We woke this morning to the sound of sirens whirling past the caravan park at high speed. A noise that is kind of foreign way out here, and one I must say I haven’t really missed. Scant attention was paid to the piercing yelps as they faded away into the distance as quickly as they had approached. We later found out that the there had been an accident on the road to Derby, which had closed the road for the entire day, and most likely until early tomorrow morning. We were glad we had come through yesterday, or else we would have been stuck somewhere in the middle of nowhere, waiting for the road to reopen.

Thankfully, apart from a couple of dozen head of cattle in one of the two trucks involved, there were no serious injuries, but it goes to show how a momentary lack of attention can have catastrophic consequences. Especially out here, where on the main road, actually, the one and only road between Broome and Derby, there are a series of single lane bridges where the only traffic control is a barely adequate sign warning you to be aware of approaching traffic. It was on one of these little viaducts that the two road trains met head on, fusing the cabins together in a twisted mangle of metal, and causing both trucks to catch fire.

Had I known all this earlier, I might have been more wary of leaving the dogs in the van, while we travelled the other way, along the 35KM stretch of road into Broome. Also the one and only route between our caravan park and our destination. It wouldn’t bare thinking about what would happen if we got stuck and were unable to get back to the babies. Thankfully, the road into Broome is devoid of any narrow bridges, and it would take quite a pile up to completely block this featureless stretch of tar.

Bec goes to market.

Once in Broome, we made the weekend market our first stop. What looked from the road to be an expansive, bustling market place, featuring an array of interesting little stalls, was actually almost all that. It just wasn’t quite as expansive as we had imagined. There was a good variety of stalls though, selling everything from hats and clothes, to crafts and jewelry. Pearl jewelry was a feature, considering Broomes extensive history with pearling. Interestingly, given this history of producing some of the worlds finest South Sea Pearls, most of the examples on display here at the market were of the much more reasonably priced, but imported, fresh water variety. To my highly trained eye, they all looked the same, so I guess it doesn’t really matter anyway.

The visitor information centre was our next stop, where we gathered up more brochures, giving us more ideas of things to do not only here in Broome, but all the way down the west coast on our way to Perth. The attractions are never ending, and I am beginning to seriously fear that our time here on this far flung western coast of Australia will be well and truly too short.

Next to the information centre, a pearl shop was open to customers. One of the many here in Broome, and from here, the genuine local product could be purchased. For a price of course and yet I still failed to notice any difference between the different pearls. Bec on the other hand, she didn’t need to be able to see the difference. The little tags with the bigger prices on were all she needed as a guide to which ones she liked the best!

Ah, Matsos, so we meet again.

Our next stop was at a Broome institution, Matsos Brewery. We discovered this place when we were in Broome briefly last year with some friends, and I swore right there and then that if I was ever back in Broome, then I would be coming here every single day. So here we are, day one in Broome, visit one to Matsos. It is a little micro-brewery that brews some of the best tasting beer you’ve ever had, and it has the awards on the wall to prove it. Along with beer, it also produces alcoholic ginger beer and seasonal ciders, flavoured with in season fruits. Like the desert lime with ginger cider Bec tippled on today. An amorously refreshing drop, with just the right combination of lime and cider, it would be all too easy to drop one too many of those down your throat. For my part, I suckled on a tall glass of the pale ale, which is sweet and bitter, all in the same smooth mouthful.

A long awaited for pale ale.

Given that one way or the other, one of us was going to have to drive us home, we stopped at just the one drink each, then wobbled off back to where I had parked ‘The Beast’. Now, I will swear it was because I was concentrating on my phone, and had nothing at all to do with the alcohol, that I grabbed the door handle of a Landcruiser parked next to us, before realising my error. Oops. I quickly scurried like an embarrassed mouse around to the right door, of the right vehicle, and we beat a hasty retreat before some big bruiser of a Toyota owner could come thundering out of the bar, asking me what I was doing to his car.

With our first visit to Matsos done and dusted, we made a quick stop at the shopping centre, where being a Sunday, the majority of the shops were closed. The supermarket was open though, so we picked up enough supplies to last us the rest of the week, then headed for home.

Back at the van, in an attempt to empty our gas cylinder, so we can refresh it prior to leaving here, I decided to cook us a delicious, tender roast lamb dinner, outside on our little barbeque. Since I wanted to remain outside while our joint of lamb slowly cooked away, so I could keep an eye on it and make sure it didn’t burn, we hooked the dogs up to their chain and sat out beneath the awning. Boredom would have soon overtaken us however, with nothing much to do, so I brought the TV and media player out, and we launched ourselves into another TV series. This time we’re watching ‘The Wire’. It took us a while to get everything up and running, but we were soon kicking back, drinks in hand, delicious aromas of searing meat and vegetables emanating from the barbeque, while we ogled the images on the tele and became the envy of the park.

As it turns out, the cooking time for our dinner was probably about 15 minutes less than the length of an episode of The Wire, but it was all fine. At least, it was once we had cautiously hacked the blackened carbon from the bottom of everything.

Until next time, stay safe, have fun and don’t forget to write.