If you’ve ever body surfed you’ll know it can be an almost spiritual experience. Cable Beach in Broome Western Australia, one of the most beautiful 13 mile stretches of sand you’ll find anywhere in the world is where I’ve felt this most strongly. It helps of course that here the Indian Ocean waters are a warm and crystal clear turquoise and the waves, which can rise up to nine metres at high tide, topple onto an almost perfectly flat beach, which in the early mornings when keen body surfers go to worship, is empty but for a few fellow supplicants.
This quaint town in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia on the traditional lands of the Aboriginal Yawuru people is nearly 1400 miles from the nearest city. It owes its existence to the Pearling industry, which started in the 1880s with the harvesting of mother of pearl and continues today with the farming of some of the finest cultured pearls in the world.
As a beach holiday destination Broome is second in our experience only to Goa in southern India, but as a place to spend a couple of weeks it exerts an equally strong pull on our hearts. Sunsets at Cable Beach are as magical as the early morning, not least because (to our daughter’s delight), you can take a camel ride along its length, finishing as darkness softly falls.
Broome is the place we had our most memorable cinema-going experience at Sun Pictures, the world’s oldest functioning outdoor ‘Picture Gardens’, which date back to 1916. Moviegoers sit in rows of striped deckchairs in balmy nighttime temperatures, which may or may not be interrupted by a cleansing tropical rainstorm. It’s also the place where members of the Yawuru people, one afternoon guided my daughter and I on a fascinating walk through the sand dunes and mangroves explaining how goannas- large indigenous lizards, hibernate in burrows until woken by thunderclaps at the start of the ‘Wet’. Our guides also showed us how to strip tree bark to create footwear for crossing the reef safely at low tide, which tree branches can be used to fend off lightning in an electric storm and which of the local plants were safe to eat as ‘bush tucker’.
Afterwards we enjoyed some more substantial bush tucker, at Matso’s Café and Brewery, which rapidly became our favourite place to eat in town for its imaginative way of preparing the local flora and fauna and its wicked selection of local craft beers.
Kangaroo in Chili Bean Sauce: Serves Two
Kangaroo is a wonderfully lean meat- perfect for wok frying, provided you don’t overcook it. Venison is an excellent substitute.
1lb kangaroo tenderloin, sliced thinly (2”x 1”)
1 tbsp black bean and chili sauce (you can find this at a Chinese Food Store)
1 bell pepper and 1 medium onion, both cut into 1” strips
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp cornstarch
½ tsp sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
Mix the kangaroo with the cornstarch, sugar and soy sauce.
Heat a large fry pan or wok with two tablespoons of oil; add the garlic, onion and black bean and chili sauce, stirring for a minute. Then add the kangaroo, tossing to combine, cooking until the meat is nearly done. Finally add the pepper, again tossing to combine. Cook until the meat is just done; be careful not to over-cook, as kangaroo can get tough. If it is a little dry you can always add some water.
Paradise! With camels only improves matters. I thought the kangaroo would be muscilly and tough but it sounds good. Broome is now on my bucket list.
6 feet long as adults!