Ponant Kimberley Cruise - Day 13 - Broome / Cable Beach and Home

SATURDAY 4 MAY – Day 13

Broome is reputed for its history and pearling era. Chinatown, the historic city centre, and the Japanese Cemetery (dating to 1896) highlight a past marked by immigrants coming to work the prosperous pearl industry and the end of the 19th century.

Time to bid farewell to our beautiful home of the last 10 days and head back to our own home and family. The disembarkation process is smooth. We got the pilot on board around 6am. We were tied up at Broome Pier by about 7ish. We were up and at breakfast for 7am and all done by 7.45. We had to be out of our room by 8am, which we were, with only our day packs. We all sat around the Deck 3 Lounge waiting to be called for our transfers. Everyone was given a colour tag to match their departure time and destination and disembarkation was smooth and orderly. Again, all of the crew were on deck to bid us farewell. Officers, deck, hospitality and expedition.

The pier at Broome is a really long jetty from the mainland to where we tie up, and its NOT a public access road, so you cannot simply get off and grab a cab. Cars need permits to access the pier, so its pre-arranged transportation only. Ponant include this in their fare, your choice of transfer to Cable Beach Resort and hotels, Broome Town hotels, airport, or to day use at Mangrove Resort and then later airport transfer. There was a form delivered to our room early on during the cruise where we noted our requirements and Lucie, the Shorex manager, made it all happen. We grabbed a ride to Cable Beach resort for a site inspection of the resort. I was not expecting it, but we were then also booked on the resort complimentary airport shuttle at 11am to make our flight. One of the perks of my job is having a look around different hotels and resorts so I can tell TYOU what I liked about them and if I think they would be a good choice for you.

Some of the best (close up) animal life on the cruise we actually saw on the shuttle bus from the pier! There was an Osprey sitting on her nest on one of the side rails, we saw more kites, and a green sea turtle that popped its head up and had a really good long look at us, longer than the ones in the ocean that swam away from us LOL.

The Cable Beach Resort was not at all what I thought (I have not checked out the rooms for a long time) so while Steve enjoyed a morning coffee by the pool, the Ocean Pool which is a quiet adult only area, I went on a little tour. I was shown a bungalow room, a villa, and the top of the line 3-bedroom villa. The rooms were lovely with a minimalistic feel, very Asian almost with the dark timber floors and décor. The beds were all kings, they looked so comfy, the bathrooms spacious, all the rooms seemed to have walk in robes or good-sized wardrobes within the large sized bathrooms, with ironing board and iron, safe, all the usual facilities.

The walls of all the rooms are iron bar reinforced bezel blocks so they won’t blow away in a hurry in a storm – the last large cyclone they had caused damage to the gardens, and a few minor things (Bali hut roof blew off on some pool cabanas etc) but all in all, the resort survived pretty unscathed. They do have a bunker though so if it reaches a critical state, guests are all packed up and moved here. The cyclones usually come in the off season so all rooms allocated to guests at that time are ground floor wherever possible to make things easy in that regard. There is also a large pool called the Kimberley Pool where everyone is encouraged to gather and enjoy music and casual dining around the pool. Along the veranda from reception you pass an Italian café which is gorgeous for more formal dining, and it has the longest drinks menu I have seen in ages! There is a Japanese restaurant with Japanese chef where dinner is a 2-3 hour voyage thru a gastronomic feast, there is a casual seaside bar and grill and other options, all of which locals enjoy as well as hotel guests, so top tip in high season is to ALWAYS book ahead for restaurant dining. There is not much else we saw in the vicinity of the resort – there is a casual dining/café across the road from the resort looking over the beach. Cable Beach is just STUNNING with the colour of the water, the whitest of white sand, and is safe for swimming – so clean and clear and there is a patrolled area to swim between the flags if you take a dip.

The resort runs a shuttle into town each day – leaves late morning and comes back mid afternoon – its only about a 10min run in Broome town, and if it is full there is a public bus service that leaves from across the road, at the edge of the beach carpark. The airport is right in the middle of Cable Beach and Broome Town, only about 15mins from most places that you could be staying. The advice is to get there early especially in high season as there are a lot of arrivals and departures around the same time each day and it gets busy.

All of the dining at the resort, the airport and town shuttles should be booked ahead of time as they do fill up during the high season.

Broome airport is small and must be absolutely packed in high season. It has one open plan seating area / food court past checkin with 1 food outlet and 1 gift shop. And that is all. There is also seating in the departure lounge area, basically just a big plain room. They must be renovating as the public toilets are new looking and immaculate….. clean and sparkling. There is a ladies, gents, and unisex and there is a shower in each. It does not matter what gate you leave from; the two doors to exit to the tarmac are from the same seating area. It’s a walk across the tarmac (no airbridge). There is a small lounge for Qantas guests which we did not have access to, but the pricing of the sandwiches, wraps, coffees and drinks was quite reasonable. We got two chicken wraps and a bottle of water for $22 for lunch.

We have had a good run with the flights – the flight home left on time and was barely half full. We are enjoying having our 3 seats for the 2 of us for more comfort. The food is certainly nothing to write home about. Tomato penne pasta with meat (they claim was pork LOL) in a box but happy with a Lindt ball (or two as the flight was half full) afterwards ????

All that remains now is to collect the car from Qantas Valet and tackle the drive home. It’s been a fantastic trip but we are looking forward to getting home to be with our family ????

By Sarah Fenton

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