BROOME

Bridgie on her birthday morning

Bridgie with Mama

Bridgie and her siblings - sharing the excitement

Surfie David - my gorgeous husband

The Hansen men at the "beauty parlour"

The Hansen women at the "beauty parlour" - NB Ben taking off the nail polish

Getting the full treatment

Our babies

Our family at Cable Beach

The kids with Mama and Papa

Our beautiful big seven year old

Decorating her cake - a very serious job!

She absolutely sparkles - our Bridgie!

DAY 66 – BROOME                                                            Tuesday, 6^th September

Our beautiful little baby is SEVEN!!!  Bridgie’s birthday today and she had it all under control.  We had CocoPops and pancakes for breakfast, followed by present opening which is always very exciting!  We then went into town for the purchasing of the cake (thank God Mum was spared the stress of two birthday cakes this year!!).  We then headed to the beach where the surf was, again, absolutely sensational.  Even I couldn’t stay out of the water – and we couldn’t get Marjie off the boogie board either!!  The water is so warm, so clear and the colour of turquoise.  Just perfect.

After having some lunch it was time for Tess and Bridgie to set up their “beauty parlour” where they proceeded to do EVERYONE’s hair and nails.  It was a fantastic place because you got a back massage as well as moisturising and massaging hands and feet!  Ben is the best “nail polish remover” I have ever seen.  Mama and I were spoilt – particularly Mama who ended up with pale pink nail polish on her toenails and bright red on her fingernails!  The afternoon was spent by the pool and relaxing watching all the kids enjoy “free time” in their own way: Ben and Bridget jumping all over David in the pool, Tess reading quietly by herself, and Beth happy to be in the company of us all.

We went to Zanders Restaurant at Cable Beach for a special dinner tonight – our family, watching the sun set over Cable Beach for the last night.  Just so special.  We had a delicious meal and I love watching the kids trying new things – like eating seaweed tonight!  They are all growing up so quickly and I think an experience like this really gives them the freedom to branch out on their own, to try things they haven’t tried before, to be a little more independent and to take calculated risks which, when they pay off, give them such a sense of achievement.

I am sad we are leaving Broome tomorrow.  I could happily stay here for a lot longer, even though I thought I would be ready to leave.  It really is such a special place and I am so glad that we made a point of staying here for a holiday.  It was everything I dreamed and more.  But there is still so much more to see so with only one month to go, it really is time to move on to other adventures.

BROOME

The boogie-boarding granny - Marj in the waves

Ben beating Mama to the shore

Beth building her masterpiece in the sand

Her trusty sidekick and best friend, Tess

Hmmm, not sure if she is helping or being mischievous

Watching the sea claim their "boat"

Our beautiful girl, Beth

The tide fast approaching our car parked on Cable Beach

Sunset over the rocks at Cable Beach

 DAY 65 – BROOME                                                        Monday, 5^th September

Today was, again, one of those lazy days when you feel exhausted for ABSOLUTELY NO GOOD REASON!!  We farewelled the Tedescos of “on the road again” to Eighty Mile Beach.  They were so generous to us and have loaned us their Engel for the remainder of our journey which is fantastic.  Our darling fridge is sitting on 19 degrees at the moment, and although it has not been a problem while Marj and Barry are here with their cabin and fridge, it will save us having to buy ice for the esky every day just to keep the milk cold.  It has made me appreciate how many things will survive at 12 degrees rather than the 4 degrees at which we keep our fridges – but milk is not one of them!!

I did some mundane shopping but wanted to stock up on staples like cereal and fruit bars because I can’t imagine there is going to be many big supermarkets now until we get to Perth – probably just small, very expensive IGA’s!!!

After that we headed for a beach morning and, low and behold, the waves were back with a vengeance!!   I am convinced that it has to have something to do with the tides because we are now back to much less of a differential between low and high tides.  Anyway, it was fantastic and we even taught Marjie, David’s mum, to boogie-board – AND SHE LOVES IT – A REAL SURFIE CHICK!!  Back for lunch and then we had a quick trip back down in the afternoon to …. Yes, a bit more boogie-boarding, sandcastle-making, and one or two more shots of the sunset.  Well, as I keep explaining to David, you never know when you are going to take the perfect shot.  And it is such a beautiful subject!!

Had to then go home and sort out things for our little one’s 7^th birthday in the morning, including blowing up all the balloons to put around the caravan, but this time we were able to use a compressor and not just our lungs.  AND we had the added pressure of making sure the Tooth Fairy came to Tess.  The Tooth Fairy has often over this trip needed two nights to pick up the tooth; we figure it must be because she has to travel so far.  We are hoping she is not preparing to seek a travel allowance because this trip is very expensive and this is now the fourth tooth lost from a Hansen mouth!!

BROOME

The best Dad in the world and his kids - Matso's Brewery, Father's Day breakfast

Three generations of Hansen men!

Giving Dad his presents and lots of cuddles on Father's Day

David and Beth hamming it up in the water

Tess and Marj at sunset

Cooking the barbie!

The Tedescos and the Hansens - Luke's 11th Birthday and the Chocolate Ripple Cake

Tess and her Hermit Crab friend

Barry and Marj enjoying a late afternoon relax on the beach

DAY 64 – BROOME                                                       Sunday, 4^th September

Off to early Mass on this beautiful Father’s Day morning!!  Our first attempt at breakfast at Town Beach Café failed dismally as there were just not going to be any tables for 8 available on Father’s Day morning!  So we headed off to Matso’s Brewery (no, we are not taking this holiday to the nth degree and consuming beer at 8am – they actually have breakfast too!)  It was lovely sitting outside with Marj and Barry and the kids and lingering over a long breakfast on “Broome-time”.  We did a quick bit of shopping before heading home for some Father’s Day presents, the best of which was a new camp chair for daddy which replaces the cheap and nasty things we had bought and which have promptly fallen apart!

We had a lovely day just plain old relaxing with Marj and Barry.  Barry and David went back to Matso’s Brewery in the afternoon to try some Mango Beer which David loved.  Don’t laugh – this could be my one opportunity to get some fruit into him!!  After some lazing by the pool and admiring my beautiful children swimming and relaxing by the pool, we then down to the beach again to celebrate Luke Tedesco’s 11^th birthday with garlic prawns on the barbie, wines, cheeses and much sandcastle building!!  Later on, we lit another fire and toasted marshmallows whilst consuming Luke’s birthday cake – a Chocolate Ripple cake made lovingly by Violet – by HAND-WHIPPING all the cream! What a legend! 

It was a beautiful night, no wind and just lovely sitting by the fire.  At one stage I went down to the water’s edge and looked up the beach towards Cape Leveque and all I could think was what an incredibly peaceful place this is.  Just the sense of vastness, aloneness, the power of nature, the “unspoilt-ness” of it are nothing short of awe-inspiring.

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.