BROOME

Beth, Jemma, Ella and Tess with their masterpiece

Bridgie, Ben and Caleb with their "beast"

Tessie creating her dream house

"The Dream" destroyed!!

Celebrating the sandcastle as the tide claims it finally!

Our children in the beautiful sunset!

DAY 55 – BROOME                                                               Friday, 26^th August

Welcome to another day in paradise!!  Tess and I had some Mummy/Daughter time today which was lovely.  Some things don’t change.  We went to the Red Cross Op Shop (Dee would be so proud) and bought a lovely dress for Tess – very Broome-like!!  Then wandered around the shops, purchased Crocodile Dundee I and II on DVD (apparently this is the best movie EVER since seeing it on the big screen with free popcorn in the park at Jabiru!!) and then did the usual milk and bread and ICE run!  (Getting sick of a smelly fridge!!)

David was hard at work (reading and dozing by the pool) when I returned.  We had lunch and then  - SURPRISE SURPRISE – Beth and Tess got their ears pierced!!  Thought it was a nice tribute and memory for them to get them pierced in Broome.  Tess put her hand up straight away to be first and was pleasantly surprised that “it didn’t hurt at all”!  Beth on the other hand was so terrified (because Daniella – who never feels pain at all – told her it hurt a little bit) that I thought she almost would not go through with it!  Finally got her ready and she declared that it didn’t hurt at all! Beth has blue studs and Tessie, pink.  They are, pardon the pun, tickled pink!  They are checking all the time that they can still twist them!  Very happy about the whole situation.

Another lovely night with the Pattersons and another family down on the beach, chatting with the kids having sandcastle competitions, until cooking the barbie and watching the sun set.  The sandcastle competition was fierce with three teams competing!  You should have seen Tessie’s face as the tide came in and totally destroyed hers!  She was devastated!

.

As we arrived home, we got a call from Lawrence and Violet to say that they had arrived early into Broome.   So we popped over to say hello.  It is always nice to see a friendly face from home.  Pauline and Rob are our “tour advisors” now.  Constantly giving us handy tips on caravan parks and what to see as they are a little way ahead of us now.  It is good to be able to pass on useful information – like no diesel in Tom Price until Tuesday afternoons!!

BROOME

Benno, my surfie son!!

They are really quite nice, you know!

The kids walked with the camels all the way up the beach.

Bridgie walking with Alanna and Tess

Ben and this magic sunset!

Tess and Bridgie in the waves until dark

Ben and Beth with "Red Dog" on Cable Beach!  He is alive and well!

DAY 54 – BROOME                                                                 Thursday, 25^th August

David took the car in for a service early this morning, with Kevin’s help.  After more than 11,000 kms on red dirt roads, you should have seen the fuel filter!!!  My husband, I suspect, thought it was a badge of honour!  David and Kevin went past Broomecam.com on the way home.  Some surfer set up a webcam on Cable Beach so that he could check out the surf without actually having to go down to the beach (way too much time on his hands!).  So they rang us to watch them posing for Broomecam!  I think I might have accidentally taken a snapshot and printed it out on the Padua College printer – oops!

When they got home, they sat around like two old Greek men, yakking away, until Alanna and the kids came to get him – and then we all sat around chatting and the kids played in the pool until lunchtime.  David went and collected the car and then we all headed to the beach where Alanna and the kids did the sunset camel ride!  Our kids walked almost all the way with the camels and are dying to get their camel ride but we are waiting for Mama and Papa to arrive.  They really are quite amazing animals – their feet are huge and they really are quite placid. 

We decided that the children really needed a good injection of vegetables tonight so did not stay for snags on the beach but went home after sunset for a good hearty meal!!  Just before we left we met “Red Dog” on the beach – a gorgeous 12 month old red Kelpie called Jasper, but who looked exactly like Red Dog.  So I am sure that means that we don’t have to go to Dampier for the photo with the statue now!!

BROOME

Cable Beach from Gantheaume Point

The tribe overlooking Cable Beach from Gantheaume Point

A windswept Sarah, Gantheaume Point

The Hansens at Gantheaume Point looking out over the Indian Ocean

Tess and Bridgie overlooking the Indian Ocean

Father and Son surveying the horizon

Beth at Gantheaume Point

Ben at Gantheaume Point

The happy couple working out how we are going to find the dinosaur footprints

The sea turtle at the Port of Broome

DAY 53 – BROOME                                                            Wednesday, 24^th August

Another day in Paradise!!!!!  Went off this morning to explore Gantheaume Point and the lighthouse and then the Port of Broome.   Gantheaume Point is beautiful; a really rocky outcrop with a fantastic view of Cable Beach and then southwards as well.   Got some great pictures, which, as usual, don’t really give a good indication of just how perfect it is.  The Gantheaume Point lighthouse, albeit not the same building, has been on that site since 1905.  It still operates today but, interestingly, has become the nesting place for a pair of osprey who are currently feeding chicks there.  Apparently, the nest weighs half a tonne!!!

Gantheaume Point is also the place from which you can walk out to view the 120 million year old dinosaur footprints which can only be viewed at very low tides, fortunately, next week for us!!  Apparently, there is no indication of where they are.  You just have to go walking and be prepared to run to the shore when the tide starts coming in.  There is a huge differential between low and high tides here – up to 9 metres!  So that ought to be a bit of fun on Sunday!!

The Port of Broome is very busy and we took a walk out along the pedestrian access where we saw a beautiful sea turtle just swimming along in the clear, blue water!  Trip was cut a little short by a fall by Bridgie who then had blood dripping all down her leg and was loving the sympathy being heaped upon her by all the family.

We were lucky enough to meet up with Lizzie Bannister for a drink at the Divers Tavern in the afternoon – a familiar face who knows people from home!!!  It was great to see her and in particular to hear all about her work with Aboriginal children’s health up here, where she works in clinics for a couple of months each year.  It was so interesting to talk to someone who deals with so many aspects of Aboriginal welfare included foetal alcohol syndrome and the constant presence of domestic violence.  I continue to feel that the more I know, the less I have any idea of how to address the inadequacies of the government’s plan regarding the imbalance in the lives of Aborigines compared to white Australians.  It really is a disgrace.

Won’t continue to bore you with the “stunning sunsets, wave-catching and wines and cheeses on the beach” which have become our afternoon staples!!!!!  But it is fantastic!!!!!!  David and I still have to pinch ourselves!  Even SARAH thought the water was warm today!

BROOME

Morning walk

Tess building sandcastles

Beth enjoying the beach

Best beach cricket pitch in the world!!

A star in the making

Stunning sunset

Not here for Staircase to the moon, but Staircase to the Sun is pretty spectacular

DAY 52 – BROOME                                                                    Tuesday, 23^rd August

OK, this is really a sign of the times.  It is Thursday afternoon and I have just realised that I haven’t written on the blog for a couple of days.  The days - full of sun, surf, and sunsets – are all just meshing into one another!!

On Tuesday, we went into town and had a look around the sites.  We almost fell off Streeters Jetty when it stopped abruptly!  It used to be where all the pearl luggers came ashore.  We saw two pearl luggers which had been restored.  It was fascinating to read the history (often very dangerous history) of the Japanese pearl divers over the last hundred years and seeing the outfits in which they used to dive!!  I could not even pick up ONE of the shoes they used to wear, let alone the helmet and the other weights!!  The last diver to use this equipment used it until 1975!!

It was appalling to find out that when diving, if a storm approached, they just cut the line to the diver and headed for safe harbour.  The boat and the catch were more important than the diver.  Apparently during WW2, the government sank all of the luggers in Broome to prevent them falling into the hands of the Japanese.

Broome has a very chequered history and it is interesting to note that Aborigines just don’t like coming to Broome anymore.  Not only is it full of tourists (fair enough reason for not wanting to be here!) but they say it has a “bad feeling” for Aboriginal people because of the history of “blackbirders” and other atrocities which occurred here.  It is a bit sad because it is such a beautiful place.

Then off down the beach again for the usual boogie-boarding, wine-drinking, cheese-eating, snag-cooking afternoon!!  Met up with the Pattersons again and nattered until too dark to keep an eye on the kids!  Ben is just loving the surf and just wants to boogie-board all day!! 

BROOME

Surfing in the late afternoon

A pearl lugger off Cable Beach

Sorry but the sunsets are just extraordinary!

DAY 51 – BROOME                                                                  Monday, 22^nd August

Oh, these lazy mornings are lovely!!!!!  Just to sit and read the paper or do the blog (albeit interrupted constantly by trying to keep children on task with their homework or journal!) is an enormous luxury.  Plan for today:  Read, beach, eat, post office …..ummm that is about it!!

I went into town and did some posting of things and did a bit of grocery shopping.  I have to say I AM missing my 530lt fridge at home where I can store 12lts of milk!!  This shopping every day is really tiring.  Any sympathy?

David took the kids to the park pool and then we all headed down in our 4WD to the north part of the beach (because we are too lazy to walk there with boogie boards and towels and esky and chairs etc etc.  No one will believe this but SARAH was actually in the water!!  It reminded me of my childhood at the Gold Coast.  It was beautiful be able to teach my children to “jump the waves” and the kids have just had a ball with the boogie boards!  We had a lot of trouble convincing Ben that it really WAS going to be more fun going to the movies than staying and surfing!

The Sun Pictures movie theatre in Carnarvon Street was opened on 9^th December 1916 to house 500 people.  It is the oldest open-air cinema in operation.  It is under the stars and you sit in the really old deck chairs (which you can barely get out of at the end of the night!).  It was absolutely packed, on a Monday night (!), when we got there.  So Kevin and Alanna and David and I sat in the seats at the back and the kids all sat on the lawn at the front.  Just as the movie was about to start, an enormous jet came in to land at Broome airport which is right in the middle of town.  I swear to God I could have given you the engine chassis number – the plane was so close!  The kids almost wet themselves.  The noise was deafening and the audience erupted with applause as it went overhead.  It was unbelievable.    As David said, “You really wouldn’t want to see “Pearl Harbour” at this cinema – a bit too real”!  It was a great experience for the kids but it wasn’t cheap.  They must be making an absolute killing.  There would have been about 800-1000 people there at $16.50 a ticket.  And very little maintenance required! 

Oh by the way, the movie was fantastic too!  “Red Dog” is about a dog up in the Pilbara region who lived during the seventies and travelled huge distances with his owner, and to find his owner.  Beth was sobbing by the end.  Now it appears we may have to go hundreds of kilometres out of our way to take a photograph with the bronze statue of “Red Dog” in Dampier!

BROOME

Boogie Boarding at Cable Beach

Beth loving the waves

Bridgie the Surfer Chick (notice the insignia on the Boogie Board in the background)

Tess and her picture of the camels in the sand

Ben at the beach!

The boys cooking the BBQ on the beach!

The man had his Prado, his beer, his BBQ, the beach and his babe - in that order!

 The Pattersons and the Hansens at our beach camp!

How many beach cricket games get interrupted by a camel train??

Swimming at sunset

DAY 50 – BROOME                                                                                          Sunday, 21^st August

David slept in this morning until 6:40am!!  Unheard of on this holiday!!  Must be the good Broome air! 

Pancakes for breakfast this morning  before heading in to the Courthouse Markets in the town.  The kids all got a Henna tattoo, which they loved.  Bridget, a flower on her ankle; Ben a crocodile on his arm; Tess, a dragon on her arm; and Beth a flower on her arm.  They were very excited.  And Mummy scored a pearl ring!!!  Even more exciting!  Huge amounts of beautiful jewellery. 

After some rather tedious grocery shopping (including finally an esky for our milk – and ice at $6.30!!) we came home, had lunch and then prepared for an afternoon on the most magical of beaches.  David marinated some prawns as a special “welcome to Broome” feature, and he packed cheeses and wine, and the BBQ and snags and chairs and tables and newspapers and …. We might as well have hooked up the caravan!!

We drove down onto the beach (where poor Beth was traumatised as part of the beach is a nudist beach!!) and set up our Prado.  The kids (and the biggest kid, David) surfed on the boogie boards for about 2 hours!  The waves are just perfect for our kids.  The Queenslander in me was appalled, however, when Bridgie said “Oh, Mum look at these enormous waves”!  The “waves” did not come over my waist!!!  My poor children have grown up with Victorian beaches!!!

I cannot adequately explain how beautiful the beach is – and to see my husband turn to me with a huge grin and say “This is paradise” was so lovely.  The camel trains start at about 4pm and the silhouette of the camels in front of the sun setting over the water is just absolutely beautiful. 

We met up with Kevin and Alanna and sat there eating cheeses, drinking wines, while the boys cooked the prawns and the snags, and watched the kids play beach cricket.  I cannot describe the feeling of contentment!  It really is just the most magical place.  It does not surprise me that so many “oldies” come up here for up to 5 months of the year.   The caravan park is absolutely full of “grey nomads”, some of whom look upon you as a bit of an intruder into their quiet lifestyle.  There are not many families here, although we have met quite a few travelling.  Most of the people in Broome are here for the duration – half their luck!!

There must have been 200 vehicles on the beach last night but it doesn’t appear crowded.  The beach is just so vast.  I must admit it was great not having to trek for ages with boogie boards, towels, eskies etc!!    Kevin was speaking to someone who came here about 15 years ago, camped on the beach for two weeks and was disturbed by no-one!  You certainly could not do that now!

When it got dark and we could no longer see the kids in the water (!!!!) we decided it was time to head home for showers and bed.  We were woken at about 10:30pm with a car accident on the road outside the caravan park.  Someone having too good a night at the Diver’s Tavern down the road!!  It is a really happening spot – The Whitlams and Diesel are playing there next week!  Anyone want to come and babysit for us?????

FITROY CROSSING - DERBY - BROOME

The Prison Boab tree outside Derby where they suspect Aborigines were put inside when "blackbirders" were sent to find Aborigines to work on the pearling luggers.

The jetty at Derby which has the highest tide differential in Australia - 11.8 metres between low and high tide.

David and Beth - sunset at Cable Beach

Sarah and Tess - sunset at Cable Beach

The Ships of the Desert at sunset on Cable Beach

A "YMCA" for Steu (with an exclamation point) at sunset on Cable Beach

You just cannot resist taking hundreds of photos of this magical site.

DAY 49 – FITZROY CROSSING – DERBY – BROOME                            Saturday, 20^th August

CANNOT BELIEVE WE ARE IN BROOME!!!!!  I seem to have looked forward to this for so long, it seems somehow unbelievable that we are actually here.

Packed up and were on the road before 9am.  Hubby was so disappointed about missing the Prison Boab Tree at Wyndham and kept saying that he thought he might do a day trip from Broome to see the one at Derby.  But given that is a 440kms round trip, and that Broome is our time for saving petrol money, we decided to divert to Derby for lunch.  It was interesting to see the large Boab which was hollow inside and so “blackbirders”, who were capturing Aboriginal people to work on the pearling boats, held Aborigines inside the boab tree, as a type of prison.  We then went into Derby and saw the jetty where the differential between high and low tides is 11.8ms!!  We could actually SEE the tide coming in, it was so fast and so great.  A lovely man catching mud crabs from the jetty allowed all the kids to have a turn at hauling in the mud crab cage.  We saw a couple of crabs being caught and the kids had a ball.

Finally on our way to Broome!!  There really isn’t anything at all between Fitzroy Crossing and Broome, just pastoral leases all the way.  It surprised us how big Broome is – a town of 14,000 permanent residents which swells to 45,000 during the tourist season of May to October.  We set up the caravan and although there is no grass, it is a very shady site which is the main thing, and big enough for us to put the caravan, awning out, tent and car which is very important.  Broome is like the Byron Bay of Western Australia  - beautiful beaches and a bit trendy.  But it is also like Sorrento in January – absolutely packed!

Given we are unable to carry milk at the moment, because of the fridge, we went out to explore the town and drove firstly down to Cable Beach, which is in walking distance of us but there is a section which has vehicle access.  Driving out onto the beach was just an amazing site.  The beach, although only 22kms long, must be 200 metres wide at low tide.  So many four wheel  drives on the beach with people just bringing down their chairs and drinks to watch the sunset.  The beautiful white sands with the setting sun and the camel trains going past were just amazing. 

The scene quite took my breath away and was just so much better than I had imagined.  The expanse of the beach was stunning.  And the perfect beach for beach cricket!!  We have vowed to spend as many sunsets on the beach as we can.  You can bring your portable BBQ down and just cook up on the beach!!  Words and photos cannot possibly explain how beautiful it is!

Went to Mass at the “cathedral” tonight – really just a fibro shack but there is something quite beautiful about the Catholic “cathedral” being so humble.  The church was full and seemed to be such an alive parish.  In fact, in reading about the diocese in its local magazine, the whole Broome Diocese seems amazingly alive and there are parishes in places in the middle of absolutely nowhere!!

Off to the market in the morning for some retail therapy!!  Looking forward to a lazy two weeks!!