... shanleylife: Cable Beach Camels

Before you read any further do yourself a favour & check out the Shanavan's Middle Lagoon post if you haven't already done so!

Well here we are back at Broome nearing the end of our holiday. It is Kath's birthday and what better way to celebrate a Broome birthday than a camel ride and dinner at Cable Beach.

There are three camel ride companies apparently all offering similar service but with different coloured apparel. We had booked with Red Sun Camels for the sunset tour.

Ellen meets one of the camels.

The camel ride is not everyone's cup of tea. The launch in particular can be a little fraught. One older lady in our group (who was hard of hearing) was certainly not braced in the "lean back" position and nearly came to grief. Another found her perch to be distressingly uncomfortable and opted to bail out completely. Hence we had an empty camel in our group.

Zoe didn't really show any nerves. She would have been absolutely at ease however if only she were able to see how relaxed her father was during mounting. The camel didn't seem too happy either but was coaxed into action by the handlers (mostly we were looked after by young Natasha seen below)!

All of today's pictures worth clicking on to get the enlarged view & fully appreciate the aesthetic qualities!

The handlers had their camels in a particular order and suited to different loads. We were at the back of the train. First in our group was Seta who carried Peter (maximum load reached apparently). Next Vesna, Brielle and Codi were on Wun.

Ben and Zoe had Kabul. Coco carrried Ellen and Kath. Hannah and Tom were carried by Ghan.

Our carriages of the train

Ready to go. We had worried about the unusual afternoon fog that had enveloped Broome. Would it make our sunset a dud? Should we have cancelled? You can see the mist over Brielle's left shoulder.

I haven't quite got this reverse-angle thing worked out!

The other two companies seen through the mist after their turning point.

Not your typical Cable Beach sunset!

Natasha was happy to take photos on foot with our cameras which was great!

Like my camel, I thought it important to keep an eye on Natasha.

These two pictures (above & below) were taken by the Red Sun Camels photographer (as well as the portrait shots shown at the start).

People picknicked, jogged and walked their dogs while the spectacle of the camel trains passed. We were surprised however by an amateur photographic club using us as subject matter.