Broome

Malcolm Douglas Crocodile Park

This park was great. You are so close to the crocodiles with only a wire fence between you. Sometimes you are loooking at some of the other animals (birds, kangaroos, wallabies, goannas, snakes) and you don't realise you are near the big pond and that saltwater crocs are sleeping right behind you. They lie so still and you don't notice them at first. No wonder they are so dangerous!

We saw both salt and freshwater crocs at this park, as well as American alligators. The salties were huge. In the main lake there are many salties kept together. These are farmed crocs who have been together their whole lives. Salties do not usually live together but these ones know each other. If a new croc was introduced to this pond it would be killed by these ones.

There are also big saltwater crocs, in pairs (male and female) kept in separate spaces. These are the crocs that have been removed from places because they have become a threat to human life/activity.

Then there are the babies...

These have been bred at the wildlife park. They cannot be released back into the wild and there is not enough space to keep them all at the park so they eventually become handbags, belts etc!

Cable Beach
Broome was also a great place for a swim. Cable beach is the patrolled beach. We were there at the right time of year to avoid stingers. The water was pleasant, the kids swam until sunset. The beach is very flat so most of the sand is damp all day from the high tide. Some entrepreneurial type has made a business in hiring out beach chairs and umbrellas but if you are brave (or cheap) like us you just throw your towel down on the damp sand and enjoy the sun!

Reading, and watching the sun set!

Dinosaur footprints
We searched this rugged landscape for some dinosaur footprints that can be found at low tide. Luckily there were many others searching, so when someone else found these ones we just went over and had a look! Apparently there are mnay examples of differnt dinosaur fotprints in the Broome area.