First sight of the Indian Ocean
The next day we checked into a 5-star resort on Cable Beach and returned our hire 4wd. The resort itself was pretty nice, the grounds were this massive network of chinese style gardens with groups of bungalows scattered around the place. Even on the last day we were still getting lost trying to get to the reception area from our room.
Cable Beach Resort
One of several of the resorts pools
Cocktails by the Pool
It wasn't long before we were suffering a bit of adventure withdrawal syndrome so we decided to hire some motor scooters and do a bit of a tour around the outskirts of Broome. Nat had never ridden any sort of motorbike before but she picked it up almost instantly and was hooning along highways at 80k p/h in no time. We thrashed these bikes as hard as we could and even took them on a 4x4 track at the end of the southern peninsula about 15km south of broome. The people on their 4wd's looked on in amusement as we ploughed these hire-scooters along the 4wd tracks at speed.
Nat the biker chick
I dont remember them saying NOT to take the scooters on the beach
We also booked an off-shore fishing charter and hauled up some of the local reef fish. There were heaps of fish but half the time you would end up with a shark on the line and fighting a losing battle until the heavy guage line snapped. My hand was sore for days afterwards thanks to those damn sharks.
This fish was not impressed with becoming lunch.
I caught about half a dozen of these 'plate sizers' and donated them all to the bbq lunch that was served on the boat. Screw taking them back to the hotel to get them cooked for dinner at 70 dollars per head / per fish!
On our last day in Broome we visited Malcom Douglas' Croc Park (the 'other' croc hunter off tv). Try to imagine 5 meter saltwater crocs behind chicken wire trying figure out various ways to eat us tourists.
One of Malcolm Douglas' crocs.
The park looked super dodgy and insecure which made it all the more fun. On one occasion I saw some bubbles coming from one of the ponds, I called Nat over to show her the bubbles which looked very similar to some we saw while eating lunch on a river-bank during the trip (out of striking range of course). I placed my hand on the chicken wire fence without thinking and before I had a chance to pull it away a 4 meter male saltwater croc exploded out of the water and smashed into the chicken wire fence scaring the living CRAP out of us.
Gotta love the chicken wire fences.
A week after we were at the croc park we saw on the news that some drunk tool jumped the fence at night and tried to ride the croc in the shot above. He escaped with some chomp marks on his leg. I mean, come on, there is drunk and there is DRUNK!
This little bugger was already planning his next meal.
All in all we liked Broome a lot and it was great to unwind in a 5-star resort but the highlight was definitely the 4wd trip. We flew from Broome to Perth (2.5 hours) and Perth to Sydney (3.5 hours) to get home. During the flight we were already thinking about our next outback adventure as we watched thousands of miles of red landscape passing below the airplane.
Flight Home across the Red Center
