Perth & Western Australia - Australia 2004 - page 478

concierge; tour desk; business center; limited room service; in-room massage; babysitting; same-day dry
cleaning/laundry service; art gallery/pearl boutique. In room:A/C, TV w/pay movies, fridge, hair dryer, iron.
Mangrove Hotel The best views in Broome are across Roebuck Bay from
this modest but appealing cliff-top hotel, a 5 minutes' walk from town. There's
no faulting the clean, well-kept, roomy deluxe rooms with sea views. Sixteen
extra-large Executive Suite rooms were added in 2002; there are also three suites
with kitchenettes, separate bedrooms, and Jacuzzis; and two two-bedroom
apartments. The swimming pools and Jacuzzis are set in the lawns overlooking
the bay. It's worth hightailing it back from sightseeing just to watch dusk fall
over the bay from The Tides , a lovely outdoor restaurant serving fresh,
affordable food. The restaurant's tables and chairs are set out on the lawns under
the palms and along the cliff edge. Inside, Charters restaurant is one of
Broome's best. The town bus stops across the road.
120 Carnarvon St., Broome, WA 6725. & 1800/094 818 in Australia, or 08/9192 1303. Fax [phone].
www.mangrovehotel.com.au. 70 units, all with bathroom (65 with shower only, 3 with Jacuzzi). High season
(Apr-Sept) A$165-A$198 (US$107-US$129) double; A$253-A$275 (US$164-US$179) suite; A$264
(US$172) 2-bedroom apt. Low season (Oct-Mar) A$143 (US$93) double; A$176-A$253 (US$114-US$164)
suite; A$242 (US$157) 2-bedroom apt. Extra person A$33 (US$21). Children under 3 stay free. Ask about
packages in the wet season. AE, DC, MC, V. Courtesy car from airport. Amenities: 2 restaurants; 2 bars; 2
outdoor pools; 2 Jacuzzis; tour desk; secretarial services; limited room service; coin-op laundry; same-day dry
cleaning/laundry service. In room:A/C, TV w/movies, dataport (Executive Suites only), fridge, hair dryer, iron.
BEYOND BROOME
North of Broome, the Kimberley gets wild. It's a place with almost no human
settlement, best suited to those who love nature at its most raw and isolated.
Swimming in the ocean and rivers is off-limits, except in croc-free rock-pools.
Stretching 220km (136 miles) north of Broome, the Dampier Peninsula is
home to several Aboriginal communities that sell artworks, and a wonderful
pearl-shell church built by missionaries.
The 350-million-year-old walls of Windjana Gorge, 240km (149 miles) east
of Broome reveal fossilized marine creatures laid down in the Devonian period.
A trail leads you past the walls, which rise up to 100m (328 ft.) above the desert
floor. The 30m (98-ft.) high walls of Geikie Gorge (pronounced geek -ee), 418km
(259 miles) east of Broome, are part of the same ancient coral-reef system as
Windjana, which you explore by walk trails or a short cruise run by rangers.
Either gorge can be explored on a long day trip from Broome.
The 10,000 or more islands of the Buccaneer and Bonaparte Archipelagos
are mostly uninhabited except for Cockatoo Island Resort ( & 08/9191 7477;
fax [phone]; www.cockatooisland.com), several hundred kilometers north
of Broome, a glamorously simple hideaway that puts guests in salmon-pink
former miners' huts perched high on a rock wall over the sea. Fishing, taking
nature walks, and lazing by the cliff-top pool are the main activities. The sight of
the archipelago's red rocky islands and the clouds reflecting in the jade-green sea is
wonderful from the air.
Much farther north are the tidal whirlpools, gorges, and rainforested waterfalls
of Walcott Inlet; the utter isolation of the gorges, rock plateaus, and river of the
600,000-hectare (1,482,000-acre) Prince Regent Nature Reserve; and the four
tiers of the picturesque Mitchell Falls.
There are no roads to most of these places (except for four-wheel-drive tracks
to the Dampier Peninsula and Mitchell Falls), so you need to explore by scenic
flight from Broome or Kununurra or by boat. July through September or later,
plane and boat passengers often spot humpback whales along this coast.