Broome to Kununurra: Down the road, mate.

We arrived in Broome and opted for a caravan site within walking distance of the town and importantly, the brewery. For those not in the know, Broome is home to Matso's Brewery, best known for their flavoured beers including lychee, ginger, chilli and mango. We paid a visit there for dinner too and it was great. We arrived just minutes before the heavens opened and some rather torrential rain both near flooded the streets and emptied the beer garden. Thankfully, we were sat on the covered veranda which was a great vantage point from which to soak up the tropical atmosphere.
We also paid a visit to the night markets with an array of crafts and street food. We sampled a banana spring roll and yes, it was as darn-deep-fried-delicious as it sounds.
The next day, we walked around town to check out the old buildings and see the restored pearling luggers that are on display. Pearls really put Broome on the map, with early divers being of indigenous or Japanese origin. Needless to say, it was a very dangerous occupation. Nowadays, the pearls are farmed and harvested by machines but the results are extremely beautiful.
In the late afternoon, we caught the bus with the friendliest driver around, to visit Cable Beach. Cable Beach is probably one of Australia's best known beaches owing to the spectacular sunsets seen from there. For our visit, beer in hand, we watched the sun oozing into the ocean, burning bright orange all the while, it really was quite amazing. Broome is also known for a phenomena known as stairway to the moon, at certain tides and when the moon is full, the reflection on the mud flats resembles a stairway you could climb to the moon. We decided it would be a great way to follow up the sunset, so we headed there, just on the edge of our caravan park. We drank more beer and waited. And waited. And waited some more before deciding it was too cloudy and we probably wouldn't see it anyway. So much for that!
The following day we departed Broome to begin the long drive to Kununurra, the next big settlement on our trip. It's only down the road, a distance of 1043km so we took about three days to do it. We called in at Fitzroy Crossing information centre and booked ahead for some tours before driving out to Geikie Gorge for a walk and a picnic lunch. The walk ran alongside the limestone cliffs but it was hot and dusty in the gorge so we didn't walk for too long. There is a gazebo which provides welcome shade but also numerous information panels about the park and wildlife. What was most fascinating was seeing the aerial photos from when the river was in flood. Inside the gazebo the flood level was marked on the walls by year. Including a couple of labels that said the level had reached 2 metres above the roof which itself was a good ten metres high! The flooding occurs every wet season with varying degrees of severity. It is just amazing to think how resilient these flood bound communities are, often they are cut off for significant amounts of time. It makes sense suddenly why everyone has massive high clearance 4x4 vehicles. As for me, the wet season is a totally alien concept and I struggle to get my head around it.
We spent the night at the top of Ngumban Cliffs with beautiful views and a spectacular sunset.
The following morning, it was a short drive to the Mimbi caves, where we joined an indigenous led tour. Our guide, Ronnie, walked us through the network of limestone caves, all the while explaining Aboriginal customs and culture and sharing with us Dreamtime stories. We saw some Aboriginal rock art and we also visited a very sacred birthing cave. It was very interesting to hear the dream time stories, and we spent some time with our guide singing songs around the camp fire, drinking billy tea and eating damper (a sort of soda bread thing) drizzled with honey.
We had a long drive still to Kununurra and when we arrived there, it felt like an oasis after the unending hot and dusty roads. Importantly we discovered the Wild Mango Cafe, serving not only proper coffee but incredible gelato as well. Heaven. Kununurra seems like a decent and bustling little community so for us it was the perfect base from which nto explore The Bungle Bungles, more on that next time.