Broome, Western Oz: Sundown at the oasis

Sure, the sunsets in Broome are spectacular, but the nightly show goes far beyond the wild colors that get painted across the sky.

Tourists and locals alike drive their cars right out onto Cable Beach’s hard-packed sands. The cars get parked facing away from the ocean, then tailgates and trunks that face the ocean are thrown open and a hundred different parties begin. Sausages get tossed on the barbies, bottles of beverages get popped open, frisbees and balls get thrown, kids and dogs begin frolicking. A cricket game pops up here, a footy game there.

Our time on the beach is usually bookended by the departure and return of the nightly camel caravan. We time our arrival to catch the caravan just as it begins its nightly trek northward. And we stay long enough to see these stately ships of the desert sway past our parked car on their way back south.

Of course, the caravans are timed so that the end of the round-trip coincides with another spectacular sunset.

Sunset on Cable Beach in Broome. There’s nothing else like it in the world.