FriendlyBrooks

Broome – a perfect place to review Karajini and prepare for the Kimberly

Lance Brooks, preparing for off grid, July 2026

Cape Keroudren is a good 6 hour drive from Broome according to Google maps, so we decided to stay at a rest stop about halfway along. However after just an hour and a half we pulled into 80 mile beach for a look and couldn’t resist staying.  The white sand stretched forever (well 80 miles). We were there for a king low tide and were able to walk out onto the sand flats (although not too far because there’s a risk of crocodiles….and sharks … and irikundji!! So no swimming! We checked into the shady campground and then drove onto the beach. We drove north for a few kilometres and stopped to walk and marvel and take some crazy photos. We drove back, closer to the campground to watch a magnificent sunset over the sand.

While I was preparing dinner, Lance went to the lookout and witnessed the full moon rise as the sun was just setting. We got up early for sunrise and had breakfast on the beach.

We had still had about 400km up Highway 1 to get to Broome. There was very little along the way and we just stopped at the designated rest stops and then at Roebuck Roadhouse for diesel. We also stopped at a highly recommended auto electrician, Red Dirt, to see if they could fix the CB radio. He was booked out until the end of July and wasn’t able to help us as it didn’t seem to be a simple fix. We arrived at the Discovery Caravan park, our home for the next 5 days, in Broome at about 4pm. After setting up we headed for Town Beach to try and see the Staircase to the Moon. I say try because it was quite a cloudy night and the staircase had lost most of its rungs. Still it was nice walking on the jetty. We then went to Matsos, a Broome institution, for dinner and a drink. We met an interesting older man who claimed to be a film maker.

The Discovery park in Broome has a rather nice pool, from a cliff top overlooking the coast and as it happened they were cooking pancakes as a fundraiser this first morning so we enjoyed a swim and a pancake (or two). Later that morning we visited Willie Pearl Farm. We chose the self drive option instead of getting a coach with commentary. I perhaps should have checked the road information better as the drive in was down quite a long sandy track. The tour was informative and fun. We learned how oysters are grown, pearls seeded and then went out on the water looking at the leases. We also travelled up Willie Creek looking for wildlife but missed seeing the resident crocodile 🐊. After this water part of the tour we saw how to open the oyster and get a pearl out and then learned how to value it. We then visited the shop where we had a chance to buy pearls worth up to $200,000. We didn’t buy. We had a very pleasant and delicious seafood platter lunch in their garden before driving back to Broome.

Once back in Broome we drove to Cable Beach where we swam and watched the camels walking on the beach ready for their tourist rides. After watching an iconic Cable Beach sunset we met with Lance’s cousin Julie for a drink at the Cable Beach resort, where she was staying. She had just finished a tour of the Gibb River road that we were about to start.

After we left Julie we headed to Town Beach and wandered through the night markets that were on for the Staircase to the Moon. We bought some Thai Food for dinner and sat on the rocks with what seemed like everyone else in Broome and this time saw the fabled staircase. It is pretty impressive. After multiple photos we walked back to our caravan park.

It was Friday in Broome and we had chores to do. We went to Kimberly Camping Store and finally bought a portable fire pit (thanks for the tip Neil). We also bought a few other random things. Then we went to Repco and bought some putty, some adhesive for the rubbers that are coming away from the van a new heavy duty jack  and other random supplies. Then we drove to Toyota and ARB to see if we could get the CB radio fixed. They suggested visiting Red Dirt who we had already been turned away from the day before, but as we have learnt its always good to persevere, we tried them again and finally they found the problem and it was fixed, just a simple (?) clip was slightly broken. Yay we now have a working CB radio.

After our chores were complete we went to Chinatown, which is not very Chinese. We wandered the shops and bought a few souvenirs and gifts and had lunch in a cafe, where we met up with the odd film producer fellow again. We then went to Coles to do a big shop for our next part of the trip where we were unlikely to see many if any shops.

We unpacked all our purchases back at the Discovery park and reorganised the contents of the van to fit everything in.
At sunset we went to Gantheaume Point as it was low tide and we thought we had a reasonable chance of finding the famous dinosaur footprints. We can’t be certain that we did but we are claiming the impressions in the rock to be footprints. It was also a beautiful spot for sunset.

We had decided to go to the oldest outdoor cinema in the world 1919  (!!!!) and the only thing on was Toy Story 5. I am pretty sure I missed Toy Story 4 and perhaps 3 but number 5 was very enjoyable and the cinema was a treat. It even has the original outdoor seating.

On the way back to the caravan park we stopped off to view the Staircase to the Moon for the last time.

On our last day we spent the last morning in Broome hanging around the Discovery park. We had some nice swims, we did our washing we did our final pack of the van and made sure we were fully prepared for the Gibb River road. I had to do quite a bit of vacuum sealing with my Sealit to pack everything in the fridge. All the food cupboards were now full. We went to Malcolm Douglas crocodile farm and marveled at these huge creepy dangerous creatures.

After the crocodile park we went to Cable Beach for a final sunset and had dinner at the Cable Beach Club restaurant.

We packed up and left by 8.30am so we could get to 9am mass at Broome Cathedral. The Cathedral is just a small church but the service was incredible. It was Naidoc week and the service was a full Aboriginal mass. The bishop and the other priests were all very relaxed and there was a great feeling there. The obligatory morning tea was terrific and was accompanied by dancers from the Torres Strait.

After this incredible experience we drove 180km up to Lombadina, a community at the top of the Dampier Peninsula near Cape Leveque. On the way we stopped at Beagle Bay which is a community on the old mission there. We looked at the beautifully decorated church where the altar and many other features were made of Mother of Pearl.

When we checked into the  Lombadina community campground, also the site of a previous mission, we were met by Darrel Sibosado who is an artist of some renown, with his works shown at the National Gallery in Canberra and the Art Gallery of NSW amongst others. He didn’t tell us this, instead he told us about the Lombadina community and showed us to the lovely and well resourced campground and also told us how to get to the beach.

Once set up we drove down the sandy track to one of the most spectacular beaches we have seen (and we have seen a few!). We swam in the ocean which is apparently croc free and watched the sunset. We made use of the new fire pit and Lance cooked an orange poppy seed cake in the camp oven which was quite delicious.

The next morning I made sure I was at the community office by 8am so I could order a loaf of homemade bread. It was so delicious that I wished I had ordered 2. I also booked us on a tour of the Bardi country with Bud, a local Bardi man. We drove in Bud’s Land cruiser with one other couple, John and Annette, who were from Melbourne. Bud took us to so many amazing places that we could never have seen without a local guide. We saw 6,000 year old footprints which had been marked in rocks, we then drove out to Hunter river above Cape Leveque and then to Swan Point which is the northern most tip of the peninsula. It was fascinating to see the tide rushing between Swan Point and the island nearby. It moved so fast. Bud also explained how people lived in the past and told us a few of the dreamtime stories. He also talked about how there are 3 clans that originally lived in the area and they represent 2 native title claims as the clan that lived on Sunday Island moved to the mainland. We had a swim around the corner from Swan Point which was croc free, but not shark free, as Lance can confirm as one shark came straight for him.

After our swim we drove to Cygnet Bay Pearl farm for lunch and a look at the gallery there. Next we went to One Arm Point and went to a little cove where there were 7 quite large tiger sharks swimming around. We didn’t swim there 😔.

We got back to camp in the afternoon and after a quick visit to the Lombadina church we drove down to the beach for another beautiful swim and sunset.

Sadly it was time to leave Lombadina as we needed to start driving the Gibb River road. We got up early and drove onto the beach at sunrise. We were the only ones there! We took lots of photos and videos of the car on the beach.

We knew we had at least a 4 hour drive to get to Derby to do a final top up of supplies ready for the next 3 weeks.