Broometime...

We slipped into Broometime real easily...we swear for every second in Victoria, their are 5-10 seconds in Broome. The days cruise slowly by like a crocodile drifting on the current...like getting good value for money...and very easy to get used to.
On the flip side, Broome was unlike anything we'd imagined it would be. We thought tropical paradise, like images we see of Cairns and the like, but it has a character truly of its own. You know from its position on the map of Australia that it is remote, hundreds of kms from a major town, and close to the real Outback of Australia but all the brochures you see of Broome focus on the 'tropical paradise' that is Cable Beach. Its pristine white sand, crystal blue ocean contrasted with palm trees, fancy resorts and restaurants. And that is how it is at Cable Beach, it is beautiful, the magnificent sunsets, the camels on the beach, the ritzy Cable Beach resort...a great place to be. But that is just one very small part of Broome, the rest of Broome, the real bit where people live, work and play is very different. The vegetation is not all palm trees, it is more mangroves and outback. It is a small place (although we still managed to get lost a couple of times!), and its shops (mainly in the precinct called Chinatown) are not pretentious, they are set back in under cool verandahs and great fun to explore the individuality of each one. There are the flashy pearl showrooms where you feel nervous setting foot into, (feeling you aren't dressed nicely enough in your thongs and shorts!),there are the touristy shops, there is 'The Camel Store' where they sell everything 'camel', lots of art gallerys and the old favourites like Sportspower, Brumby's, Target and Coles. Such a mix of the old and the new, thats what gives Broome its charm. Its not out to prove anything, it is what it is, like it or not. A McDonald has found its way in which is a pity, but it was a sight for sore eyes for us who hadn't had a Mc burger for many months!!!
My Mum and Dad decided to fly over from Ballarat to see us and catch up on much missed 'grand parent' time. The kids had been so looking forward to them coming after our 3 and 1/2 months of travelling away, and the reunion at the airport was beautiful! It was great to be around family again and we fit lots in to our two weeks together. Mum and Dad stayed at apartments about 5 minutes away, with a great big pool and surrounded by palm trees. We didn't see the kids for dust after they saw they had a real bed to sleep in, a toilet and shower only steps away and air conditioning to boot! And on top of all that, loving grandparents to spoil them and give them all those treats that mum and dad haven't let them have all trip!!! So, Mark and I got to spend lovely evenings alone in trakkie, and some lovely 'us' time walking on Cable Beach and shopping in Chinatown. It was tough, but someone had to do it!
So in our time in Broome we got to :

• have Mango smoothies (absolutely to die for!)
• see the history of the pearl luggers at the Broome Historical museum (fascinating stuff)
• watch the most amazing sunsets at Cable Beach
• visit Willie Creek Pearl farm to see how the pearls are created ( we saw our first croc here)
• we rode the famous camels and were graced with seeing the buttocks of 13 young men and women who thought that would make our camel ride so much more enjoyable!!!! (I think the kids are still in shock from that one!!!)
• we discovered that the north side of Cable Beach was actually a real nudist beach and a older male nudist managed to get in my camel photo (see our photo album!), cheeky thing!!
• an evening out at Matso's Brewery with our German friends, Jaman and Alex. Sampled all their beers, nine glasses each, with everyone else staring at us like we were drunks and the bloke playing guitar asking if we were performing some science experiment. This was followed by some hot Indian food from the Curry Hut cooked by 'Mr P'. Yum.
• 2 nights at the Mangrove Hotel waiting for the 'Staircase to the Moon'. This didn't eventuate due to clouds so had to settle for some great local musos playing a mix of country/blues/didgeridoo. Great stuff.
• we drove up to Cape Leveque with our German friends, visiting the beautiful Beagle Bay church, Middle Lagoon, Kooljaman resort and One arm point
• Hang out by the pool, swim, relax and spend some great family time together!

It was sad to see Mum and Dad fly away from 35deg weather to cold old Ballarat (down to 1 degree!!!!), what a huge temperature drop...and hard to go from Broometime back to normal time, but it must be heart warming to relive all our wonderful memories and see all our awesome photos!!
So in the words of a famous athlete (and great friend) "onwards and upwards" we go, The Kimberley here we come!
 

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80 mile beach

Left Karijini, and stopped at Auski Roadhouse to fill up. Mark sent me in to pay and after the customer in front of me was served, I innocently came out with (and I am still questioning myself why?) ... "I've got gas". The saleswoman tried to stay professional until the guy next to her started to crack up and before I knew it they were all laughing at me...and me at myself!! My mouth just speaks too quick for my brain!! Feeling glad that I was the source of entertainment for the roadhouse and Mark and the kids, we set off for Port Hedland.
Did a grocery shop at Port Hedland and the Woolworths here had the oldest staff that I had ever come across. The average age without word of a lie was over 55, with most of the check-out chicks being sweet old grey haired grannies and the one at my register took about 10 minutes to process my trolley. It was like watching grass grow, she was sooooo slow!!!
On dusk we pulled in to the turnoff for 80 mile beach. Little kangaroos were everywhere on the road and I swear I saw the juices of one that hit our bull-bar, but must have just been its nervous sweat because Mark got out to look and there was no trace of it. We pulled in, felt completely overwhelmed by the humidity (we felt like we were struggling to even breathe) and set up in the dark. So glad we had our little desk fan to keep us cool (very grateful for small mercies!!)
With sunrise being around 5.30am and all our windows letting full light in, early morning waking was becoming the norm. The mornings were definitely the best time to do anything, so we went to check out the beach, which was only a stones throw away from our camp. We had heard the tides were big up this part of the world but nothing prepared me for what we saw when we came over the dunes. The tide was so far out it made the beach look massive, and their were shells everywhere you looked. The ocean looked so far away. Later that night, we went out to see low tide again and it was even further out that earlier that morning, we would approximate the distance out to be 1.5 -2km!!! We walked out onto the mud/sand flats, our thongs sticking in the sand that looked and felt like wet cement. It was the most awesome experience. Hermit crabs were crawling all over the sand, and the sun started to set and with its reflection on the mud flats, gave us our own version of the 'Staircase to the sun'.
The fishing was also a huge highlight of 80 mile beach. An hour before and after high tide, fishing right on the beach will almost guarantee you a great catch, but I'll let Mark fill you in on the details...Mark here - the fishing here was the best of the whole trip, particularly because you didn't need a boat to get good fish. My first go netted 2 black tip reef sharks and a blue salmon or threadfin salmon. I let the sharks go, not knowing if there was a size limit. Back at camp we had the salmon straight away...beautiful. After hearing the small sharks were in fact good eating and there was no size limit I was keen to get more because of the amount of meat you get. This time however, I lost 2 sharks and caught 4 blue salmon, one a bit small. So for tea that night we had salmon in 'Crumb in One', absolutley beautiful. Some people up here regard the salmon above Barramundi. We will be back to this place one day for sure.
 
We would have loved to stay longer here at 80 mile but the humidity was a killer, you couldn't swim in the ocean because of the stingers (box jellyfish), and there was no pool here to cool off, so we had no choice but to go. We could only have so many cold showers, which were great when under the water but the minute you got out you were sweating again... not good! So onwards to Broome, to seeing Mum and Dad (they are flying over from Ballarat to visit!) and a cold pool!

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Karijini

On the day we left Tom Price, Jaman and Alex (our new German friends) were leaving too. They beat us out (which isn't a hard thing to do!), only having to pack up a tent, and we were all heading for Hamersley Gorge. Despite some warm days with no rain, we came across a lot of water on the road, with some 'puddles' stretching across the whole road and quite long. We thought that there was no way our German friends could have made it through in their 2WD, and driving into the Hamersley Gorge carpark with Prado covered in red mud, there was their Falcon Stationwagon looking like it had driven on a dry dirt road! We were shaking our heads. Catching up with them, they said Alex walked the water first to check for depth and then Jaman drove through very slowly and it worked. Go the Ford…  As we walked into Hamersley Gorge, the colours were magnificent, lots of purple rocks and other unusual shades we had never seen before. The rocks were in waves (called tectonic rock) and they looked like layers of puff pastry, one on top of the other. We experienced our first go at rock scrambling, and were amazed at how great the kids went, without a word of complaint!

From here we stayed at Dales Campground. We checked out Circular Pool, as its name suggests it's circular with small waterfalls you can stand under. Just a beautiful little place. We also walked the track to Fortesque Falls, a Grade 4 track for people with medium to high fitness and the kids did it no worries. A few lifts here and there, where their little legs couldn't reach, but the rest was easy for them. This track ended at Fern Pool, filled with heaps of little fish and me and the kids had a dip under the waterfall at the opposite side of the pool. The fish took a liking to the skin peeling off my legs from sunburn back in Exmouth. Every now and then I felt them biting the back of my thighs; cheeky buggers.

The next gorge along was Kalamina. After a long walk in we were surrounded by high red cliffs that were stunning and Sharyn suggested we have a swim. Since we didn't have our bathers, we stripped down to our underwear and had a lovely time in the rock pools, not believing we had this stunning place to ourselves. It was one of those 'pinch-yourself' moments…

At the western end of Karijini NP the gorges were deeper and more visually spectacular than the eastern end. Joffre Gorge, Knox  Gorge, Hancock Gorge, Oxer & Junction Pool, such amazing lookouts, but just looking down into these gorges we knew the kids were too little to tackle these and they would have to wait a few years till their legs were bigger!!

It was at Karijini NP that we awarded our first prize for "the most irritating couple of the trip". This night was really quiet at the campground and nearly all the campsites were free. This couple chose to camp right next to us and being friendly, Sharyn went over for a chat. They were in their late sixties, early 70's from NSW and were obviously not cut out for the travelling life. Every word that came out of their mouth was negative, the woman had one of those whiny little voices that doesn't stop for breath and they bagged Karijini saying it was a waste of time coming in, "the gorges at Litchfield and overseas were sooooo much deeper"... I was hiding in the toilet at this stage, hearing every word and hoping they would stop talking so I could sneak back into the tent, but no luck, Sharyn was stuck, so being the knight in shining armour that I am, I came out to rescue her. We stood there for over 10 minutes listening to them whine and all we could do was smile politely and nod our heads like good little campers (whilst inside we were screaming in agony!). They had only seen this end of the park where the gorges were shallow, but still beautiful, and we couldn't be bothered telling them the gorges at the other end of the park were simply huge (probably like the ones at Litchfield). Luckily they hated it so much they took off early the next day, with us staying inside Trakkie until they left to avoid another agonising whinge. We breathed a big sigh of relief and prayed we'd never see them again!

Speaking of toilets, the drop toilets here were quite good and didn't smell at all but at night they came alive...with cockroaches. They breed them big over here in the West and once the sun went down they scrambled from out of the pit, up the toilet drop off and onto the seats and over the toilet floor. Needless to say night time visits involved taking over a can of fly spray and squatting over the seat, not on it, in case one decided to come up from within and run over our bottoms and other bits. What a thought!

The kids started counting down the days now till Broome when Sharyn's parents were flying over from Ballarat to meet us, so onwards to 80 mile beach we headed, with next stop after that Broome.

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Tom Price

Leaving Exmouth we headed inland to Tom Price, hoping the weather would be better. The sky was still dark but we saw patches of blue sky so things were looking up. We had been warned about Nanutarra Roadhouse being expensive and it didn't disappoint. Gas was $1.28 a litre, our most expensive to date, and diesel was $1.99 a litre! We didn't bother with food as we heard their hamburgers were $12 to $16, the cost of a meal at our pub back home.

 

We dropped into Paraburdoo to be greeted by cows walking the street! Emu's in Exmouth, Cows in Paraburdoo.  Apparently these cows continually walked into town to feed on the green grass and they have trouble keeping them out. Onwards to Tom Price, we arrived late and booked 2 nights in a dormitory and also a site for Trakkie. We opened Trakkie up and it stunk! We pulled out as much as we could to air out for the night and the next day we aired and dried what we could. Some nice fresh mould had already set in so I spent a fair time scrubbing it away from the roof. Unbeknown to us, the mould remover we used also removed the water proofing capabilities of the canvas. The first night back in Trakkie and it started to rain heavily and all where I had scrubbed on the roof and along the seams began to leak! We got out the towels and tried moppig it up as it came through, hoping the rain wouldn't last long. After half and hour and no let up in the rain, I had to go out and try to rig up our tarps to keep the rain off. In the heavy rain and wind this wasn't very easy and when I eventually made it back inside I was quite cold and soaked through (obviously). Meanwhile, Sharyn was flat out trying to mop up the water coming in. It did the trick though and we eventually got some sleep in before day break.  The kids slept well, in fact they didn't even budge. What rain???

 

On one of these days we had a young (32) German guy ( Jaman, pronounced Yah-Man, very Reggae. Actually his real German name is different again but too hard for Aussies to pronounce)come over and he had heard how we got drenched in Exmouth and he was there too and got stuck for hours before they could get out. He seemed like a good bloke and from then on we struck up a friendship with him and his partner Alexandra. All of us were drying out and waiting for the roads into Karijini Natinal Park to open up.

As Tom Price was built around mining we decided to go on a mine tour. This was great and gave us a real insight into the magnitude of mining operations. Each train leaving Tom Price carries 2.4 million dollars worth of iron ore but I can't remember how many go a day. We spoke to a guy one night who didn't work for a mine but his company did contract mining work. We was flown in from Perth, spent 2 weeks on and one week off. No weekend work or night shift and $145,000 a year thanks very much! He wasn't even allowed to work quickly because the boss told them off if they did this and the return for the company was zero accidents and minimal sickies. Nice approach, are all bosses in Australia reading this?

Weather looking good ,Karijini he we come…

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