The heat in Broome in the Dry Season is hypnotic. It's like a constant gentle massage. My muscles are becoming like jelly. My steps are fluid. I feel like I am sleep-walking. This is what relaxation must feel like. Coming from the hectic inner-city mania of Potts Point in Sydney I am unused to just being.
The car is king in Broome. A combination of the heat and a dire lack of footpaths means everyone seems to drive to get anywhere. And I mean everywhere.
One enterprising company has capitalised on this cultural peculiarity.
The Good Cartel is a drive-thru coffee shop located unglamorously in a car park. It doesn't deter customers though. Cars queue around the block.
The Good Cartel is clearly onto something. This tropical urban cool cantina could just be serving the best coffee on the North-west coast.
Owner Kitty Kain and her business partner have managed to transform their mobile food-truck into a hip shop front. They now rent a small courtyard and kitchen behind the Sun Pictures Twin Cinemas and use a special extra spicy coffee blend from a coffee supplier in Perth. Delish.
Their breakfast menu is also worth a detour. Santa Fe meets Surf-is-Up. We tried the scrambled egg and bacon breakfast roll, their delicious version of a Huevos Rancheros served in a crisp tortilla bowl and a green smoothie. This is really good food with squeaky fresh ingredients.
Chilled Californian grooves are pumping from the sound system and kids from the nearby backpackers are streaming in. The Good Cartel is a perfect example of enterprise and excellence.
We explore a little more of the town centre before heading to our lunch destination.
We pass the Sun Pictures theatre in Chinatown which holds the Guinness Book of Records for the world's oldest operating picture garden.
It was opened in 1916 and still screens the latest cinema magic every night. And because it sits under the Broome airport flight path, patrons often have to pause from the film as a plane flies low overhead or when flashing lights hit the screen. There have even been tidal floods that have swamped the cinema during a screening. Unperturbed patrons apparently have taken it all in their stride.
We keep on walking kicking the red pindan dust under our feet. The dirt here gets its colour from the high iron oxide content in the rocks. It almost glows.
We make our way along Town Beach to 18 Degrees restaurant where we are having lunch.
Owner Ryan Henderson left a global career in music to start his first restaurant in his home state of Western Australia.
The upmarket but relaxed tapas-style dining has already garnered a multitude of accolades for the eatery which takes its name from the latitude that Broome sits on.
The food is clever and delicious. We try the signature fish cakes...
and the dynamite crispy roast pork.
We'd come back regularly if this restaurant wasn't on the other side of the continent.
Another day in Broome is drawing to a close.You can't come to Broome and miss seeing one of its glorious sunsets.
The Sunset Bar at Cable Beach Resort - where we are staying tonight - has a box seat view through the palms and across Ocean Beach.
of course this calls for a cocktail....
...beautiful one day;still Broome the next.
Saucy onion travelled with assistance from Tourism WA
photographs by Mark FitzGerald and Indira Naidoo
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