BROOME

Our beautiful, clever boy and his first baby "Barra"

The Tedescos and the Hansens walking along Quandong Point

Beth at Quandong Point

Tess at Quandong Point

Ben contemplating the ocean at Quandong Point

A stunning afternoon on a picturesque beach

Letting the tyres down for our beach river crossing

Crossing at the best spot - handpicked by Violet and Sarah

Bridgie and a jelly fish

That amazing sunset over Coconut Well - north Cable Beach

DAY 63 – BROOME                                                         Saturday, 3^rd September

And so starts the third and last month of our holiday ….  Can’t believe how quickly this holiday is flying!  I can hardly believe that we have been in Broome for two weeks today!!  “Broome-time” seems to go so quickly; it really does not feel like that long.  I will hardly know what to do when we pack up on Wednesday morning!!  It constantly amazes me how Broome seems to have this effect on people.  People seem to come here and then let the days slip into weeks, and for the fortunate, the weeks slip into months!  I can definitely understand why the “grey nomads” choose not to spend cold winters in Melbourne, but drive up here and sit for three, four or sometimes five months of the year.  Have resolved to do that in our retirement!!!  Anyway, hoping that by some miracle, on Wednesday I will be ready to move on to new adventures!  The Parsons are not helping with that, sending us text messages all the time saying that nowhere is as good as Broome and it just keeps getting colder.  They were in “jeans and long sleeve tops” in Kalbarri the other night – what on earth are they?  Of course the Parsons’ journey may be slightly tainted by all the fun they have been having with a mice plague, smashed back window, flat tyre, and recently, the van catching on fire when the wheel gave way!!  They really have done it tough. 

Woke up to a fridge temperature of 10 degrees – not overly excited as in the coolest part of the day, I had hoped the fridge would have got down further than that.  It moved from there to 12 degrees, where it sat for the remainder of the day.  Looks like we will have to prevail upon the generosity of the Tedescos for their fridge for the rest of the trip!

The boys (David, Lawrence, Luke, Gerard and Ben) went fishing off the jetty at the Broome Port this morning and Ben absolutely LOVES it – must be the Terkelsen coming out in him!!  He caught three fish – one of which he thinks was a baby Barramundi.  All too little to take home and cook up (Thank God, David says) but I was so proud of my little boy and HE was so proud of HIMSELF!  They stayed out for quite a while.  I know that because they lasted longer than “us girls” (Barry, Marj,  Violet, Beth, Tess, Bridgie and myself) at the Broome market.  We managed to do a little shopping and then come home for lunch.

In the afternoon, the Tedescos and the Hansens took a drive up to Quandong Point (up the coast road).  After a small hiccup which took us 20 kms further up the Cape Leveque Road than we were supposed to go, we found Quandong Point and had a lovely walk along the sand and into the warm water.  Several detours into narrow 4WD tracks (actually “track” is too good a word) later, we finally (OK – DAVID finally) found the road which led down to the beach at Coconut Well which was a bit hairy in places.  David pressed on through all the complaints from the Minister for Risk Management in the back seat.  The boys let some air out of the tyres while Violet and I found the best path across the river on the beach for the vehicles.  We drove then down to Cable Beach along the beach which was absolutely stunning.  I cannot describe how beautiful the beach is and how peaceful and magical it is at sunset.  There is something incredibly spiritual about being out in the middle of nowhere.  It almost gave me butterflies in my stomach as Vi and I walked along the beach at Coconut Well with not one other set of footprints on the sand.  It was amazing.

Marj and Barry took us out for dinner to the Thai restaurant for dinner which was divine.  Lovely food and even though we have had some Thai since we have been away, it is so nice to have it cooked for you!!  Just delicious and a perfect way to finish a gorgeous day.