In the footsteps of dinasours

Trip Start Jun 05, 2007
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Trip End Jun 2009


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Flag of Australia  , Western Australia,
Wednesday, October 8, 2008

We had been told that the clocks had been put forward due to daylight saving, by the sweet old man who had just lost his dog to a venomous snake bite, whom had taken a shine to Rach at 5am that morning as they were the only 2 on the site awake - apart from the dogs and shouting of course!. Thinking it was 7am we hit the road as quickly as we could in order to drive the 650km necessary to make it to relative safety - Well Broome is on the coast and inhabited by more than 5 people! The roads were clear, with only the odd road train and roo which we had to slow down for. The smell of early morning Road Kill hung in the air meaning that although not sweltering hot it was necessary to have the AC on, if only to block out the stench. After stopping for fuel we took a detour in order to break up the journey and see some of the accessible parts of the Kimberly region. We arrived at Geike National Park where we took a walk around the ancient coral reefs home to Goannas, Bats and famous King Brown snake - the worlds most deadliest snake!. Fortunately he was sleeping and we thought it best not to wake him! We strolled along the river bank and through fighting off the biting black flies and huge flying grass hoppers we are lucky enough to spot some crocs bathing in the water not too far from the bank - only freshies mind - Babies !!. Back in the carpark we are surprised as we bump into Peter the dutch mechanic who had by this time found another dutch couple in need of his services. He was travelling about with them offering help and support when needed in return for home cooking. We explained that we were off to Broome, which was where they were also headed but a couple of days later, so we exchanged number and hoped to meet up.
Back on the road we ploughed through the KM's as quickly as we could, stopping for fuel a further 2 times with only the smoke and flames licking the side of the road to break up the mundane straight roads in this part of the world.
We made good time and arrived at cable beach where we found a great campsite and even better the clocks hadn't changed at all - We even had time for a cold beer before going to watch the sunset - Magnificent.
After 2 nights we changed campsites and met up with Peter and co. surprising him by booking into the site right next to him whilst he was out - It was a great welcome from Peter and a celebration at the local microbrewery was decided upon - Note to self Mango Beer Good, Chilli Beer Very BAD !!
Broome gave us the perfect opportunity to relax and take it easy for a while. Unfortunately though we didn't time it too well to coincide with the full moon which would have meant we could have seen the 'staircase to the moon' - a light phenomenom where the reflection of the moon on the mud flats look like a staircase. Also at full moon the tides are low enough to be able to see the dinosaur footprints left behind millions of years ago in rock below Gantheume Point, so we had to make do with the casts made of them - they are huge and perfectly preserved, incredible really. Also on the point was an old disused lighthouse which had become home to a pair of nesting ospreys. The sea here is a bright turquoise set against the backdrop of the red cliffs and lends itself well to photographs.
It was on this peninsular that we received a telephone call from Backpacker regarding the tiny dent that someone had made on the van we rented from Melbourne to Adelaide. We had received a simple email from their insurance department informing us that we would be charged a staggering $762 to repair a dent the size of my thumbnail! Needless to say we had immediately contacted them to get to the bottom of this and this was their return call. The guy I spoke to informed us that the work had been carried out and the invoice was sat in front of him. He looked at the pictures that we sent on email and he was staggered that the work had been done at all. As it stood though, the work had been done and we were responsible but he said he would talk to his seniors to see what could be done - we were keeping all of our fingers and toes crossed. In the meantime we just had to wait.
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