​Broome – the pearling capital of Australia. We stayed at Tarangun Caravan Park near Cable Beach because there was no free camping anywhere near town and Broome was still brimming with travelers. On our first night we walked down to the beach to see the famed sunset and were not disappointed- it was pretty spectacular. The following evening was even better when we drove onto the beach and along a couple of kilometres then sat on the tailgate with a cold beer/wine to watch the camel drive tourists finishing up their camel tour along part of the beach – very colourful – very Broome!

We were also lucky to be in time for the final evening of the Shinju Matsuri festival (Japanese Festival of the Pearl) complete with fireworks, food trucks and a dragon.

Broome is a quaint small tourist town these days – filled with retail pearl shops and tour agencies. Unfortunately it seems to have lost some of its ‘soul’ to the mighty tourist dollar but there are still a few gems left like the Sun Pictures in the Chinatown area being the oldest operating picture gardens in the world.

We had a 4 day side trip up to Cape Leveque via Quandong Beach and Pender Bay. The scenery was typically WA coastline – DRAMATIC! Rust red earth meeting pure white sand  beaches and aquamarine blue crystal clear waters. We still experienced no rain but a sure sign of the impending wet season was the dew in the morning – humidity must be building – and the daytime temperatures were always 38+