Day 47

Day 47 Broome

Girt at Barn Hill

Barn Hill

Well we have reached Broome at last. We left Barn Hill at 10 after Maureen went for her usual walk along the beach. The wind was up this morning and there were a few clouds around. Maureen’s description of the beach was that it was like a winters day all whipped up but warm enough to still be

Toilets (less Snaake)

Waves on the beach

in shorts and t-shirts. We are going to miss Barn Hill with all the big trees and the multitude of different bird calls you wake up to in the morning and at night. Whilst I was having breakfast I was watching the water and low and behold, right in front of us a whale started breaching. Now this was not your lazy head out of the water, this was a ¾ body launch out and huge splash. This went on for quite some time. I was able to tell the others around to look up and it went on for about 20 minutes, quite amazing. Then, just as

Broome turnoff

Cable Beach

we were leaving the shout went up for Greg the handy man, there was a snake in the men’s toilets! Everyone runs over to look and watch Greg chase it round with a spade, poor bugger, the snake, not Greg. Anyhow, he paid the ultimate price for having a look for a frog.

We made our way out along the dirt track at about 30kmh and finally found the main road, no cows today, just as well, the bruises from the last encounter have not gone down yet! We headed North. Possibly the most uninteresting piece of road so far. As we went along I noticed a few termite

watching the sunset on Cable Beach

Cable Beach 4WD access

mounds on the side of the road and they looked like they had been painted white like sign posts and I thought that was quaint. Then I noticed some in the paddock and thought that was a bit over doing it, then I realised that they were not painted, it was the colour of the mud was white – Doh!! The road here has definitely been upgraded since last I was here 30 odd years ago and the road had ruts in it from the trucks that were so deep it was like driving in a slot track! The trip was uneventful and we drove into Broome about 12. The Caravan Park is Taraguen near Cable Beach and is quite nice. We have booked in for 4 nights but I suspect we may be here a few days more as there is a lot to see and

4WDs watching sunset at Cable Beach

Sunset Cable Beach

a few day trips that we don’t want to take Girt on up the Cape Leveque peninsular, we are not sure yet.

We drove out of the park at about 2 to see where we were and get some lunch. We found Cable Beach Surf Club and a little café there and had some fish and chips and calamari and salad that was nice. Cable Beach was nice from up top and we have lunch and watched the wind blow people around on the beach. From there we went into town to do a bit of shopping as we had no food and I grabbed a coffee whilst Maureen shopped. There is a festival going here which I cannot pronounce or spell, but like shitzu but I will find out and spell it right tomorrow. Whilst I was in the

Watching the camels return

The camels return

shopping centre there were these groups of three people who were dressed up in costumes, I saw about 5 different ones who would run through the shopping centre and sing or talk to people, take a picture and disappear. When we asked what that was the locals just said “ it’s that thing for the festival” like we were idiots and should know.

Shopping done for today, we will be back tomorrow for a stock up, we drove home and unloaded Girt and had a quick drink before heading back down to the beach to watch the sunset. We had noted some

Camels returning

Beasst just before lights go out

nice paths earlier and wanted to see where they went. We unloaded the Beast from Girt and set off. There was a wedding in action so we went and had a sticky, then we noticed that there was a beach access track for 4WD so we went and had a look. On closer inspection I reckon I could get the Beast onto the beach here. The 4WDs have dug it up a bit as they are wont to do, but if I cut a sharp left as I hit the sand it looks firm, so tomorrow if the wind drops we might give it a go and have a swim. Whilst Maureen was down on the beach she looked North round the Point and apart from the 60 plus 4WDs there were some camel rides coming back.

The sun had gone down by this stage so we waited a while and the camel groups came past us 0ne

Surf boat bow message

Surf Boat

after the other 3 groups each with about 16 camels each. They had no people on them as they drop them off round the corner on the sand and they bring the camels up the beach access track to get them home, lovely animals but they stink!

Proof of off roading

After that we went the other end of the path that led down to the Surf Life Saving Club and they too have a beach access so I went down to see what it was like. The angle is very steep and the sand looks softer that at the other entry so I think that might be the better option. I started back up the track and got about half way when the Beast gave a lurch and died, no power. I was not surprised given the very steep angle we were on so I gave it a couple of minutes and pressed the overload reset button and away we went, another reason I think I will be using the other entry point. On the way back we went through the Surf Club and noticed they has 2 surf boats outside. We assumed they were old ones but up close, they are in very good nick, must be training boats and there is no room in the sheds.

Back at Trude we loaded up Maureen’s

bike and the Beast and headed back to Girt for tea. When we were loading up Trude I noticed that there was proof of our off roading in Port Smith Lagoon, there was mud on the mud flaps – took a picture for evidence.
POST SCRIPT . WE are enjoying our journey and love the different places we have stayed at and we enjoyed both 80 mile beach and barn Hill station very much.  It is such a luxury to have time to have walks along the beach and  to watc the sun to come up and gone down. the beach at both places were wonderful and  enjoyed walking along both. sometimes U would be the only person on the beach. At Barn hill the beach had the most intersting cliffs and rock formations and also the tide rise and falls made a great differnce to the beaches. barn hILL WAS VERY RELAXING and peacefull. such aa wonderful spot with shady trees, birds and open air toilet and showers with views of stars and trees and the company of tree frogs.
First time since we were in port Hedland that we have had newspaper so will be able to catch up on all the news and internet and phone connection are much more reliable so we have spoken to mum, Tia and my friend Rosina as we came to Broome on our way to Derby by bus many many many years ago.  The household chores still need to be done but i do appreciate the fact that the washing is dry so quickly. Hang out the washing before we went out to Cable Beach for lunch and shopping and it was dry when we got back. hope everyone is well and HOPE THAT SOMEONE WILL TEXT US PROGRESS SCORES FROM THE REBELS GRANDFINAL ON SATURDAY. GAVIN HAS PHONE NUMBERS ETC. MAYBE THE ABC COULD BROADCAST ??????????