Darwin – Broome: Stereotypes that prove the opposite

We headed from Darwin to Australia's highly regarded West Coast and reached Broome thanks to two people with a special friendship, an emotional, sincere man and a woman who is married to a whiskey bottle. Our tent broke down and Sofia shows her strength when her nightmare became truth.

Diego and Felicitas, 29 and 20 year

These two backpackers knew each other less than a day when they picked us up. I saw little space in the car to take us, but Diego managed to fit a truckload of stuff into a small car.

Diego is a chef and has worked in restaurants all over the world. During his ten years of traveling, he sorted out his life path; preparing Italian food and end up running his own Italian restaurant. Diego is very assertive, a useful skill to some degree. He spoke to many people and brought us quickly and safely to the destination. But Diego was so assertive that he, without asking Felicitas, more or less decided to travel with her to Perth. Embarrassed by the situation that has arisen Felicitas accepted this.

Felicitas is a young, powerful girl who is 8 months on the road, unfortunately without her German boyfriend. Two years ago Felicitas got hit by a car while she was on her scooter. She suffered a complex leg fracture. Because of this she had to lie in bed for three months and she could not walk for a year. This had major consequences for her; she could not go to school, could not play her beloved volleyball and had little social contact. She could not do what she wanted and she became depressed. She had to learn to walk again and as she became physically stronger she crawled out of her depression and climbed to the peak where she is today; backpacking through Asia and Australia and living her dreams.
 

We had arrived in Kununurra, a village where 200 backpackers are waiting for farm work which has been promised but not available. For six hours I looked at passing cars. Sporadic a car stopped to apologize, because they could not give us a lift. I became friends with the trees, because they offered me some shade in the blazing sun. Sofia lost her patience after thirty minutes and did not enjoy waiting for six hours. In her thoughts she sat in the bath of a hotel fifty. Luckily our effort got rewarded and Bryan and Rafael picked us up.

Bryan and Rafael, 65 and 25 year
This interesting pair lives in the same village, where Australian Football ("Footy '' called in Australia) has brought them together. Rafael plays at the local Footyteam where he trains every day if he does not play a game. The most talented players move to a bigger club and to the big city. Similarly Rafael, a club in Darwin, playing on the second highest level in the country, offered him a contract. He moved to Darwin and had the potential to reach the top, but Rafael was homesick and did not feel at home in the city. He spent six months in Darwin, until he decided to return to the place where he grew up. Rafael attaches strongly to his family and the area where he grew up, as many aboriginals do, and feels uncomfortable when he is away from home for a long time.

Because of Bryan’s respectful, patient attitude and willingness to start the conversation he earned the respect of the Aboriginal community. They consider Bryan as a friend and open up towards him. Since Bryan is part of the community, his understanding and appreciation for the community grew and he decided that he wanted to help them. His friendship with Rafael is a good example of this. Bryan helps Rafael is his search for work, supports him in his passion for footy and he shares his life experiences with Rafael. He is of great value for Rafael by listening to him, deciding what he needs and building a bridge where possible.
 

That night it started to thunder, which is often combined with heavy rainfall. Lightning stroke into the ground every ten seconds and you could feel that extreme weather was ahead. Sofia was anything but at ease in our ramshackle tent and squeezed the blood out of my hands. Apparently the owner of the campground felt that, because he came to our tent and offered us a staffroom. We felt relieved and were pleased that we were finally able to sleep peacefully, until a big cockroach walked on my leg. The room turned out to be full of bugs; the thought of even more bugs on my body was not very soothing. We sprayed bug spray everywhere, but we could not the cockroach. We tried to sleep again until the cockroach ran for the second time on my leg. We chased him again and found him cockroach quickly this time. After a few mishits of James Bond, he gave him a deadly hit with his favorite weapon; a phone book.

Sam, 40-45 year
A big, black car with a friendly, yet somewhat obscure man stopped for us. Sam is a man of the outback and leads a simple life. He works as an ambulance driver, has a family and watches television with a beer every night before he goes to bed.

I saw little changes in Sam's life, so it surprised me that he took two unknown people in his car. Sam showed the most emotion when he talked about his daughters who worked in the hospital with him. The villagers saw his daughters as intruders, because they had a job they wanted. For that reason, his daughters were consistently insulted by the villagers and they felt very unwelcome. After a few months the situation became so uncomfortable that Sam had to send his daughters back to Kununurra, something he did with pain is his heart.

I noticed that the rivalry between the villages is big. You won’t be easily accepted if you are new in town. It is difficult to imagine that you move to a village in the Netherlands, where farmers chase you with pitchforks until you leave the town.


Alessio, 26 year
Alessio is a sincere, humbled guy who likes to be alone with a joint and his music in the car. He can drive around in his car for weeks with no specific purpose until he is forced to be productive because he runs out of money. The simplicity of his life appeals to me. He lives from day to day and does not feel any stress, possibly smoking five joints of pure cannabis helps here too. In that case is my advice to people who are stressed; smoke every day a joint.

Six years ago Alessio’s girlfriend broke up after a relationship of six years, because she was in love with someone else. Alessio was broken and wanted to leave. Three days later he was on a plane to Sweden and he has not returned home yet. He calmed down in Sweden, partied like an animal in Barcelona and found the balance in Australia. He still cherishes much love for his ex-girlfriend and preferably they get back together. But the fear that Alessio gets rejected for good holds him back to get in touch with her again. 

The end of the tent
That night it poured rain for hours. Our ramshackle tent was not resistant against this and changed into a colander. We could not stay in the tent, so in the middle of the night Sofia and I ran half naked over the site to bring our stuff to the indoor laundry room. Luckily nothing was broke and I quickly fell asleep on the laundry floor, but Sofia could not and stayed awake the whole night. Despite the fact that Sofia is not a fan of camping and that the tent had collapsed, she stays calm and excited about our adventure. From sleeping in hotels to spend the night in a laundry room with soggy stuff; Sofia's adaptability is admirable.

Cherilee, 45 year
Sofia's dream came true when we could hitch a ride with a woman with a dog in the car. For three hours she cuddled with the dog on the back seat and she suddenly enjoyed hitchhiking more than she ever did.
Cherilee was heading to Broome for a holiday party with her best friend. Preferably Cherilee drinks whiskey all day, a habit she's not having from a stranger. Her mother is addicted to alcohol and her sister passed away because of her alcohol addiction. Fortunately Cherilee can control her drinking, at least she says that, and she only drinks on weekends and holidays. Her preference for alcohol expressed itself by our conversation which turned every five minutes into an alcohol-related issue; liquors, nightlife, hangovers etc.
The reason Cherilee still has not lost herself into drinking is her work and the responsibility she feels for it. She is responsible for the HRM and Hospitality department of a hospital and is in charge of 60 employees. She is clear to her employees and able to change things, skills that helped her to work up to this leadership role.
Cherilee's personality intrigues me and I would like to have a drink with her, so I can discover more sides of her. Unfortunately, we did not have the time to do that and I doubt if I would come home safe and sound that night.

Broome
Broome is bursting with backpackers. It was low season, but our hostel was fully booked and I saw more boobies than beer bottles at night. On the streets there's a relaxed atmosphere, as if everyone is on vacation. Broome has a beautiful beach, a cute center, including unique pearl shops, and people that seem to be very open and helpful. Although there is not much to do I can understand that many travelers stay here for good. Our time was precious, so after one day in Broome, we continued our way towards Perth.