BEACHES OF BROOME

THE PEARL OF THE KIMBERLEY OFFERS PLENTY FOR THE OFF-ROAD TOURER, ESPECIALLY ITS FANTASTIC INDIAN OCEAN BEACHES AND COASTAL CAMPSITES ALONG THE PRISTINE DAMPIER PENINSULA

- ROB BOEGHEIM

I WILL never forget my first sunset in Broome. It was September 1994, with my wife on a ‘second honeymoon’ mapping trip to the Kimberley – the end of an arduous drive from Brisbane, running in a brand-new Land Rover Discovery. We’d been bogged out the back of Windorah (don’t ask!), bent a steering dampener on a jump-up on Mt Elizabeth Station, and travelled more than 5000km in less than a week.

Travel weary, we arrived at Cable Beach to the strum of a busker’s guitar, ordered our fish and chips and headed down to watch the fire-orange sunset across the pearlescent sand and silky blue ocean. The cool coastal breeze blew our cares away, with the long drive now a distant memory. It felt like we had been shipwrecked and washed up on a distant shore.

Not surprisingly, the serene stretch of coastline north of Broome is called Goolarabooloo – the coast where the sun goes down – a fitting name given the litany of open beaches, headlands and beachside bush campsites that frame this daily spectacle of colour as the tropical sun melts into the Indian Ocean.

There’s a rich indigenous connection to country that’s been captured in the Lurujarri Dreaming Trail that in part follows traditional song cycles, camping areas, middens and bush tucker (in season) for more than 82km north from Minyirr (Gantheaume Point near Broome). Although it never took off as a hike, the coastal backroads and tracks follow a similar route and the trail’s signage is very helpful for local navigation.