26th Oct - 80 Mile Beach

 We got out of Broome and started our journey southwards.   We were told about Barns Hill, nice little spot to stay bout 100kms from Broome, not a long drive, maybe we stop there..   No it is about 5kms dirt road and Darl can not face this just yet.  We continue on, the landscape is a little bland, not much happening, but still green as.  I notice quite a few whirly winds happening.  We fill up at Pardoo station and decide to give 80 mile beach caravan park a go for the night.  We were expecting to see a lot of fishermen out.

I guess our expectations, a beach is a beach, BUT wow!!  We set up camp and wandered over the dunes down onto the beach and were blown away.  As far as the eye could see in both directions.   What blew us away most was the ocean (above), where the ocean met the beach it looked like a 3-5 metre wall of water.   We collected a few seashells (I am converted by Liz) and decide to take a walk out to the water's edge.  Will we make it back if the tide turns I asked Darl, yeah no worries.   The closer we got the more eerie it got and we decide to head back to the safey of the dunes.

We asked a few people if they knew what it was, but no one really knew, a sand bank and a gully.  It wasn't till next morning we talked to a couple of volunteers been here for 2 or more years now, they said it was a mud bank.   It tapers off when you look down the beach to a "normal" looking surf.    This is a nice little spot, it has a nice Anzac memorial by the sand dunes.   The grounds and amenities are well kept, neat and tidy and nice little gardens.   It even has a TV/computer room set up in an air conditioned container, which we venture up to after dinner, to study our maps and enjoy the cool.

 We wake early in the morning, gee the tide is in and the waves are crashing and thundering, have to get out of bed and go down have a look.   My Darl was soon to point out that it was thunder, as in storm thunder, I said surely not.   But when I stepped outside the sky was black as...  No one out fishing this morning, but a couple of crazy european tourists out walking the beach.  The locals didn't think it would blow over towards the park, wrong!   This is our first real storm of the season and first real rain shower since Mackay.

At least the rain settled the dust for the 10kms over the dirt, corros back to the highway.  The locals also showed Darl and I a turtle nest above, which was awesome, they come in at dusk and after to make their nest and lay their eggs.  The season starts from October, so this is one of the first for the season.    It would have been nice to spend another day here and wander along the beaches collecting shells.   It's very relaxing you know, but we decide to head down and out to Marble Bar, which we have been told is a great stop...... we'll see.

25th October - Tip

Hi guys I have just discovered something really cool, if you haven't already found.  If you double left click on any photo of any post, it will bring them up bigger on the screen........

21st - 25th Oct - Last Days Broome

                                                                                                                                                                 Couple days after the trip to Cape Leveque, we have recovered and so has the poor old Suzuki. What a legend, turns out she guzzled all the gear box oil, Darl topped it up and next day she was good as gold, 5 gears back. Darl did a full service on the bike and she has been resting up for the past few days.......until next trip.

We were enjoying our daily swims until this chap was pulled ashore.  One morning a lone fisherman in the water up to waist, happily fishing away, spotted a bit of a fin and went over for closer look, reports say he jumped about a foot out of the water when he realised it was a shark, not a small one either.   Then thankfully, he realised it was already dead.    Looked like it had been shot or speared.   The authorities come and took the carcass away.    Needless to say we were a bit hesitant to go swimming after that.

Without the car for a couple weeks, we have been on the treddlies getting around, getting some exercise to boot.    We visited the old St John of God Convent, built in 1926.   They have a permanent exhibition consisting of 8 galleries depicting conditions, activities, works, people helped over the years, a lot of great work has been done by the Sisters of St John of God.  This slab believe it or not is the site and the size of the first home in Broome of the Sisters of St John of God.  I hope there was only one living there at the time..

We ventured out another day in search of some watermelon and rockmelon seeds for my dad!  He's having trouble getting them in Qld.  We went round in circles for a bit trying to find Bunnings, just about to give up and asked a nice person driving by, we were on the right road, just a little further down.   Then we treddled over to seek some comfort at the shopping centre and come across the Chinese and Japanese (right) cemetries.  There are 707 graves here (919 people, some have doubled up). There were a number died during cyclones 1887 and 1935 and of course others due to drowning and divers paralysis.

Have wheels, will travel!!!  Picked up the car this arvo.    We have enjoyed our stay in Broome, it's a nice little beach side town.    We will miss "our bay"  and all the goings all that have kept us entertained each day.  Have met some great people here, Ash and Nina (our long term neighbours of 3 weeks), Liz and Ross from Adelaide and Pat and Brian from Castlemaine, Vic.    Brian used to come here in the 70's, when the streets were dirt, people used to sit under the trees playing their mandolins and the luggers used to still dock at Streeter's jetty, nothing ever stays the same.............

19 - 20th Oct - Cape Leveque Trip

Well a few days r n r and my Darl announces we are going to ride the Suzi to Cape Leveque, we had considered it before but decided too far and too hard and unsealed road!  We'll take the sleeping bags and camp out under the stars, how romantic!  Only if I can take my pillow...ok.   We packed up two sleeping bags, 1 pillow, 1 bag clothes, shoes, toiletries, towel, you know the essentials.  No grog!  One bag of tools and 2 litres fuel my darl carried and one bag water, sangas, sunscreen I carried.

                                                                                                                                                                  We set off at 8am, all keen and eager. Well I tried in my mind to be positive, but a little bit hesitant of what to expect on this dirt road we were about to hit. It wasn't too bad, not as bad as Cape York roads, though pretty sandy there were some narrow stretches of hard road, which were still a bit bumpy. It was okay until we had to navigate back to the left of the road, through a foot of sand, the suzi didn't make it and we fell off, Darl over the handle bars, I just went with the bike! Lucky we had a soft landing.  There was a 4WD coming towards and you know he didn't even stop to ask if we were okay......

                                                                               We knew it was going to be a journey as we only have a small fuel tank and have to fill up at the only fuel stop, halfway at Beagle Bay. This is an aboriginal community. We got there at 12 o'clock but we have to wait until 1.30pm for the store to open so we can get a fuel card to fill up. Some friends told us of this awesome bakery there and I thought it would be great for lunch, but the bakery was shut up, closed down and gone!!    We ate our squashed, soggy sangas instead. We had a look at the church, decorated with pearl shells, built in 1915-17 by the german priests and brothers.  

                                                                                                                                                                  They were at the time, running the show, and forced into house arrest during WW1, when they started building the church. We got our fuel card and after a few goes got the pump to work, filled up and continued on our way, we were on bitumen now, clear run from here to Cape Leveque. Or so we thought. The neighbours back at Broome just got back from Cape Leveque and said if we could get through the first 2 kms on the dirt (sandy) road, we would make it through. They failed to tell us that the last 5kms to Kooljaman, was gutter to gutter sand!!!
                                                                         

We took one look at this road and said nah, we not going there and beated a hasty retreat back to the tar, well we almost made it, when we hit a patch of sand and went down again, our left legs pinned under the bike, lucky my Darl was on top so he took the brunt. That's it!! I will walk to the road and darl rode the bike out. A couple of nice ladies in a 4WD come by and said we are so close, if I get a lift with them then darl can ride the bike in, so he said he would give it a go. I watched from the 4wd as he swayed and writhed his way through the sand, his little chicken legs got a real workout!

My Darl, the enduro rider!! He was a lather of sweat when he got to the camping ground. A couple of sports drinks later and he was ready for a walk to the beach. I said let's book a room, you know, with a real bed. No way we bought the sleeping bags, we gotta use them..OK!! So yep we set up camp, the bike, the sleeping bags, no chairs, no light, no food and no drinks! We really did need a drink after the day, left at 8am and got to Kooljaman at 4pm.  A couple fellow campers (Doug and Russell) are amazed at our feat, took pity on us and offered a mattress for some added comfort, but we roughed it, how tuff are we??


We had a pleasant walk along the swimming beach in our bike gear .... We found a couple chairs to sit on and a worker bought us a lamp over to use, he, another ne couldn't believe our feat, had never seen such an old bike do this trip. As we had no food, we were lucky that Wednesday was dinner night at the cafe. We enjoyed a nice meal (though expensive) and it was only BYO so we really had a dry night. Off to bed we went, a sleepness night, tossing and turning. I can't remember the last time I ever slept in a sleeping bag, but there is not much room for movement in there!

We woke at day break to birdsong, mozzies and flies! We decide to go for a walk to the Western Beach.   No swimming here as the rips are too strong. Red sandstone cliffs melt into red sand to meet the squeaky white sands of the beach. Worker Paul told us of a truck coming in that we could follow out on the bike, parting a track in the sand. Sounded good. Russell and Doug offered us a cuppa for brekky, we had a great chat and laugh. Russell works at Tom Price and on a camp trip with his dad who has a yacht moored at Russell Island near home.

The truck didn't arrive when expected and Darl decided he was going to cut for it. Russell gave me a lift through the sand to meet Mel at the other end..... It gave me the opportunity to take a few snaps of Darl negotiating the sandy track. It was much easier not having my lump of a weight on the back of the bike for this 5km section and he found it a lot easier getting through this morning then late yesterday afternoon, though he did have a few wobbly moments. I don't believe the Suzi has so far survived the trip, with 2 falls, she started first go this morning.

After a short break at the end of the 5kms sand, we loaded up and took off to One Arm Point, where we needed to fuel up. We got brekky from the community store and asked where the Hatchery was. Just follow your nose down the road........ had a look at the road and it was tar, all good. We had some time to kill as we needed to re fuel again at Beagle Bay and the shop was shut 12-1.30pm. We set off to find the hatchery (turtles and fish) only to find a turn off, off the tar onto dirt/sand - we ventured a little ways along, there were no further signs to follow.

All we found was a number of these crued shelters along the shore line, look like they are used for gatherings/picnics etc. 11am time to fuel up and get going, we estimated a couple hours to get back to Beagle Bay. At the bowsers we met Bruce, the aboriginal "hippie" artist. He showed us his port folio, references etc., and let us know that he takes in back packers and woofers. We'll keep that in mind if we ever come back to this place. Petrol here 199.0/ltr. Darl found another 4 ltr container so we filled that up too, all up 6 litres fuel in reserve for the trip home, we are not going to run out.

                                                                                                                                                                                               

All the while I was wondering how we were going to go getting back over that road. We arrived early at Beagle Bay, the Suzi was making a god awful noise, what's that?  Sounds like the clutch....oh no, but Darl assured it would get us back to Broome.  The nice shop man, served us early so we could get on our way and Darl assured me he would stop every 20 miles for a break.   Darl tackled the trip home differently, he went faster and it wasn't as bad as the trip up.   Still a long ride home.  This trip all round approx 500kms (250kms sand/dirt with the occasional big dust hole)

   Yep, I'm done!!  Are we there yet??  Only 23 miles to go.   The noise seemed to have disappeared and we headed for the Razza for a drink when we got back to Broome, well we nearly made, as the poor old Suzi was running out of puff and was missing some gears.  A quick shower, then on the treddlies off to the Razza for curry night and drinks.   A nice feed, curry, vegies and rice and 5 drinks each for a value total $60, not like night before $74 for two meals (no drinks!)   We treddled our weary bodies home and had the best night sleep ever!!!

14th to 18th Oct - Broome

 These past few days we have just been kicking back, relaxing, taking in the views.     We had a huge day on Sunday.  We decided to go the markets in morning, jumped on pushies, rode down and they weren't on!   Back home for a bit then we rode pushies to RSL, a 5-10 minute ride down he road to settle in for 3 motogp races, the highlight of course Casey Stoner sealing the 2011 championship on his birthday.   That took us through to 2pm, then we did 40 minutes of test rugby league.  At half time we decided we should go home.  Those cheap RSL drinks going down too well.

The Beer and Satay Hut on the way home, so we called in to watch the 2nd half of the test, only to find out that in the 5 minutes we had left RSL, the game was over and we had won!   What the... obviously RSL had the delayed coverage.  What the heck, the neighbour turned up and we kicked on to watch the union test..... the score wasn't looking too flash and by 7pm we decided best call it quits for the day, so treddled home.   Good sleep that night.

Not the most glamorous shot I know, but I am trying to work on the tan.    We swim most days, it's hard not too, having the water at our door step.  My darl nearly got himself into a biff one day, he was talking to a little piccaninny playing with a turtle.    Next thing he ran over to his dad, then his dad (all of 6'+ and muscle bound) got a bit stroppy with my Darl, but he managed to defuse the situation.    Thankfully no blood spilled this day......  The top shot showing the first signs we have seen build up to the wet!  We leave soon we hope.

12th-13th October - Broome

 We watched a P&O cruise ship dock this morning and had a real lazy day, read, swim, a bit of blogging, couple drinks.  Our quiet day was disrupted when we got new neighbours, 3 adults and 7 kids!   We were a little bit worried. 1 adult left and took 2 kids with, that left 5 about 9 year old girls for a camp out birthday party and two adults.   My big brave Darl sorted them out though (at 2am) he shone torch on tent and told them it was 2am and time to shut up!  With that there wasn't another peep to be heard until 6 o'clock the morning.

 Thursday we took the Suzi for a burn over to Gantheume Point on high tide to see if there was any water in Anastasia's pool and there was, so I went for a dip.    We had quite an entertaining day actually.  It started when old mate called in our camp bout 7.30am, walked up and pulled a Boab out of his pocket, word must be getting around that we are suckers for Boab nuts.   Well we only need two nuts so we declined the purchase, but he was a friendly chap and wanted hand shakes, hugs and kisses.  Don't know but we seem to attract.

He did ask if we had a beer, said he come from the desert. At Gantheume point these obviously local kids (with BIG gonads!) girls too, where jumping off the rocks. The amazing thing was they had to wait for the right swell before clambering back up the rocks. They were doing somersalts and backflips. Yes, I did have to hold my darl back from joining them. Back home later we watched drama unfold, (front row seat) as a very drunk or high or both, european guy stagger into the water and decide he was going to swim to India. He got a fair way out, having the time of his life, until the cops arranged a rescue boat for him.

Saw him walking the beach this morning, he looked back to normal, more sedate, but he must have been sporting a hangover for sure.  Interesting the 3 cops in attendance didn't volunteer to swim out and rescue him, though a long way out, he was only in waist deep water.    Finished the day with Staircase to the (full) moon.  The photos didn't turn out so I bought a hand painted wine glass instead.    Nice feed of Barra for tea!   Pic of me at sunset waiting on the rocks for the moon to come up.  No drinks and no repellent, both bad moves.

10th-11th Oct - Broome Broome

 Monday we put the car in to get fixed, it will take two weeks.  Lucky we have the motorbike and our pushies and Broome is not so big, we are not stranded.   Monday night we try the rock n roll dance classes again and this time the teachers are a show.  Turns out last week they were out rescuing some friends who had sunk their boat, took 2 days to retrieve.  It's only a small class, the teachers, us and two other women, but we learn a new dance sequence, rock n roll switch and a couple new moves.  Work up a real sweat!

 When in Broome with a couple of weeks to kill, go exploring!   We jump on the Suzi and take a ride over to Cable Beach to find the 4 metre hand carved crystal Buddha, set amidst an ornamental garden with meditation deck.  We didn't do any meditating, just a look.  Mel was a bit perplexed that it wasn't a fat happy budha rubbing his tummy.    We contemplate a swim at Cable Beach, I just took one look at the surf and nah, let's go over to Gantheaume Point to have a look at the blow holes, now the tide is higher.

 My Darl has a way of putting his Ling's heart in her mouth, as he rode up to the cliff edge and then set off, hopping over the cliffs around the edge of the blow hole for a snap.   You'd think I would be used to it by now.   Then he climbed down the blow hole, lucky the tide was not as high as we were expecting.

 No blows in the holes, but we caught this blow on the edge of the blow holes......

 We went back over to the site of the dinosaur tracks in search of Anastasia's Pool, a small pool carved in the rocks for a former lighthouse keeper's arthritic wife.   Over the edge of that cliff is where the dinosaur prints are, accessible only at low tide.    The coast line around here looks very different at high tide, a lot nicer we think.

Big Boabs (nuts) Darl!   Yep we got sucked in again, actually we think we got a bargain, these cost $80 in total.  You would probably only get one for $90 in the shops of this size and not as nice detail.   Old mates come around to the camp selling the bigger one, the smaller one we got from Wyndham.   The neighbours retreated to their tent, the old mates walked passed their tent, next thing the neighbours come out now missing a packet of cigarettes, you gotta be quick.

6th to 9th Oct - Broome

 Check this out girls!   This is the World's Largest Fine Quality Round Pearl, grown at Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm.  It is 22.24mm diameter and 15.75 grams.  Apparently it is the real deal as the owners took it on a trip around the world to verify it was actually the largest of it's kind.  It is priceless - asked about the security when travelling - no problems they just packed in their luggage.  You gotta wonder?

 These few days we have just been taking it easy in Broome, not doing too much.  We did get out to the RSL on Friday night, 2kms from camp, we rode the treddlies down, in the dark, no street lights, just my Darl's torch cutting the way.  They had a band on, playing 70's/80's and we got game and had a few dances.    The other patrons actually clapped and cheered us off, I think they had had a few drinks.  We haven't really danced since leaving home, so we are a bit rusty. 

 One arvo, we went over to Cable Beach to check the sunset over the Indian Ocean.  I merrily snapped away.   We went for a stroll down the beach and come across a number of 4WD's set up with the table, chairs, drinks etc., to watch the sunset.   We also found the camels!   There were 3 groups, the red, the blue and the ugly (nah it was yellow actually).  I've done the camel thing before up the Todd River in Alice, but my Darl is not keen, reckons they are horrible, spit and hiss at you.....that one is off the list.

My Darl is frequenting our "local" (Beer and Satay Hut) a little this week-end watching the V8's battle it out at Bathurst.  I continue to be amazed at the little hermit crabs, the beach is crawling with them.   The local has Crab races every Sunday night, so we venture down for a dabble and look.  8 crabs per race $2 per ticket, they draw 8 numbers out and if you lucky get a crab in the race.   They have 1st and 2nd prizes from $45 to $90 and all money raised goes to local charities. It draws a bit of a crowd.

3rd-5th Oct Broome - Derby

Monday night we were excited to be going to Rock 'n roll class/dance at one of the resort hotels.  We got there a bit before start time, checked at reception for the correct venue only to be told that the teachers rang to call it off as they were stuck in Derby!   Well we tried... We had a good look around Chinatown again, here is a diver statue erected of course in recognition of all the divers lost their lives during the diving era. 

Here's my Darl if you can see him at the end of the jetty, this is the restored Streeter's Jetty, the original jetty where the pearl luggers tied up.  This particular day at this spot we were right in the path of the planes landing at the airport.  A thing about Broome it is a compact little town, the prison is right in the middle of town (we believe it is booked out) and the airport is not much further out.  We think about going to Malcolm Douglas croc and wilderness park but will give it a miss as we went to Crocodilus in Darwin.

As we did the b line to Broome to do the falls tour, we by passed Derby so decide to do an overnighter camping out in the tent.  Half way there Darl informs me he forgot to pack the tent......bugger!    A few people have said don't bother to go Derby, but we figure we had planned on doing it, so gotta go see for ourselves.  Derby is a small town of about 5000 people.  The main attractions there are the Jetty - this port has the highest tidal range in Australia and the 2nd highest in the southern hemisphere - and it is

a gateway for Buccaneer Achipelago, Horizontal Falls tours and the Gibb River Road.  We had a look at the Boab Goal, which housed aboriginal prisoners in transit to Derby way back when.  This boab must be a thousand or more years old.  The sign said caution do not enter, snakes and spiders live in this tree.   Don't have to tell me twice.   The boab tree lined street, we had a drink at the Boab Inn after fish and chips on the jetty.

Here it is our little camp for the night at the Kimberley Entrance Caravan Park.  I thought they would have charged less cause we had no tent but no same rate applies.  At least we had a shady tree, no flying foxes.  It was quite windy so that kept the mozzies at bay, but we could have done with a doona or sleeping bag, it got a bit cool overnight.   We comtemplate a trip out to Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek and knowing it is a dirt road, decide to give it a look.

100kms later we decide to give it a miss, we did about 90km on the Gibb River road on bitumen, then we hit the dirt!  Probably did about 10kms or so before deciding it is not worth putting the car or us through this again, so we do an about face and head on back to our chateau by the beach in Broome.   We paid a visit to the Mowanjum Art and Culture Centre on the Gibb River Road.  A nice new centre and as with Broome we notice new housing estates being built and also new buildings (Info centre) around the towns. 

2nd Oct - Broome

Our chateau looking up from the beach, we really do like it here and it's great to be staying a while.  We sit out front and be entertained by the goings on in the bay and instead of watching the cows come home, we watch the tide rise and fall.  The hover craft goes by a few times a day, it's a tour thing, there's no sneaking up on you in that, it hammers.  

We had another earlyish start to the day to head over to Gantheaume Point to go in search of dinasour tracks.  These can only be seen at low tide also, but it's not an hours walk.  It's just a rocky climb down and across the rocks to where the prints lay.    Look at that sky, another beautiful day, we know it's probably coming one day but so far we have not had one day of rain, fantastic!  

We found the 3 sites where the tracks lay, actually we got an 8 year old boy to show us where they were, it would've been a task otherwise, they kind of blend in fairly well.   There were only a couple cars in the carpark when we got there, when we left the carpark full, so it does attract quite a few people.    The footprints are over 120 million years old.  

This is the lighthouse at Gantheaume Point.  The light house keeper must have the best location in Broome, on the point, no neighbours (just a steady stream of tourists walking by).  There is a huge Osprey nest just under the lighthouse deck, we can hear the chicks and the mum and dad are flying about bringing back the catch to feed them. 

We went for a bit of a walk down the left side from the light house, along the cliffs heading to Reddell Beach and come across a series of blow holes.   We plan on coming back when the tide is higher to see these in action.      Back to camp to vege out, go for a swim, vege out some more and happy hour!