Broome (Rubibi in Yawuru) is a small town located in North Western Australia in the Kimberley Region. This town is a tropical beach holiday resort surrounded by white beaches and the famous Cable Beach, where most of the big happenings are located. The iconic sunset silhouette camel-train ride along the beach, Gantheume point, pearling history tours and some chilling cruises are the most popular attraction in this town. Red dirt, white sands beach, teal water and blue sky are the unique colour of Broome and the Kimberley region.
The colours of Broome
Every town has unique colours, but I never noticed or cared about that until I started living in Broome. I visited this town in 2012 and there seems to be no outstanding impression compared to the tropical places I’ve visited. Broome, with the unique Australian red dirt colour and meeting the coastline of white sands, clear water that looks teal-ish and the clear blue sky when it’s clear.
Roebuck Bay colour palette
When it’s a low tide, the water seems very far away from the land because flat coastlines surround Broome.
Broome classic colour of Roebuck Bay
The color palette: Blue
This is a color palette of Broome from the Roebuck Bay
We were pretty fortunate and grateful to be able to go to this beautiful Christmas Islands and Cocos Keeling in this COVID-19 uncertain time. All border was closed except for NT and WA hence we could go to these beautiful islands.
Christmas and Cocos Islands are two of the most beautiful and unique parts of Australia and located near Java Island of Indonesia.
The Christmas Island was used as a detention centre for asylum seekers who fled their troubled homeland to seek a better lives in the dreamland of Australia and the government quarantine them before granting them citizenship.
The Christmas Island also have some unique marine and inland ecological diversity and most well known by its red crab migration season, coconut crab, golden bosun and booby birds, and whale shark diving.
I did the scuba diving and it was great but it wasn’t in the right season with poor visibility and didn’t see something spectacular like big turtles or whale shark as seen on Instagram. Excellent tour operator though 🙌🏽.
We really had a great time enjoying the unique natural attraction on this unique place despite eerie feeling of the history, social life, the limited facilities, lack of good food, which I always value from a good island holidays and internet connection which I see it as a break from the internet and enjoying what’s in front of us. Cigarettes and alcohol are pretty cheap compared to other places in Australia, almost as cheap as in Asian countries 🤔, but that’s not in my interest.
Here are some photos of the Christmas and Cocos Island:
After living in Darwin for over 13 years, this year I decided to get a kayak and jumping into the notorious Darwin water that most people are avoiding because of the crocodile and box jellyfish. This dry season of 2021 has been the best so far since I live here. Some nice and cool mornings and not too humid.
Crocodiles in Darwin 🐊
The biggest and most common questions about any activities in Darwin is ‘how often or what’s the chance you will encounter crocodiles while kayaking is “Are you not scared with the crocodile or box jellyfish (stingers)? The answer is: of course I’m scared of the crocodiles and that’s why I only do kayaking and not jumping in the water. And the kayak is an easy going I’ll get there when I get there kind of kayak, not surfski where you can fall into the water anytime.
Nightcliff Kite Corner
I launched my kayak from Nightcliff Kite Corner where many others started their stand-up paddleboarding at sunrise time. On one nice weekend day, there were about 30 SUPers having fun riding the waves at sunrise. You will be surprised by how many people are doing SUP, kayak, windsurf and kite surfing at this place. It’s like a little unique community happening in this corner.
Fun Supply Darwin provides some kite surfing and SUP lessons and fun equipment hire. They usually park at the Kite Corner or Lake Alexander at the East Point. Check their schedule on their site.
I paddled from this corner slowly to Casuarina coastal reserve way and stopped at the Surf Life Saving club and having a coffee at De La Plage cafe. There’s a creek near this spot that saltwater crocodile has been seen around.
East Point
When the first time I got my kayak, I tried it out first at the Lake Alexander at the East Point to know and get used to it and after I had the confidence and comfortable with it, I tried it out on the ocean from East Point beach at sunset time. It was amazing.
The calm water and sunset in the background were so relaxing. I paddled from the beach up to just pass Pee Wees restaurant. On this water where it’s not far from Ski clubs and others, you will see so many yachts anchored down.
I was a bit surprised but not surprised at the same time that I passed across other kayakers, two individual sport kayakers, one paddle fishing kayak, and two others just floating around taking photos of the beautiful Darwin sunset.
I’m looking forward to paddle on many other spots around Darwin.
The Bundilla beach (formerly Vesteys beach) has a smooth ramp that goes straight to the water and it has a spacious parking lot so it’s easy for me to get ready launch. We can go two ways either to East Point or Cullen bay.
How it started
It was on my birthday in 2018 my loved one got me a surprised present by booking the Fun Supply Darwin kayak rent and took me for a drive earl in the morning blind folded and I thought it was going to Palmerston. End up at the Kite Corner and the kayaks are ready for paddling. I was scared of the crocs but decided to jump on it.
Turned out to be the best experience in Darwin with the most beautiful calm water and burning sunrise sky. Here’s one of the photo
The first time I heard about Atauro Island was when Charles Darwin University had their art exhibition called ‘The Sculpture of Atauro Island’ in July 2018. Never thought that 8 months later we are visiting the island for 2 weeks.
Its located north of Dili, Timor-Leste 1.2hr flight from Darwin Australia/Bali, and about 3 hours public ferries that run every Thursday and Saturday when the Beloi Markets are happening. The Saturday Market is the main market and heaps more people and variety of products on offer. The ferry ride has a big chance of seeing dolphins or whales as this island has a big variety of these water mammals. We saw one closer to the island from Dili.
I would describe Atauro is a very peaceful and happy island. The water and corals are beautiful and just meters away from the coast. We stayed at Atauro Dive Resort in Beloi, a beachfront dive resorts with friendly people and great food served. I was a bit skeptical about the choice of food on the island and we were prepared to have some 2 instant noodles in case there are no options or expensive food around the island. But I was pleasantly surprised that this resort provides $6-12 meals with a huge variety from local-Indonesian-Portuguese influenced food. One night we have Australian lamb shanks and that was great!
All we did there was, relaxing at our sea view bungalow reading a book or just muckin around with my photo/videos I took during the stay, jump into the water, snorkel, eat, sleep, went for a walk around the village and felt great! The local people were so friendly. All we see are just people smiling at us and say bondia, botarde and bonoite to greet us. Most of the locals are fishermen/women and seaweed farmers. I quite enjoy walking along the coast looking at them spear fishing or spread the net on a tiny boat with all of the family members on board. You can see their catches on Saturday market where big boat from Dili visit, The Berlin Nakroma.
