By the time we left Karijini we were definitely hankering for a shower and as we made our way towards Broome, we decided to stop for the night at Indee Station. Indee Station was similar to many of the other Station Stays we’ve stopped at with demountable buildings and the obvious hallmarks of a working station, but it also featured an additional tourist attraction called Red Rock.  Literally, a big, red rock, the highlight of this attraction were the indigenous engravings which were carved on the face of the rock.

We spent the afternoon checking them out and trying to work out what the strange bug/frog like creature that we’d come across in the pools on our travels and that were prolific here.

We arrived back in time for happy hour and before long it was dinner and bed..

We hit the road early the next morning, making our way to Port Hedland where we restocked our supplies and met up with Corey’s mate Glenn who was travelling with his son Jett. A McCuppa later and we were then on our way for a couple of days stopover at Pardoo Station. Pardoo was like walking into a lush oasis with green lawns and sprinklers that stayed on constantly, certainly a change from the red dirt we’d been experiencing. With no set plans, we let the kids run riot with the many others that were at the Station and Corey even tried his luck fishing… butsurprise, surprise, it was to no avail.  Still, it was nice to be clean and relax after nearly a week of gorge walks.

Before long, we had moved on from Pardoo and had checked into the Cable Beach caravan park and were ready to check out the Staircase to the Moon which was to feature over the next few nights.  We ran into several families we’d criss crossed paths with along the way and the kids had a ball catching up before we all went to the foreshore with the throngs of other tourists with cameras poised to capture the optical illusion.

The vibrancy of the markets definitely created an awesome atmosphere, but I knew that trying to capture a shot of the sky would be futile – especially on an iphone.  After a couple of attempts, trying to find a shot amongst the thousands of people who lined the shore, I gave up and just enjoyed the sight.

The next few days, we barely moved from our caravan park.  Situated in an awesome site, we backed onto the beautiful (but super chilly) pool under a canopy of trees. The dozen or so kids that had banded together over previous months kept an eye on one another and at one stage, the older kids even organised a pool party, complete with food and games for all the gang which gave the parents the chance to kick back by the pool whilst the kids entertained themselves.

When we did venture out from the caravan park, it was to suss out the history of Broome at the museum and to take in the Pearl Lugger tour which was a fascinating insight into the history and perils of the pioneering that went into the pearl shell, and later the pearl jewel industries.

Of course, a trip to Broome wouldn’t be complete without a sunset (or two) down at Cable Beach.  We were lucky to spend an awesome afternoon with new friends Richard and Fiona and their awesome girls who played with ours in the rockpools whilst we enjoyed drinks and nibbles and watched the sunset.

I’d also been keen to check out Matso’s Brewery having learned about it somewhere in my research and it didn’t disappoint.  On our last day, after our pearl lugging history tour, we stopped for lunch and sampled their wares, including an awesome cheeseburger for lunch!

We probably could have done a lot more whilst we were in Broome.  There were pearl farms, crocodile sanctuaries and galleries that we could have explored, but it seemed that we had been bitten by the CBF bug, which apparently is quite the norm when people travel to Broome.  And that was ok! We had such an awesome time that it felt as though it was a mini holiday inside our bigger one. And after we had relaxed, caught up on laundry and done a little exploration, it was soon time to move on. We said our final goodbyes to this awesome crew, not sure if we would see them again on this trip!

Have you ever watched a sunset over the ocean at Cable Beach?  Did you know that over 90% of all pearl shell buttons came from Broome in the early 1900’s?