Broometime

When I arrived at the airport in Broome, slightly tired after my last night in Adelaide I realised I had no contact number for my hostel, The Kimberly Klub, and no idea how to get to it. I saw a desk in the ‘Arrivals’ hall, which I learned was the same as the ‘Departures’ lounge,  that said ‘Shuttle Bus’ so I decided that was probably my safest bet. When I asked if the bus went to town, I was told it stopped in the centre at the Roebuck Hotel. The man at the desk then asked me where I was staying and scoffed at my wanting a taxi. His directions were ‘Out the gate, turn left, walk for ten minutes and it’s on the opposite side of the road when you come to a T-Junction’. His ten minutes was actually five. I’ve never been to an airport so close to a town. It was literally ten minutes from the centre, five minutes from the Kimberly Klub. A few days later I experienced the incoming and outgoing planes’ roar as they came in and out of town and soared low over the small town. It was surreal.

I arrived at the Kimberly Klub a little disorientated from the flight and the hour and a half time difference; checked into my room and quickly fell into a deep sleep. When I awoke, it was dark and I hadn’t changed the time on my phone (though I thought I had) so in my head I’d slept for about six hours and completely missed my first day in Broome. It turns out that by half past five the sun leaves Broome and it had actually only been about six o’ clock.

I got dressed, stumbled downstairs and realised that the only item of food I had to my name was a jar of Vegemite. I remembered then that the girl at the reception had told me that Woolies was only five minutes up the road. Two minutes up the pitch black road I realised that the notices about Broome not being safe after dark alone were not false and I legged it back to the KK and located the two friendliest faces in the bar – a blonde Dutch girl and a brunette named Julia from Switzerland. I asked them where I could get food and again they told me not to go anywhere alone. Then the Dutch girl said that they had dinner left over and that I could have that. I was more grateful for that vegetable curry than I had been for anything ever in my life.

After I finished, I went to join them in the bar. The Dutch girl left and myself and Julia had a beer and bonded over being left alone. That night we went out for a strange night which began with drinking a can in the car park (as with all YHA there is a strict no BYO policy so backpackers are forced to be inventive with places to drink cheaply). We then went to the windy Town Beach where we stayed for about an hour before nearly getting blown into the ocean. And so we piled into some guy’s camper; all millions of us and drove uncomfortably back to the KK.

The next day, myself and Julia adopted Jana, a German girl, and we went shopping and generally hung out together. My first trip to Cable Beach was with Jana and Scottish Lauren. It was the Beach you expect when you think of WA; deserted and beautiful with the odd naked person.

The night after my Cable Beach experience, I convinced an Aussie, Sniper, to bring myself and Jana, since we weren’t allowed walk alone and didn’t know the way anyway, to Murphy’s Irish Bar for Open Mic Night. We were late and missed all the bands, but had half an hour with the in-house Aboriginal band. Murphy’s (and actually Broome in general) was the only place so far in Australia that I’ve come across Australians and Aborigines hanging out together and socialising in the same places. I have to say I really liked it.

After that, my expected one and only night out in Broome, I spent my last expected actual day packing and hanging out in the KK. I had sent a bag to Darwin with my dresses and ‘nice’ clothes and kept all my ‘practical’ clothing for my tour to Darwin that was set to begin the next day, Thursday 12^th May.  I got a call, however, at 4pm on Wednesday 11^th May to say that my tour, that I’d booked  in March, had been somehow overbooked by one and that I was the only single traveller and therefore the only feasible person to make change tour dates (jeepers I felt special). So after the throwing around of many a possible arrangement, myself and Jen of Kimberley Adventure Tours settled that I would spend twelve more days in Broome and take the next tour from Broome with them – I was very generously compensated for the inconvenience (Thanks a mill KAT!) and am actually delighted I got to stay in one place a little longer than planned as I actually got to know and grew to love Broome.

The natural phenomenon of Staircase to the Moon took place on Wednesday 18^th and 19^th of May, another reason I’m grateful to KAT for messing up my tour dates is that I got to go to Town Beach and see it. We piled into two cars and trucked down to Town Beach. As we waited for the moon to show its face, we had a feeling we were missing something, that the moon was behind a tree on the other side of the beach, or that somehow it just wasn’t going to work. We were of course proven incorrect when the pinky orange moon peaking up over the horizon created exactly what it said on the tin – a staircase across the water to the moon. It was beautiful.  Broome is definitely, and rightly so, renowned for its natural phenomena – the beautiful sunsets at Cable Beach (I saw three) certainly rival any I’ve ever seen in the beauty stakes.

Looking back, and apart from go to the beach and attending the odd Wet T-shirt and Dance competition in Oasis, I actually didn’t do all that much in Broome. To be honest, I think that the fact that I stayed there sixteen days in total and actually had the chance to form (what I think were…) actual friendships is why I liked Broome so much!  I met some great Germans girls, some fabulous English and some amazing Aussies; some of these people I know I will see again, whether it’s on the East Coast of Oz, when they visit me in Ireland or I visit them in their native lands, I’m hopeful and looking forward to some serious shuffling at some amazing reunions! Oh how I miss you guys!