Day 53

Day 53 Broome

Caught up with Doug last night before he flew home. It was great to sit and chat about trips and

Doug leaning on his helicopter

Doug's helicopters

highlights especially his stories of Africa. We are not sure if we will see Doug again but we might when we are in Darwin as his company flies out of there too. Todat was quite a busy one. It started early as Maureen had an 8:15 dentist appointment. Her tooth was playing up and giving a bit of pain and we thought it was worth having it looked at before we headed off. We got up and drove in to town. The dentist was lovely and said that her tooth was fine, she had a gum infection and

Old Recompression chamber

Dornier Flying boat engine

gave her some antibiotics and a gel to put on it to help with the pain. Maureen was a;; smiles so we went into the café and had breakfast then headed back to the van. On the way we went past the airfield and we could see the helicopters Doug flies so we pulled over to get some pictures. We rang Doug to see if he was there, which he was so we said come outside and wave and he did! We were across the landing strip but we could see him, hope the pictures turned out.

Maureen had a haircut the other day and was no that happy with the front bit as they had left it too long and too thick but she had spotted a notice for a lady who did haircuts at the park, so when I went

Maureen's new haircut

Maureen under Boab

to the toilet, she slipped away to check her out and came back with a lovely short hair cut that she was happy with. We then packed up and went back into town, we had seen a museum listed near the shops we went to yesterday and we had some time to kill so the plan was to visit the museum then have a leisurely lunch and meander out to the hovercraft place by 2:30. Well the museum was wonderful. It is a little place from the outside but packed a lot of stuff into it and had a big outside area. The place covered the early days of Broome and the pearling industry as well as the more recent history. The museum is run by the local historical society rather than the usual museum staff who put a small amount of

Sail sewing macjine

Sail Shed

stuff out and have lots of reading stuff. This display was a good mix of both and is how museums should be.

We went out back and they had some engines from the flying boats that were sunk during the war. Naturally they have a big display of the event when in March the 3^rd 1942 15 flying boats were sunk in Roebuck Bay, I think I mentioned this story earlier. The wrecks are out in the deeper water or on the edge of the shallows and they will be visible for the next few days as the

Japanese grave markers

Maureen with Rickshaw

tides are going to be really low. They have a big sail shed out the back which is in good condition but there is nothing in it except 1 sewing machine which if it was an operational shed would be right but it is not set up that way – well maybe not yet. We went into another building and they had a video room in there showing old films of Broome in the 50’s and 60’s and they had a film on the Maritime Museum when they came up here to look for and identify the flying boats as not all were mapped and named, in fact there was a liberator bomber that was shot down off Cable Beach that has never been found either.

Yuppies having lunch

Aboard Hovercraft

Anyway, they came up and located some and helped identify them. The film was great but when it finished, it meant we only had 45 minutes for lunch and get to the hovercraft. We dashed across the road and had lunch in a small bar and then drove to the harbour.

We got there and sat down to wait for the trip. The company picked up some passengers from their

Me jeading up the beach

Dinosaur footprint

accommodation and drove them here. There was a group of 4 of them who were like hyperactive kids and the lady in charge was running around after them, sorry guys you can’t go into the hangers, can you please smoke over here, can you please move off the ramp area…. Sheep dog. Anyhow, they fired up the hovercraft and before anyone else got in they helped me get in and discussed options for when we got the pther side and what I could walk and see and so forth, great people. Meanwhile, whilst they were doing this

People standing in footprints

Footprint with cover stone

with me the lady was over with the others doing the pre-trip welcome stuff and one was the old who you are and where you were from. They went through each one and then she asked where her 4 boys were, well they had split up around the group. She asked if they were from the same place and they said no they were from different states but were driving round together, one couple said – are you one of those Rebels Bikies as they had been following them around, and they said yes! They had done the run but had split off to do the trip back North around.

Dinosaur footprint

Our ride awaits

Out on the bay and the hovercraft is great, you don’t have the sense of moving on water, no wave or rocking at all, just a smooth ride. We went across the bay and the driver was yacking away about hovercrafts and Broome in general and the type of animals we might see and so on, you cannot really talk as it is a bit noisy. We get the far side and we get out to see the dinosaur foot prints and Miles the driver was helping me out and trying to explain where I could go and where he thought I could get there by but

Rock strata where footprints are

Heading back

he said that if I could not handle the rocks then there were 4 prints in the rocks just near the craft. I said no worries and off they all went to where all the prints were and I wandered around looking for these prints, which I was sure I found, but having never seen them before I was not sure. Whilst wandering I found a pathway up the rocks that was not too bad so I managed to find my way to where they all were in time to listen in to his story and have the prints pointed out. They were made by a dinosaur whose name I cannot remember but it looked like your classic brontosaurus – long necked herbivore. It

Me getting out

Company with logo of the dinosaur

walked past with a young one with it120 odd million years ago and when they put people in each print you can clearly see the trail.

They have had a lot of experts up here looking at the prints and they had one group come in to look at the prints at James Price Point prior to any work going on and what they have found is that there are 80 kms of prints., it seems this is the best place in the world for dinosaur prints. They are everywhere. The way the rock is up here with its layers of sediment and its stability over the millennia means they are well preserved and you could in theory follow 1 set of prints for miles. The prints we saw where not very defined as in clarity such as mail prints or skin folds, but clearly visible. On the way back to the craft I was hopping, well stumbling along and the 4 guys asked if I needed a hand but I being me said no I was right and staggered on until Maureen helped me get down the rocks, just needed a should for balance – it is a bit hard to explain and people try and half carry you and it upsets the balance. Back in the boat I thanked them for the offer and told Maureen how nice they were and that was when she told me who they were, just goes to show how nice they can be away from the bravado.

We made it back to base and then drove to Girt to tidy up. Maureen had heard that there was a Stairway to the Moon event tonight and had been given some locations to see it from. It was said to on from 6:30 so we panned our time so we would get there about 6. Well we drove over to where we

Moon rising but no steps

thought it would be easy to get to and so apparently did half of Broome. There were heaps of people there already. We were able to squeeze in to a spot and we sat and waited. At 6:45 the moon came up and that was it, no stairway, not even a step! Devo. I thin there was a low haze as the moon was red and this reduced the reflection, whatever, everyone got in and drove off. Maureen went and got ice creams for us and we ate those and watched the bats flying about. I am not sure if they were fruit bats or not but they were huge so I suppose they were. From there we went to the shops as we needed some fruit and veg for the next leg as we leave tomorrow and now I am here doing the blog and drinking wine.