← PreviousExploring Kakadu National Park: tips and discoveriesWe went to the reception of a backpackers' hotel and were given two dorm beds immediately despite the early hour. We dropped our meagre belongings and set off to explore. Broome is more than a thousand kilometres from the two nearest cities, Darwin to the north-east and Perth to the south, which perhaps explains the impression of laziness the town gave off. A little world lived there in almost literally perfect self-sufficiency. The pace was slow, even slower than in the rest of the country, which is hardly a model of speed. We adapted quickly and wandered slowly towards Cable Beach. A plaque explained the beach's name: in 1889 a telegraph link was established with the island of Java in Indonesia, and this long twenty-two-kilometre stretch of sand was named to commemorate that technological feat.
The colour of the water hit us like an incredible slap. We'd seen turquoise waters and had been told about the colours of the Indian Ocean on Australia's west coast, but this exceeded all our expectations. Two days earlier we'd been looking at photos from friends who'd been here and thought they'd gone overboard with Photoshop. But no: before our astonished eyes, we realised they hadn't cheated, and we sat down in the sand to contemplate the big blue. Every trip has its difficult moments, but some rewards are well worth it, and our three days of almost non-stop driving were already far behind us, because we were heading for a wonderful adventure: the Australian west coast!
We had a strange feeling that would be hard to describe. There are always moments in life when you think, "I'd love to do that, but it's too far, too dangerous, too expensive," and we were clearly living a dream. Moments like this justified our boldness in leaving everything for the adventure of the unknown and the exploration of new lands. It was hot, extremely hot, and we went back to the hotel to swim in the big outdoor pool. From the accents of the guests, we could tell most of them came from England.
Having had a very good night in this backpackers', we decided to stay an extra day. We had breakfast at the hotel before paddling quietly by the pool. In the early afternoon we went to a deserted beach. In fairness to the tourists, you had to drive a few kilometres on a road halfway between gravel and sand, and not every vehicle could get there. We took our usual batch of shots and lay down on our towels to sunbathe.
Barely half an hour later, we noticed a whole bunch of eagles circling around us. They thought we were dead, and we started waving our arms about wildly. They flew off, probably a little disappointed. We went back to the hotel once again to swim a few lengths and came back out to watch the sunset from a rocky point overlooking the sea. Unluckily for us, by the time we got there the sun was already slipping away. The colours in the sky were still worth seeing, and we headed off happily into our evening.
We spotted a quiz night at an Irish pub on a wall of the hostel. So we went along and took part. The questions weren't especially difficult in themselves, but we sometimes struggled to decipher the host's accent. We were also particularly bad at anything to do with Australia and could only guess at questions like "Which state will lose a seat in parliament next year?" We weren't going to win this one!
We went back to eat croques monsieur at the hotel and went to bed. We woke around 7 am and made the most of the breakfast provided by the hostel. It was frugal, but at least it existed, so we didn't hold back. We got back on the road after two days in Broome.