Page 125 - Travel + Leisure India & South Asia (January 2020)

however, there are plenty of camels in Australia, and they
thrive because the conditions are ideal for them. I can
understand the fascination for a camel ride among other
tourists, but for someone who grew up in India, the draw
wasn’t so much the camel as the spectacular sunset.
The final flourish of my Western Australia itinerary

was a meal at Matso’s Broome Brewery (matsos.com.
au). The Madras prawn curry rice here lived up to my
curry benchmark, the one set by my neighbour, Mrs
Ventakakutty. They also had plenty of funky beers, and I
tasted them all. My favourite one turned out to be Angry
Ranga, an in-house ginger beer mixed with an in-house
chilli beer. Zingy and spicy! It was the perfect combination
of food and drink that lulled me into a satisfied slumber

on my three-hour flight back to Perth.

Cape Leveque

Dampier
Peninsula
Broome
Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm provides basic tent accommodation
in a fantastic location in Cape Leveque.

Western

Archipelago. Some of the world’s largest tropical tides
take place here, and the presence of a reef leads to a Out West
cascading waterfall in the middle of the ocean. In Australia Australia
As the name suggests, Cygnet Bay is a Pearl Farm,
and once we were back to our digs, Sammy showed us A year-round holiday
around, offering insight into the fascinating history of destination, Western
Australia warrants a
pearling, and explained how some of the most beautiful deep dive. Start building
and sought-after pearls in the world are cultivated at your wishlist now.
Cygnet Bay. He split open an oyster and harvested a
beautiful, luminescent round pearl from it. The tour also
included an in-depth pearl appreciation session, but it Getting There Stay
wasn’t really my cup of tea. Fly to Perth Airport, In Broome, Mangrove Hotel
What made ‘my cup runneth over’, though, was the Western Australia, from offers a range of rooms
sundowner at the Master Pearler’s Private Retreat—a Delhi or Mumbai with one and suites. From `6,595;
stopover on any one of the
mangrovehotel.com.au
self-contained accommodation 20 minutes away by airlines serving the route, On Dampier Peninsula,
boat. Watching the sun going down while sipping on including Singapore Airlines Kooljaman at Cape Leveque
RISHAD SAAM MEHTA ; ILLUSTRATION BY MEGHNA PATWAL
some of Australia’s fantastic white wine was the perfect (singaporeair.com) and has a range of stay options
curtain call to my time at Kooljaman. Air India (airindia.in). including safari tents,
Broome is a three-hour ensuite cabins, camping
flight from Perth. The spots and log huts.
GIVING IN TO best way to see the From `5,825 per night;
kooljaman.com.au
Horizontal Falls is to go
on a day tour on a
Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm gives
THE CLICHE seaplane. horizontalfalls- you a unique Kimberley
adventures.com.au
Coast experience—whether
Once back in Broome, you live in a pearling shack,
Back in Broome, I simply had to partake in the activity that you can either drive to the glamping safari tent, or on
is splashed across most tourist brochures of the town: a Dampier Peninsula (200 km, camp grounds. The bush
sunset camel ride on the beach (redsuncamels.com.au). The six hours on a dirt road) or tents begin at `4,612 per
take a flight to the airstrip
night and the glamping
camels aren’t native to Australia, but were brought over called One Arm Point. tents begin at `15,292;
from India and Palestine between 1840 and 1860. Today, broomeaviation.com.au cygnetbaypearlfarm.com.au

TR AV E L A NDLE I S U R E IND I A .IN 121