying away from us 😉😁

    Lyn was interested in having a look at Willie Creek , so that's where we headed for a picnic lunch . The outgoing tide was leaving some amazing colours & patterns in the sand , here's some aerial shots of it .

     Back in to town I headed up to the golf club to book in for golf , this is the view from the clubhouse , it does stretch out to the left showing more of Roebuck Bay and is a great spot to have a refreshing drink after golf !

    Another few days later we headed back to James Price Point - we discovered last year . Today we negotiated the very corrugated track and found our way up again , the traffic was ridiculous , and the amount of people up here camping was crazy . Driving down the track to the camping area , we came across about 30 vehicles with roof top tents , tents & swags all in between the cars - all young people having a ball . Then there were at least another 10 vans scattered around , then there were the people camped up on top of the cliffs .  We headed out along the beach for a walk , not such a bad view .

    Rounding the next corner , this was our view , red pindan cliffs , sand , rocks and aqua water .

     As with most beaches , there are tyre tracks , and with so many people camped here , there were several cars on the beach , or what was left of the beach , as it was nearly on high tide .

    This is looking up toward Flat Rock - which is at the end of that long red cliff in the distance .

     It is such a visually stunning area .

    Mulla mulla seems to enjoy growing in the pindan cliffs .

    It was hard to resist getting the drone out for a fly , so i didn't resist it , and glad I did , here's some of the results .

    Here's a few of the clifftop camp sites .

   The colours are a bit washed out from 120m high , but down lower the intensity comes out again .

    And here we are 😃

     Further up the road toward Flat Rock we stopped beside the beach - above it , and we went for another fly .

    Looking back toward James Price Point - now there's some colour for you !!

A lower view of the cliffs and beach                                                                     

                                                             Ooops there we are again .

 

This is further up toward Flat Rock      

 

      Flat Rock was also full of campers , so we turned and headed back to town after a great day out . Here's map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1KJnVB37khYSlBICrgpMUFK1q0IAgTwzI&usp=sharing

3/7/21 Broome 3

    Another day and another direction , I headed up toward Willie Creek . On the way out of town I could see this bushfire arcing up , it was near where I was heading to , so a bit of a concern . Fortunately there was an easterly wind blowing , and if it had been left alone it would have burnt itself out when it reached the beach .

   Continuing on up to Coconut Well , the drone came out for a fly - for a birds eye view . Now there were no aircraft being used to fight the fire , so I was able to fly here . The beach is Cable Beach , and stretches back to Broome & Gantheaume Point . There are also several old mango plantations out here , and several very nice houses .

 

  This is looking north toward Willie Creek , which can be seen at the top right .

 

    Further up toward Willie Creek , the track gets a bit narrow - no room for overtaking or passing here .

 

There were several Brolga's flying around , they are massive birds , standing 1.5m tall .

  I pulled up on a limestone shelf right beside the creek , the colours of the mangroves and high tide were pretty cool .

 

    This is Willie Creek inlet .

 

    A little bit hard to see , but Willie Creek Pearls have a showroom and cafe/restaurant on the other side of the inlet , we did a tour out to it 5 years ago - they still do tours .

 

   The fire was still burning away , and looked like I was going to drive straight into it - fortunately the road does a sharp left !

    Looking back from Gantheaume Point toward the fire .

   The sun was getting lower and made for some great shots of the Pindan & rocks .

 

     There's a layer of rocks in amongst the pindan , makes you wonder what happened to form all of this .

     While walking around at low tide I found this rock and thought it was pretty cool !!

     Oh yeah , the endless procession of cars coming down for sunset or boat tours - there were at least 50-60 cars here .

Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1cPyGtek0arqGACClUe81mSTXL_dcp4zQ&usp=sharing