(NOTE: This is my favorite blog headline so far on this trip.)
Broome is about as isolated as a town can be. If you’re driving, it’s 1473 miles south to Perth with just a few small towns — wide spots in the road, really — in between. To the east, it’s an 1150 mile drive to Darwin, a city that’s not worth the drive. If you’re flying it’s 2040 miles to Canberra, Australia’s capital city. And you really would want to fly, because it’s a 3293 mile drive across some of the most desolate country you’ll ever lay eyes on.
To the north, Jakarta, Indonesia is 1317 air miles away. To the west, Nairobi is 5822 air miles across the Indian Ocean.
In other words, Broome is not easy to get to, but Jamie and I agree that it’s worth the effort. This is our third time here and we’ll defintely come back again.
Here’s why:
We’re lounging on the town’s main beach, which stretches for miles in both directions, at 11:00 a.m. and there’s almost no one here. If I had to guess, I’d say we’re being forced to share the beautiful white sand with 50 other people. Unacceptable, I tell you. Unacceptable. UPDATE: I actually walked down the beach and did a headcount the next day: 37 people plus two lifeguards.
Last time we were in Broome we had absolutely perfect body surfing conditions. Every single wave was perfect. It’s a little choppy today, so I’m sitting under a beach umbrella and sulking. Damn it, man, my choice is either sittiing here admiring the white sands and crystal clear waters, or body surfing in conditions that aren’t quite perfect. Sad, isn’t it?
Yes, that’s a tire track in the sand. The beach is so wide and the sand so compacted at low tide that the beach has almost as many cars as it has people. The guy who rents the beach umbrellas and chairs drives his rig right down to the edge of the water. He sets the umbrellas up about 100 feet apart, so you never feel too crowded. The closest people to us are under that umbrella on the right side of this photo