Broome: Matso’s and a sunset cruise on the Lugger Willie.

We arrived at our focus point for the trip,

 Broome 

on Sunday.

When i say it was our focal point , its not that it was our only destination of interest ,it was just that when gadget was planning a trip with so much that we wanted and needed to do, and with what we thought was such along period of time, we had to chose a focal point and we quickly realised how busy Broome became at this time of the year , and we needed to book the caravan park early so it came the point that the remainder of our trip centred around.  

On our first night in Broome we enjoyed a lovely night enjoying the Matso brewery, with gadget having a tasting paddle and me the designated driver , which was pretty fair since Gadget has done by far  the majority of driving on the trip ,in fact i have only driven once so far. Matso’s brewery and their products was not a totally new thing for us ,in fact we have sampled their ginger beer before, but it was something that was on our bucket list 

This was gadgets tasting paddle, from left to right ginger beer, mango beer, Chango (chilli mango beer), angry Ranga (chilli ginger beer) and Chilli beer. He managed to drink all of them i tasted the angry ranga and it took my breath away..lol 

We enjoyed a lovely meal here and enjoyed just spending a lovely eventing outside under the stars.

The building that Matso’s restaurant, brewery and main bar is located in is historically significant, the building was originally the Matsumoto’s general store, it was generally known as Matso’store. The brewery name and logo is representative of the melting pot that is the culture of Broome (more on that  in the next post) .

The next day we took the opportunity to pickup our Broome transport two wheels instead of Reggie, caught up on some much needed washing and shopping and Reggie got dropped off  for a well earned service at the local Toyota dealership.

However that evening gadget had arranged for us to cruise on the Lugger Willie. 

The Willie is a 67 foot gaff rigged schooner , which was modelled on the design of the original pearl luggers used in the Broome area.  So if your curious as gadget and i are you thinking why is this lovely sailing ship called a Lugger , well it has to do with her design and the fact that she has a lug sail

Which is a four sided sail and looks like the image below 

(Image from, Wikipedia)

The Willie is a well known Broome icon. She was built in Fremantle in  Western Australia.

Her masts made from Tasmanian Huon pine,  specifically selected and shipped to Fremantle.  She was launched in 1985 , her colourful career has included , working as a commercial fishing boat (as her pearling license was initially declined), then she became a charter vessels ,carrying scientists and adventurers along the coast of the Kimberly to explore shipwrecks and traditional sites.

She then became a surf charter vessel , cruising the popular surf breaks in Indonesia , before finally returning home to Australia and cable beach, Broome, in the late 90’s. Finally in 2011 Willie was finally able to return to her roots, fishing for mother of pearl in the waters of Broome.  

The Willie is now part of the iconic sunset of Cable beach, she usually graces the waters off the beach as the camels carry their tourists along the beach . This image is replicated on artworks ,postcards and images associated with Cable Beach in Broome.

The cruise was so lovely, we enjoyed freshly shucked oysters , Sushi and a wonderful  cheese platter along with wine, Prosecco and beer whilst rocking gently along with the sea.

gadget was recruited to assist with raising and lowering the sails. 

(The image above is not the Willie, it was a vessel moored near Willie’s mooring and was the focus for my sunset shots)

Probably the funniest bit was , that when the sails were raised the captain,   commented that there wasn’t a great deal of wind and that the sails were mainly raised for “display” for those on cable beach for the sunset as tradition. However there was enough wind that the Willie overshot cable beach and had to tack back to ensure she was in the right place as the sun went down.

It was a wonderful evening, one that I will remember for the rest of my days.

Until our next blog

Travel safe

The Touring Knights