Sunsets over the Ocean

We have returned to the West Coast of Australia and this means that for most of the rest of our time in Australia we will be enjoying the sun set over the ocean. A wonderful way to end the day. And what better way to start this tradition than on the lovely Cable Beach in Broome. Cable Beach extends for miles and miles but you do not have to walk far to enjoy the sunset. On arriving in Broome we quickly headed to the beach to enjoy the last warm rays of the day and to watch the golden ball dip quickly (we are still in the tropics) into the sea. Cable Beach is also famous for camel rides along the beach so the next evening saw us all atop camels to do the customary sunset walk along the beach. Even with all the people on the beach it was still wonderfully peaceful and offered a different perspective on the evening ritual. The camel that Gilly and Alisha rode, Kabul, was even famous as he had walked across the whole width of Australia from East to West so I suppose a casual stroll along the beach was a pretty easy trip for him. After we had finished the Gibb River Road we had stopped in Fitzroy Crossing where we met an old colleague of mine from Moscow, Henrik Loos for a drink. It was great to see Henrik and hear about life in the Kimberley outback. Quite a change from Moscow. Henrik seemed to be enjoying it though and it was very interesting to hear about what they were doing in the Aboriginal community. Mind you it does have it's challenges. Henrik's daughter has her piano lessons in Broome every week, 400kms away! We also took the long drive to Broome but we were only doing it once. Mind you Broome is not a bad town to visit. Not only does it have wonderful beaches but also an interesting history centred around the pearl industry which was the mainstay of the town when it was first developed. We learnt more about this on our visit to the interesting town museum. Broome has had lots of immigrants as a result of this industry over the years so we decided to have a lovely Chinese meal for lunch in Chinatown. From Broome we headed up the Dampier peninsular to Cape Leveque. To get there the road system is slightly strange. Shortly after leaving Broome the tar road runs out and you have to drive nearly 100kms on a hard sand corrugated road. Fortunately most of it was in quite good condition although one part of it was heavily corrugated. It was though quite narrow in parts and because they kept digging further down to smooth the road we did end up on a bit of an angle when passing some other vehicles. Then you join a beautiful tar road for the last 100kms to the top of the peninsular. This tar road connects the various communities up there but is not connected at all to the rest of the tar road network in Australia. On arriving at the top we checked into Kooljaman Resort set right on the tip of the peninsular. Our campsite was set on a small cliff top overlooking the beach. It was a magical place. Although there were more upmarket glamping options we were delighted with our spot.   We spent two lovely days there enjoying the most fantastic beaches. There were two beaches: The Western one with amazing sandstone cliffs coming up to the edge of the beach and where we went every evening to enjoy the sunset and the Eastern beach which was better for swimming. Whilst we enjoyed some lovely walks along the beach we did not do as much swimming as we would have liked as the heat finally broke. A weather system had moved across Western Australia and whilst we did not get any rain the temperature dropped nearly 10 degrees and the wind picked up. It was lovely to have cool nights again but I think the cold morning starts will soon lose its attraction. From Kooljaman we headed back down the peninsular. We went from glamping back to wild camping and found a lovely spot on a sand dune overlooking another beautiful beach. It might not have been quite as beautiful as at Kooljaman but I think we had been spoilt. The beach stretched for miles and miles and there was a big tide so at low tide lots of it was exposed. In the evening hermit crabs would come out scurrying across the beach which Lucy enjoyed going looking for. Alisha and I felt a little under the weather while there for a day so it was a nice spot to relax, do nothing, enjoy the view and have gentle strolls on the beach. Fortunately we quickly recovered so we headed back into Broome to restock before heading West. Oh and to enjoy yet another wonderful sunset over the ocean.

2 thoughts on “Sunsets over the Ocean

  1. We do enjoy following the over landing family adventures. We vicariously learn new things about places we have been and hope to be.

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