Loving Broome so much we are sticking around a bit longer....

As you can guess from the title, we are still in Broome. We got to the end of two weeks then added a couple more days, then a couple more, then decided today, ahh what the heck. We love it so much here and it's not like we are on a schedule, let's stay another week. So that's what we are doing. I want to mention too, that if you notice the blog looks different it's because I got a little creative. I like this much much better than the old one. So don't worry, same old blog, just a new header :)

Haven't really done much over the past week though. The first two weeks were full of sight-seeing, and exploring the area. I'm an old hand now at driving into town - it took me a few days to figure out how as there's a lot of roundabouts shooting off in different directions to get into the town centre but the signage is good and as long as you know where the ocean is, you can get around fine. 

We have hung around the caravan park a bit this week, just kicking back, enjoying the hottish days. Today is a doozy actually. I must be getting used to the heat a little as I've run into heaps of people who all say the same thing... "Warm enough for you?" and yet I wasn't really feeling the heat - as yet. lol. I did have a red, flushed face this morning but that was more from the fact I was doing some hand washing in the laundry using boiling hot water to clean the stains from the clothes, as well as keeping an eye out for the rest of the laundry in the washing machine, ready to pounce when it had finished. There's four machines in the park and they are going all day every day, under great demand. It's usually first in best dressed. 

Have I mentioned yet where we are staying? We are at the Tarangau Caravan Park. Its situated behind the Cable Beach Caravan Park but at about a third of the cost less for a week. When I found out the boys wanted to stay longer (excellent!) I asked that maybe we could go to Cable Beach instead to stay. Not that there's anything wrong with this park - in fact it's pretty great except there's no pool. And I reallllly wanted a pool to swim in when it gets hot (the beach's are a bit dodgy this time of year with all the jellyfish.) So we ambled over to the Cable Beach one to have a look. It's a pretty park, really shady, and the pool is unreal. Just like a tropical resort pool but boy, are the vans packed in like sardines. I think there were 500 powered caravan sites alone. We decided against it. It really isn't worth the extra 100 dollars a week to stay there and where we are is fairly nice anyway. Tarangau is a nice shady park on it's own and is nicely spaced out so you are not crammed in together against your neighbor. The toilet and showering area is probably the best we have seen. They are enormous. Only four loos and four showers in each amenity but the space inside is really huge - a large terracotta floor and stainless steel sinks give it a really modern edge. I would give the park a 7/10... it loses a point for the grumpy woman behind the office counter lol.

Chris and I took a few hours away from the boys and went to the Buddah's Sanctuary last Friday. I heard there was this gigantic crystal Buddah at the sanctuary and an ornamental garden as well. It sounded nice and it was... very zen. They do yoga there a few times a day and there was soft music being piped through. Nifty. Below are the pictures.

After we had gone through Buddah's Sanctuary, Chris took me to a pearl shop. What the? We had a good look around and I scored a pretty pair of gold and pearl earrings. I mean, what's a visit to Broome if you don't indulge in their biggest past-time and biggest sellers. I was stoked. In a good mood we whisked ourselves off the this place we had heard about called Matso's Broome Brewery. It was so nice. A big beer garden with live music and the clink of glasses and chatter on a warm afternoon. What more could you ask for? Chris tried one of their special mango beers and loved it. I had a glass of red. We ate a shared plate of Japanese food and then we noticed they were setting up these bain maries. It was Indian food night. A huge plate of three kinds of curry with saffron rice and a papadam were on offer for 30 dollars a plate. We were sold. We finished our drinks, went back to the caravan and hustled the boys into the car. The boys in the end decided to forgo the Indian food (Chris and I had it though, there was enough for two on the big plate) and instead they tried crocodile and kangaroo on a mixed plate. The crocodile and kangaroo were gamie it was declared lol. There's something new they've never tried - and well, that's what this trip is all about. New experiences.  

This is the opposite side of the port. The view is from a little cafe (the picture below) that I often sit at drinking coffee and reading my book while the men fish.

The guys heading onto the port jetty to fish

The tide here at the port jetty is insane. Right now it's in but those rocks that you see at the waters edge are usually exposed right back to that big rock at the very left corner of the pic. It can drop as much as 9 meters over a few hours when the tide goes out. When the tide is out, it feels like you could seriously get hurt if you were to jump off the jetty, the water is that far down. It's a bit freaky.

Riley all set for fishing - rugged up against the midday sun.

The pretty Buddah at the Buddah Sanctuary. Not sure I would call this crystal (I had imagined a sort of see through rock) but it was still lovely.

A lovely day bed at the sanctuary, complete with yoga mats. A nice little corner.

More of the sanctuary.

Matso's beer garden. Hope we get to go again. It was lovely.

 

Hope you are all keeping well. Will blog again when I have more to share. When we leave Broome we are heading inland to Fitzroy Crossing, Halls Head and through Katherine on our way to Darwin. Looking forward to the next step in our journey. 

Carolyn xx

Kicking back in Broome

Hey there,

So here we are in beautiful Broome. And I do mean beautiful. I think our whole family fell in love with this place at first sight. We got here mid-afternoon last Saturday and even though we had traveled for quite a while coming up from 80 Mile Beach, we were checked in at 1.30pm and by 3pm were out again doing some exploring.

We checked out Chinatown first, then went to the beaches to suss out some good spots for fishing for the guys (so what else is new, huh) and then hit a fantastic Coles store that is open 7 days a week 8am to 9pm. And it's HUGE! Chinatown, while not a disappointment per se, is not what I thought it would be. I had visions of small side streets with loads of stalls etc selling exotic stuff. The real Chinatown is very modern with modern shops sometimes slanted towards Asian style, but mostly are just boutiques, bottle shops, tackle shops etc etc. And the streets are really wide probably due to the mode of transport yonks ago. 

Sunday was spent doing more exploring. There's so much to do and see here. It's got such a tropical feel that at first (especially around our caravan park and the surrounding streets) I felt like we were in Bali. There's greenery everywhere - palms of every description, frangipani, ferns etc etc. Sunday night was spent having fun at the closing ceremony of the Shinju Matsuri Pearl Festival. Though we missed the short closing ceremony itself, we  sat down among literally hundreds of people and listened to live music that was on. The night was so balmy that people were still wandering around in shorts and t'shirts even at 10pm at night. We had a good look around the night stalls and finished the night watching the fireworks. Unreal.

 The boys fed the peacocks at this roadhouse between 80 Mile Beach and Broome.

 One of our favorite places to hang. Outside Zanders restaurant which is just in front of Cable Beach. It's always busy there.

Chris and I standing in front of Cable Beach (on the first day we arrived.)

Riley with his catch... look at his grin. It says it all.

 The Broome Markets

 It's summer clothes all the way here. Though the days are anywhere between 34 and 38 degrees on any given day, it actually doesn't feel that hot due to the sea breeze that's around all the time. Still, you do need to wear light and breezy stuff.
 

 Trying to find a good spot on Cable Beach - my guys.

 Mucking around on the sand of Cable Beach

Can you tell I'm addicted to catching beautiful sunsets. These two were taken at 6.30pm at Cable Beach.

 These were the gorgeous camels. This was ours - Malachi. Here we are getting in the saddle. 

 This was Akabar who was right behind me breathing onto my back lol. He was one of the prettier ones with his golden colouring.

 Have you ever seen anything like this? Literally thousands of red and white (but mostly red) jellyfish stranded after low tide. This shot was at a beach just before Gantheaume Point. No swimming here (shudder........)

 One of the ugly things up close.

 The colours up here are so vibrant ranging from the deep red sands of the cliffs to the white sands of the beach, even the water is deep deep blue. Chris stuck me in front because of my bright yellow shirt making it even more colourful. Pic taken at an off track just past the lighthouse at Gantheaume Point.

 These are plaster casts of the dinosaur footprints that are around 125 million years old. The real prints are down the cliff face of Gantheaume Point but can't be seen until the next low tide which happens this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday.

 Can you see the eagle nest? The nest took up the whole of that square platform that makes up the lighthouse. It was enormous.

 This is the outdoor cinema - one of the oldest open-air picture gardens. We ducked in while cruising around Chinatown today and I took some shots while it was empty. Wouldn't be so easy if it was full of people.

 Inside the cinema again. The 'lobby' is done up in all these old pictures of stars from the 1900's up - Charlie Chaplin etc. You can see some more names' on the wall. Below, that strange contraption is the top of a really old (one of three) projector.

We found this really cool water park that Riley couldn't resist playing under. It was still 31 degrees at 5pm but again, it wasn't red hot, just balmy and beautiful to be out and about in. 
Monday I had a slack day. The guys went fishing. AND they finally caught 'The Big One! (s) Riley caught a snubnose dartfish that dwarfed him lol and Chris caught a thread-fin salmon catfish that was GREAT eating. Both the fish were. We stashed them in the freezer after they were cleaned and there was enough for two nights of meals. I have had to be creative in making the dinners though to be honest it's a snap now. Having less to work with means more simple meals but they are still yum. For example last night we used left over fish I had taken off the bone (I had cooked the whole fish the night before in lemon juice, herbs, onion and a little salt and pepper then wrapped in alfoil and cooked in a little water simmering in a pan,) and Mason cooked up a Korean dish. We found a great little store that sells Asian influenced foods and we made Kimchi, the fish dish and sticky rice and added this amazing paste to the rice called Sunchang Ssamjang which is basically a garlic sesame bean paste. It's our favorite thing to have with rice. Tonight we had beef schnitzel, chips that Mason cut up and I cooked and salad. We are eating a lot of salad, but don't we all do that during summer? And honestly, whatever you are eating at home, we can whip up here. It's dead easy.  

We have done a lot of exploring of the town. We've been out to Gantheaume Point and did some bush bashing out there. The coastline is insanely beautiful. We went out to the point where there is a lighthouse because Riley was dying to have a swim in this small pool we had read about called Anastasia's Pool (a pool a lightkeeper from the past had carved out for his arthritic wife to use) but it turned out to be both empty of water and REALLY small lol. We saw where an eagle had made a nest on the second rung down of the lighthouse. The nest was massive and we could hear the babies screeching to be fed. We have checked out the deep water port where the fishing is fab, and have spent a bit of time at Cable Beach. Its so gorgeous there and I'm not really even a beach person, but the tide is usually right out leaving this really fine sand that is quite compact and doesn't manage to find those spots on your body to hide in that you didn't know you had... (you know what I mean lol. Who doesn't go home from the beach and go, "How the hell did the sand find it's way there?")

Yesterday Riley and I went for a camel ride. Fun! Fun! Fun! Loved it. We were picked to go on the lead camel, a cutie called Malachi. All the camels had Arabic names - Akabar, Zoren, Mustof etc etc. And when the camels were asked to rise or sit back down they were spoken to in Arab (this is so someone doesn't for example say the words Sit Down only to find the camel sitting down unexpectedly lol.) All the guys and girls who were working that afternoon are backpackers either here for a few weeks or months. There was a girl who was Swedish/Brazilian (there's a combo for you), one Swedish guy, a couple of guys from England, and another girl from France. The camels are all lead, six to a team, with two teams split up. Getting up and down was fun lol. You have to sit ramrod straight, arms locked and out as they get up or down and getting down was actually scarier as they hit the sand with a real thump and you feel like you're about to topple off.

There's a funny story that goes along with this camel ride. I'm sitting behind Riley as these strings of camels do a slow lope along the beach near the shore when all of a sudden some guy (I'm guessing in his fifties) comes walking towards us. At first I thought he was wearing speedos then suddenly... well, I realised he wasn't.... AND he walked over to a lady about the same age who was just as bare assed naked as he was and flopped down next to her and got comfortable. Yup, you guessed it. We were left of the rocks separating the beach and were now strolling through the nude beach lol. Riley didn't bat an eyelid but I couldn't stop laughing and I heard a few nervous giggles behind us. 90 percent of the people were set right back from the shore so it was all good - thank God! lol Now THAT was an experience.

I guess that's all I have to say for this post except that we really, really love it here. We've decided to stay for two weeks. It's been great to just put down roots even if it's just for a bit. The guys are having a sleep in now and again (because they don't have to be up and out by the dreaded 10am departure) and it's helping in regards to Riley's school work. He has been doing brilliantly, especially at his math. I honestly think this one on one attention from either Chris or I as we take it in turns has done him the world of good. Much like tutoring where they can just concentrate on one subject and do really well at it. He is working so much more independently and even solving hard math problems Chris and I shake our heads at sometimes lol. He might even finish his work before the school holidays start. Yay.

Tomorrow night we are going to open air cinema. They have a late session starting at 8.45pm and we are looking forward to the experience. Will tell you all about that next time.

Till then,
Carolyn (& Co.) xx

Making up for lost time - blog wise

Hi all,


WARNING: extra long blog filled with pictures and aimless chatter lol. I have been storing all this stuff to tell you because up 'till now there has been no net. So read away.....

We left you last in Exmouth. We were packed and ready to go by 9.30am only to head off today in gale force winds. See, we are definetly getting better at this packing and unpacking business. We say goodbye to a great couple I mentioned in my last post - Colin and Angie who we end up becoming good friends with - finishing with Saturday night drinks at their joint though we had to be back at our own caravan by 10pm - no noise or drinks after 10pm. Seems to be a common caravan park rule to keep the riff-raff under control and let the oldies get their beauty sleep lol. The first ninety k's leaving Exmouth are tough going, driving against that headwind. Armed with lots of extra info courtesy of our new friends we head towards Port Hedland - Colin's favorite saying was (I get the feeling he REALLY didn't like Port Headland) "Wipe your feet on the way out - they don't want you there and they don't cater for tourism." Hmm. I guess we will find out for ourselves.

The view from the Lighthouse Lookout - Exmouth

Anyway, our original idea (well, mine) was to head inland towards Tom Price so we could visit the Kirjini National park but that was scrapped because it was a LONG way out of our way and there are other national parks nearer that are just as great. We made a stop to stretch our legs on a lonely part of the long drive, noticing the south bound highway had been cut off. Earlier that morning there had been a head on between two really big road trains and according to those in the know, there were fatalities :( incredibly sad. We pushed onwards to our destination of Robe River where we plan to stay the night. I remember thinking I hope it's a decent stop because up until now most free camps (unless they are on the beach and we have managed a few of those) are not so great. They are hot, dusty, lonely  areas in the middle of nowhere where there's literally no more to do than veg. As we get back in the car I notice there are already 6 or 7 caravans set up for the night on the pull off area. I asked Chris what on earth they were thinking? It was really hot outside and there they are sitting by their caravans under the caravan awning and since it's only 1pm it's going to make for a really long afternoon. He thinks some know each other as there's some chatter between a few of the vans. They have their radios on and I can hear a t.v going and well, they seem to enjoy it. I don't know - not my cup of tea that's for sure. 

Jake taking the trek up the beach from the Lighthouse Lookout - Exmouth

Found this sad marker from the '40's a small way down the hill at the Lighthouse Lookout. It had three names on it - all men that were killed in the 2nd World War. Up the top of the hill there was an old bunker where the men protected the hill from the Japanese invasion.

On the way from Exmouth we see some rivers that are actually partially full. And the scenery is getting prettier. We stop for a top up of petrol at Nanutarra Roadhouse - EEEK! The petrol is 1.99  a litre and when I go in to buy some drinks (two coffee chills and a 1.25 litre of drink) the lady says that will be 19 dollars, lol. I almost fell over backward. Since I only had 15 dollars in my purse, I did some hurried drink swapping finally getting it right on the third try since there were no prices in the drink fridge. The lady let me know that she was NOT happy having to ring the till up YET again, huffing and puffing at me and my indecision and people were starting to line up behind me. Perversely, I just didn't care. I was hot and the drinking water here up is abysmal for the most part. I wanted my large cold drink of fresh spring water and that was that!

We drive on to Robe River where we are a bit worried at first that we wouldn't get a spot. It looked quite full. Then Chris did a walk around and about five hundred meters up or so he found somewhere we could park the big rig. We managed to find a pozzie  near the riverbank with a lovely grassy area under a big tree where we could set up the table and chairs. The boys tried to light a fire that night in a campfire that had already been set up but they left it too late (it was dark by then) and couldn't find any firewood. I think that was a lesson learned. Do things in the daytime when you can find what you are looking for lol.

 The view between some of the stops... not so flash


Then other times you get this - Mount Alexander

 One of the stops where we stretched our legs. Can't for the life of me remember where it was but it was HOT HOT HOT and dusty and the river was dry as a bone.

Managed to find a sliver of shade though.

 Under the enormous bridge we found all these strange little clay shapes. They are bird nests.

 A bit of lunch in the shade. Mason, Riley (seated) and Chris.

 Chris having a wander in the dry river bed.

 Robe River - we stopped here for the night. The traffic was zooming over that bridge lol. But you learn to ignore it after a while.




 We were on the road again next day by 8.45am (all this traveling day by day does get tiring - unpacking and packing up again especially when you have to lug a great big boat motor out of storage from the caravan) and we pull into Karratha by midday. Karratha is quite a pretty town considering it's red dirt city. My new white flowery Billabong thongs are filthy and stained by now as are some of the kids and Chris's clothes and my white t'shirt just won't come clean. You think we should forgo white while we are up here? I think so too.

Guess who? Yep - the original Red Dog himself. He's sitting at the information board to the entrance to Karratha.

A coastal shot from Karratha - one of the far points up a large hill

Some of the movement happening in Karratha - these are flash looking apartments on the beach and to the right of the shot there was about 100 rough looking dongers for the workers lol

The boats of Dampier

Anyway, there's some major developments going on here in Karratha with a huge high rise set back overlooking the ocean (I didn't know Karratha was even on the sea.) The town has these huge hills overlooking it and across the landscape you see more purple hills to the West. We tried to book in overnight but everything was full, so we pushed on after a lunch stop to Dampier. This place is even prettier. And unusual. The coastline is literally breathtaking with large work boats out on the water. There are tall palm trees everywhere reminding me of pictures I've seen of Hawaii yet there is the rugged Australian background comprising of rock and scrubby bush sitting along side it. There is one thing I've noticed. The further north we go the rivers are partially or almost full whereas between Perth and Exmouth every single one we passed was bone dry. I wonder why that is?
 

Karratha again - walking down to the beach from a fairly large dune

We had no luck getting an over-nighter in Dampier either (caravan park OR free camp) so we set off again for a free camp we had heard about, about about ten km's out of Roebourne. We backed (cautiously) up against a cliff that overlooked mass rock and onto the ocean (catching a beautiful sunset that night) yet was bordered by, well nothing. Just miles and miles of dry grass and flat plains. Still, it wasn't a bad spot at all.


The next morning we were all (ok.. I was) longing for a shower. None of us had managed more than a bath wash for two days (we did purchase a small instantaneous hot water system and an ensuite/toilet thingee before we left but no way could we set it up. The wind was HOWLING!) And let me tell you, daily showering is almost mandatory up this way unless you like walking around like a movie star with a bad tan job... in fact, Chris thought I WAS finally getting some colour on me until I showered then he realised that I was just covered in red dirt lol. Your feet get filthy ALL the time. I have a couple of packs of baby wipes in the car and can go through half a pack in one day when I am on a mission for everyone to clean up lol.

The rocks at the base of the cliff where we were parked

King of the Hill - Riley

The track that leads to the beach - we were surrounded by miles of this with rough tracks cutting through. Apparently during the wet season which comes sometime next month this will be under water or close to it.

 We set off for Port Headland and I have to tell you, a more boring drive you will not find. Just mile after endless mile of scrub and flatness (that was actually the picture further up... nothing upon nothing to look at!) We booked into the Port Headland Caravan Park. This place was ... well, if not awful, certainly not the best. It was terribly set up with tiny narrow little lanes to drive down and the caravan parking was a nightmare with all the stuff they seemed to put in your way. If it wasn't a solar light, it was a tree, if it wasn't a tree, it was a fire extinguisher on a pole. It took Chris five goes to get our big sucker into the spot. Not fun. That said, the view across the wetlands at night were pretty with all the industry lights boring full blast. I got a call from my sister that night and we were on the phone for about an hour and a half. I ended up getting a torch light in my face (I was sitting outside and we were laughing our heads off the whole conversation) when an old guy came across and told me off. Apparently my voice was carrying as the wind was heading his way and he asked if I was almost done and was I aware he could hear the whole conversation albeit just from my side lol. Ooops.

We made tracks early again (do we ever do anything else lately?) and on the way to Eighty Mile Beach, which was our destination for that night, we came across the De Grey River Camp spot. It was beautiful. Right on a river bank half filled with water. We had a coffee and some food and Chris and Mason threw a line in, catching two catfish which we put back into the water. We ended up staying in the shade under the trees and just kicking back for a few hours. 

The men threw a line in the river and this is Mason's catfish he caught. He put him back in and he swum away to live a long and healthy life :)

Riley spotted a kookaburra hiding under the bridge

 De Grey River - our lunch time stopover. It was lovely.

We finally made it into Eighty Mile Beach about 3.45pm. We were told several times that there was nothing here because it's in the middle of nowhere. But what a nowhere it is. It's lovely. The people are literally the friendliest we have come across and you know those times when you just step into somewhere and feel instantly at ease. That's this caravan park. There was live music coming from the BBQ area, and it was bustling with people all happily wandering around and chatting and nodding to us newbies. The beach is so close you can hear it crashing in the background. Turns out we landed on a good day. They had a 'fundraising hamburger night,' where we paid 6 dollars each for a good sized and extremely tasty hamburger that just finished the night off great - especially for me - no cooking. Before we ate though we had  taken the car down to the beach. This place is amazing and I have not seen anything like it. It's literally '80 mile of beach' .. funny that lol. The tide was wayyyy out and we spent hours picking up the most amazing shells from a crystalline white sands, then managing to catch one of the most amazing sunsets I have ever seen. I caught it on film.

This is the sunset caught at 80 mile beach... so beautiful

The same sunset five minutes later... the colours were intense and I was awe inspired!

So that's about it for now. We are here for a few nights and then we head off to Broome. I have been gathering lots of info about the place. Must go to the only longest running outdoor cinema in Australia. If we go to the 6.15pm session we will have a huge jumbo fly right over us lol. Close enough to see the wheels (might rethink that one!) Must go to Chinatown. Must get into the spirit of the Shinju Matsuri Pearl Festival that finishes on the 9th of this month. We will catch the end of that, most likely the closing ceremony. I have been writing everything it down as I hear about it. We plan on staying for a week at least. This moving day by day is getting tiring and we want to settle in for a while without moving. Can't wait.

Until next time
Carolyn x