Chichesters hit Broome

The Chichester family swept into Broome like a mini-cyclone, determined to make every minute of their five-day visit count.

Needless to say Nanny and Grandpa were sucked into the vortex.

But we needed to get out of our cozy shell and it was such a joy to see grandkids again.

Lucinda and Amelia about to hit the surf at Cable Beach.

With one vehicle and seven people, getting about to see the local sights meant a bit of ferrying, but given the size of Broome, it wasn’t really a problem.

To make things easier, we transferred our van from the Vacation Village seven kilometres south to the Palm Grove park at Cable Beach, and arranged cabin accommodation for the Chichesters right opposite our van.

To the delight of Lucinda, Thomas and Amelia the park pool was about 15 seconds walk away and the beach with life guards 10 minutes away.

Sunset at Cable Beach.

Broome in the dry season, which is now, has endless blue skies and temperatures averaging 35 degrees, so being close to water is important.

We were able to do long beach walks or swim in the ‘surf’. Reefs prevent any worthwhile waves for board riders, but Thomas, Steven and I did experience a couple of days of excellent body surfing with big, long waves.

Louise and Steven were determined to experience as much as possible of this part of the Kimberley, so they wasted no time in arranging a half-day visit to lonely Cape Leveque 200 kilometres north on the Dampier peninsular.

Beach at Cape Leveque, with Leveque Island at right.

The French surveyor Nicolas Baudin named Cape Leveque after his hydrographer Pierre Leveque during a scientific expedition to ‘New Holland’ in 1801-03 (the local Bardi Aboriginal people call it Kooljaman).

(By way of interest Baudin ran into the English navigator Matthew Flinders on his visit. Both exchanged cordialities even though Napoleon was at war with England.)

As the road trip includes 80 kilometres of dreadful corrugated red dirt, trafficable only by 4WD, Louise decided to charter a 4-seat light plane.

On her insistence, I made up the fourth person, with Carol very happy to babysit.

Louise prior to take-off, masking her terror with a smile.

We flew, hot and sweaty, in a Piper Warrior II that had seen better days. Louise likened the cabin to the inside of a 1950s Volkswagen sedan, only smaller. She was scared, but the pilot, very young and slightly built, put us at ease with his good humour.

Steven clearly has inherited the traits of his distant relation Sir Francis Chichester, renowned aviator and solo yachtsman, and couldn’t get enough of the experience.

Coastline just before landing.

The plane cruised at 90 knots (144kmh) so it took a little over an hour to make it to the Cape Leveque airstrip, which was nothing more than a graded piece of red dirt.

Once there we encountered a café, some ramshackle huts making up an eco village of sorts and a tiny camping area, run by the Bardi people.

Relieved Louise after landing at Cape Leveque.

But the view was spectacular, with white sandy beach interspersed with black rock and set against red cliffs. As we had more than an hour of free time, we found ourselves splashing about in the warm and clear sea.


From left: Grandpa Nigel, Steve and pilot Bard (pronounced Bord).

The flight back was spectacular, with the pilot following the coastline at about 500 feet, affording views of Lombadina Point, Beagle Bay and Quondong Point, where illegal Indonesia fishing vessels are beached and burned by maritime authorities.




Rugged coastline viewed on the return to Broome.

Other high points of the Chichester visit were dinner at the Cable Beach Club Resort, a visit to Malcolm Douglas’ crocodile farm and the kids’ sunset camel ride on Cable Beach, all just a short walk from our holiday park.

Dinner at the Club Resort was an opulent affair with cocktails, all-you-can-eat prawn entrees and an a la carte main course.

Cocktails time at the Cable Beach Club Resort.

The Chichesters were determined to do things in style! Steven also created a local record in prawn consumption.

As for the crocodile farm, the kids (us too!) were mesmerised by the numbers of giant crocodiles, weighing up to 600kg, stirred into action at feeding time.

Croc at feeding time.

Our guide gave us a very interesting and informative commentary. He also introduced us to some alligators from Florida, even walking among them and touching them (you can’t do that with crocs).


We were introduced to baby crocs, their jaws held shut with elastic bands. Naturally Thomas volunteered to hold one.

Thomas and friend.







The camel ride, taken by Lucinda and Amelia, was an extraordinary event. Imagine three groups of around 20 camels, one with blue covers, one with red and one brown walking Cable Beach at sunset – very spectacular.

Lucinda and Amelia: we have lift-off.

The whole operation, including briefing of riders, mounting and walking was a precision affair with due consideration to occupational health and safety.

We were introduced to the camels’ owner, a women who it turned out had spent seven years with camels in the Australian outback. She only had to say a word and the camels obeyed.

She had round eyes and a pleasant, contented expression, lending support to the theory that some humans acquire the facial characteristics of their pets.

A great way to experience sunset at Cable Beach.

We were very happy to babysit while Louise and Steven had a romantic night out at Matsuo’s, one of Broome’s most famous restaurants, which brews its own beer.

Speaking of which, Nanny managed to demolish a whole bottle of white wine ON HER OWN and still managed to beat the kids and me at scrabble.

We were sad to say goodbye to the Chichesters but will treasure their visit forever.



With temperatures nudging 40 degrees, we left Broome and the Kimberley for the Pilbara, skirting a bushfire with lots of smoke threatening the highway, the flames only metres from our rig. We heard later on the news that the fire had closed the highway to traffic and was menacing Broome.


Image from the 'West Australian' showing smoke billowing across Cable Beach.

More news soon.