Pearl of the West
Sunday 2 November 2014
Broome found its fame as a pearling town back at the start of the twentieth century but by the 1970s it was struggling for survival. Enter one Lord McAlpine who poured money into the place and restored many of the old buildings but more notably saw its potential as a tourist destination and set up a number of "resorts" by Cable Beach.
Today, it strikes me as a strange, disjointed town. To the east, there's the town centre, with all its restored buildings, then, about 5 km to the west, you've got all the expensive resorts down by Cable Beach. Various housing estates lie between, but it's way too far to walk from the town centre to the beach so most people shuttle between the two on scooters or 4WDs.
I've spent the last couple of days doing virtually nothing - it is so hot and humid here, it's all I can do to drag myself from the hostel to the air conditioned shopping mall and back. On Friday night I discovered the town centre and the Sun Picture Theatre, the Oldest Operating Picture Gardens in the World. As I'd never been to a picture gardens before, I went to see Gone Girl there, a slightly disturbing film about a wife that fakes her death and tries to frame her husband for her murder.
Today's outing involved a trip to the Blue Buddah Temple to try and clear my karma about something that's been bothering me, followed by a trip to Cable Beach and the Port. I took Ruby and just rode in normal trousers and a T-shirt. Much to my disappointment, it wasn't much cooler in these than in my full riding gear. But in some ways that's good to know, as now I can stop fantasising about how much cooler I'd be if I was in jeans.
Anyway, back on the road tomorrow.