Harry Bryant And Jay Davies Brave Crocs And Jellies In An Obscure Corner Of Australia

Broome is one of those places that could only exist in Australia. And when Tropical Cyclone Veronica teed up some swell, Jay Davies and Harry Bryant got a first-hand lesson in how purely Australian the backwater is.

Tucked way up on the northwest coast of Western Australia, it’s closer to Indo than it is Perth. The ancestral homeland of the Yawuru people, they’ve been harvesting pearls there for the better part of 20,000 years…about 15,000 years before the first pyramids in Egypt were built…and 19,850 years before white European settlers stormed the shore.

A 14-mile stretch of glistening white sand called Cable Beach is the town’s big allure (named after an undersea telegraph cable that connected Java to Australia). The tide can fluctuate over 30 feet, and at low tide there are dinosaur fossils aplenty.

But you don’t have to wait for the tide to drop to get all prehistoric, there are plenty of modern-day dinosaurs roaming around in the form of saltwater crocodiles. Other fantastic beasts in the zone include Irukandji and Box jellyfish, as well as a colony of 50,000 “megabats.”

And who better to soak in the bizarre vibes than Jay and Harry? The surf they enjoyed probably won’t go down in either of their top five all-time scores, but that’s not really the point. The waves were serviceable and the locals friendly. A surf trip like this as about the journey, the experience…and what an experience Broome is.