Day 10 Broome Day 1

A rainbow lorakeet. 

Cable Beach.

Wishing and dreaming...

The remaining group, Anja, Albert, Kat, me and Gudrun.

We went for camel ride along the beach.

My camel.

Taken by the photographer.

The 'staircase to the moon'.

Monday, September 19^th.

Today was our first day off and my German friends and I used it to explore Broome. Damien is off duty for two days getting the new truck ready. We are going from Darwin to Perth and at the same time there is a trip going from Perth to Darwin. They meet here in Broome and they exchange trucks because the one we were on is bigger and made for a more rugged offroad experience which they need to the corrugated roads in the north. The other truck is about the same size but has less clearance and is more suitable for the asphalt (which they call bitumen) roads along the coast and going south. Damien will also meet our new members.

The Germans and I went out together for breakfast and then returned to the hostel to catch the free shuttle to Cable Beach which is about 7 kilometres away. The beach was beautiful and the water torquoise and warm. We timed our visit for high tide as the tides here are the second largest in the world (next to the Bay of Fundy) and today was a 10 metre tide. We went into the rough water and splashed about a bit and relaxed on the beach. I walked along the beach a fair ways in both directions. I came across a forlorn little girl in a leg cast watching her friends taking surfing lessons. I stopped and asked her about her injury and if school was out for the holidays. I found out she broke her leg riding her motorcycle! And that school gets out the end of this week she was watching her physical education class taking surfing lessons! Her teacher came over to see who I was and we chatted for a minute about the program.

When we had had enough sun, which was very hot and burning, we took the town bus back into Chinatown. The town has a strong Chinese history as they were instrumental in pearl fishing trade that was the original reason for settlement in this area. We wandered around looking at shops and the aboriginals who were hanging around. We stumbled across a tourist shop selling camel rides on the beach and the four of us decided to do it this afternoon. So we walked around shopping for a bit longer and then took the town bus back to Cable Beach for the camel ride. We were loaded up, two to a camel (I rode behind Katherina) and we formed a ten camel long train for a half hour walk along the beach. It was really a very nice thing to do. Later, we went back to the swimming area of the beach and went for another swim. But by now the tide was way, way out and we had to walk at least 500 metres to the water! Finally we went up to the cafe on the cliff overlooking the beach and watched the sun set over the Indian Ocean. After that we took the bus back to the hostel ($4 one way) where we quickly got organized for the evening.

We walked down to the Little India restaurant for dinner to meet the young ex-members but, it was closed so we went next door to a fish and chip place. Then the Germans and I walked up to the Mangrove Hotel to have a beer on their patio overlooking the ocean and watch the formation of the staircase to the moon, with every tourist in town, as the moon rose out of the ocean. It was much better tonight than last night. As it rose two musicians played some lovely haunting music on the guitar and didgeridoo. We stayed for another LazyYak beer before walking back to the hostel for the night.