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Broome
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An early start on the 4th in order to drive the short 629km ( almost 400 miles) to Broome.
When we got there Chris said "I don't like the look of the caravan park." It was my first choice and by then a most wondrous sight to behold, but after a seven and a half hour journey I considered it a pleasue to drive on to Cable Beach caravan park where we were put on a really shaded site that made even the 35 degree temparatures seem reasonably cool. What's another 10 km.
The letters of the day were F and F. Not Flaura and Fauna, not Flying Foxes, but Forest Fires. The last 200k of our journey was through bush fires. Chris thought I was mad when I kept stopping and asking her to take photographs. However, I was not as totally stupid as I was led to believe because there were lots of areas by the roadside that had already burnt out, making them safe to escape to, if necessary. My only concern was that the traffic coming from the opposite direction thinned out to approximately NIL for 50k or so. I almost caved in to Chris's friendly suggestion that we should reverse back the way we had come. By then we were way past the point of no return because we had a quarter of a tank and the nearest fuel , had we turned around was 160 k away. I could tell that Chris was not exactly looking on the bright side when she reminded me that we were running on petrol and we had a LPG gas tank for cooking.
The evening was most relaxing. After a few VB's, I left the van at about 7.15 to visit the toilet block and was not to be seen again for the best part of an hour. It was dark, the site was huge by any standards and the toilet had 2 exits. Yes, I chose the wrong one and yes, I walked around like a headlesss chicken until a good samaritan gave me a park map and showed me the way home. Chris had gone out looking for me and luckilly I knew where to find her. She was searching around the ablutions which was a good thing in my opinion, because by then I really wanted to go again. No more adventure for me - I'll tie a knot in it or more practically, lay a trail of sugar lumps.
On our first morning in Broome we awoke to a new and very varied collection of birdlife. One tiny specimen flew around like a clothes moth. That was because it was chasing a moth. I caught it in mid air and sat on a branch with the tasty morsel in it's beak. Wow!
We heard a birdsong that Chris said sounded exactly like one of Harry Corbet's famous creations, namely Sweep. Sooty sounds more like a Giraffe.
We travelled all of 10km to town and back. After a 2 hour session of e-mailing and updating our blog, we were too lazy to go th Cable beach, so I tried on my new swimming trunks which fitted perfectly.. We are now ready for the beach tomorrow and I won't have to embarass Chris by performing in the nude tomorrow.
The 6th Sept heralded an important decision. Do we stay or do we go. What made up our minds was our first visit to cable beach. This is the one you should really look up on the internet. It's supposed to be one of the top 5 beaches in the world. All we can say is "who cares about the other 4. Perfect white sand, warm azure sea, no NO NO NO NO beachsellers and lots of lifeguards to watch you being stung by jellyfish and eaten by saltwater crckodiles. Don't worry! They won't let you drown.
On the strength of our beach visit and our lunch of Fish, Chips and Wilting salad and 3 jugs of ale at the Divers tavern, we decided to stay for another 2 nights.
As soon as we booked the extra nights we heard the horrendous sound of the Exmouth Parrots. We don't care! Paradise can't be totally perfect, can it?
On the 7th we planned to go to town but not all plans come to fruition. We were sat there in the shade wondering whether now was the time to move. Now never arrived. Maybe there will be a now tommorrow, Who knows?
Todays unusual sight was the large white Ibis that raided the water sluice immediately after we poured down athe remains of a tin of beetroot. It swallowed two pieces with great gusto. We hope that this won't be the start of an ornithalogical miracle. The first ever purple Ibis.
Our last day in Broome. Cable beach was named because it was the sight of the first underground telegraph cable between Australia and Java, providing early communication between Australia and Europe. Enough of the history lesson. It's time to move on.
Incidentally, we havn't seen any more bright green houseflies since I last mentioned them. Maybe we were just passing through a toxic area.
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