Fascinating as the phenomenon is, we found it was almost spoiled by the huge throngs of tourists in mega RVs and caravans thronging the town beach, jostling for vantage points, with thousands of camera flashes destroying the dusk. Broome is over hyped as the place to see it and it would be much better experienced on another quiet part of the coast ( of which there are many). Overall, though we enjoyed Cable Beach, had some nice meals and found some interesting things to see (pearling museum. a little Buddhist shrine etc) Broome was generally too touristy for our liking and we were happy to move on to our next destination.
Port Smith was the other end of the spectrum. Situated on a scenic lagoon 23 Kms down a dirt road, it was reputed to be an excellent fishing spot, tempting me to rig up my rod. A complication was that most of the good fishing spots were only reachable by 4-wheel drive. However, the caravan park proprietors offered, for a minimal donation to the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) , a boat trip every second day, to an island on the ocean side of the lagoon. I opted for this, while Jean explored the landward side. My most exciting moment was when I landed a rather large Shovel Nosed Shark ( about 45 cms or 18 inches long and quite wide). Some nearby people told me it was no good for eating so I released it, and was then told by someone else that it would have been excellent eating. Apart from that, the fish left me more or less in peace to enjoy the occasional turtle floating by, and lots of diving seabirds. Back at the ranch, Jean was enjoying the local environment, including a large flock of whistling ducks that gathered on the edge of the park:
A highlight of our stay was a night time open air dinner, with rock concert by a local Aboriginal band, who were accompanied by tiny Aboriginal children who danced enthusiastically throughout. The modest charge was again for the RFDS. Before departing from a very enjoyable stay, we visited the local Port Smith Bird Park and Gardens, run by a local enthusiast Frank Hamlet, who has a huge collection of native birds and parrots. Although we're always a bit saddened by birds in cages, we found this an interesting experience, including a chance to see the rare Gouldian Finch. Next planned stop was 80 Mile Beach, again a reputed fishing spot. However, after one look at the wall to wall fisherpersons lining the beach for miles up and down I decided to give fishing a miss. The beach itself was very pleasant and as dusk approached the Sun yielded a staircase phenomenon not unlike the Moon's effort at Broome:
Nevertheless, with fishing off, and having been persuaded that our itinerary must find room for Karijini National Park in the Pilbara region, we curtailed our planned stay at 80 Mile Beach and headed for Port Hedland.An industrial port, one of the world’s largest in tonnage terms, with over 70 million tonnes of product worth more than $3 billion shipped each year, and comparable in size to Broome, Port Hedland doesn't have the same status as a tourist icon. However, we found it in some ways more attractive. We saw dolphins swimming alongside huge iron ore tankers, and our campsite was on a peninsula with a magnificent beach, which we were told was not a popular swimming beach (tide goes out too far and comes in too fast). It would have been a perfect place to see the "Staircase to the Moon". Jean also found it a fascinating place to watch thousands of tiny Soldier Crabs: 
and sea snails with an unerring instinct for any available carrion:
We could happily have spent a few more days at Port Hedland but Karijini was calling.
No comments:
Post a Comment