Not quite scooterless
After breakfast of cereal and very bad youth hostel coffee, we wandered across the road and hired a scooter. It was a Bolwell Blue Devil 50cc - the seat barely big enough for one, top speed 55km/h with two onboard - enough said!!
I'm glad the backpackers lost our reservation as the youth hostel is so conveniently located to town whereas Cable Beach is a good 10kms out of town.
The scooter was the perfect way to explore Broome so after a quick stop at the info bureau to pick up some brochures, we found a cafe in Chinatown boasting the "best coffee in Broome" - and it was too!!
The French toast was also divine and the diet will start tomorrow.
One of the best things about Australia Tourist Information Centres is the quality of the town maps and information you can get totally free - unlike Europe where the quality never matches the price. The BOSS was able to plan our entire day in the time it took to eat breakfast.
The main street is full of pearl jewellery stores but I've never been a huge fan of pearls so it was easy to resist them. We looked at one or two shops then jumped straight back on the devil to do some more exploring.
We headed south to the jetty with spectacular views of the aqua green ocean. We found a huge, largely deserted carpark - just perfect to teach the BOSS to ride a scooter. So I did!
She is certainly her mother's daughter and took to it instantly. Within half an hour she was doing figure 8's continuously without once putting her feet down. The cost of the scooter hire for the whole day is equivalent to what I paid for one hour of car driving lessons for her back in Sydney.
We attempted to venture over to the other side of the peninsula by shortcutting down an unsealed road which was okay for the first 100m until it turned into red sand, which made 2 up on a scooter with small tyres far too unstable to handle. Fear of getting bogged, or worse, getting thrown off, made me turn around and head back to the sealed 'long way round'. Twenty minutes later we pulled up to Cable Beach. Undaunted by the red sand experience, I confidently rode the devil right onto the beach. We walked up to the headland and in the absence of swimming costumes, the BOSS skipped some rocks into the pristine water.
Back into town for lunch - what I really fancied was a salad but all the cafes were "tourist" expensive. We ended up buying supplies at the supermarket and going back to the Kimberley Klub to eat. We then headed back into town to check out some art galleries. Although they make good use of the desert colours, I'm not as impressed as I was with the the art from Broken Hill.
Cable Beach is the obligatory sunset viewing spot - so we parked ourselves at the "Sunset Bar" with some outrageously expensive cocktails called Paradise Ice and Postcards from Broome.
Although I shouldn't compare sunsets, Cable Beach was not a patch on Oia in Santorini, Greece. The temperature dropped 10 degrees as soon as the sun hit the water and our beautiful 25 degree day turned into a cold dark ride back into town, avoiding the road trains and 4WD's.
We had an excellent dinner of spaghetti carbonara at the Roebuck Bay Hotel while listening to some very good musicians playing jazz guitar. I resisted the temptation to order tiramisu for dessert. An excellent day and an excellent start to our holiday.
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