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 19th.
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.
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