Despite our tactical parking, the birds that had been lovely
to watch last night were now making one heck of a racket this morning. At dawn.
At 5am. And by 630m it was
getting hot again. May as well hit the
road again!
Despite our hard work yesterday, it was still well over an
hour into Broome. We made a bee-line for
the VC where we were furnished with a map and a head-full of ideas of what to
do. Only being 10am and the start of a
new budget week we did the weekly grocery shop, managing to keep it to a measly
$75 as we have less than a week to cater for ourselves before Ozzie is going
back to TA. The next priority was to
find Simon a haircut before he officially looked like one of the homeless.
Admin done, we checked into the caravan site nearest to
town, Roebuck Bay. I said to the lady
that we didn’t need an ocean view, just the cheapest available site. She explained that most sites were ocean view
anyway and gave us C9, right overlooking the mangroves and with NO shade
whatsoever.
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| Now that's what you call a beach-side camping spot |
We were both
sweltering and in need of a shower, but when you’re this close to the sea it
would seem amiss to not just jump straight in, right? Well, this was the
warmest sea I have ever had a dip in. It
was like a tepid bath. Not unpleasant at
all, but not quite the sweet cold relief we were after! We then started chatting about how far south
the salt water crocodiles territory is and, suddenly, it wasn’t so relaxing.
Both showered and after a bite to eat, it was time to be
tourists again. The plain fact is that,
in this heat, there are only two places that you can be – 1) cold/cool water or
2) somewhere air conditioned. We’d done
the swimming, now we would have to take the camper for a drive as it was our
only available air-conditioned space. We
headed to Gantheaume point, recommended by the VC for the stark contrast of red
rocks against turquoise ocean but also benefiting from the presence of
an osprey nest (right).
Onwards to Cable beach, and its famous swathe of pristine
sand before we headed to Matso’s Brewery. We’d essentially been stalling from getting
here any earlier! Knowing the price of a
pint in these parts we wanted to savour the experience but not for too
long! We shared a 5-part taster tray and
went on to have a pint of ginger beer (Simon) and their interestingly tasty
Mango beer (me) on the shaded veranda.
It was too hot for the drinks to last long enough….
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| Cable Beach |
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| Our taster selection at Matso's Brewery |
We had also been recommended to visit Sun Pictures in
Broome, the World’s oldest operating picture gardens which opened in 1916
showing silent movies with a pianist accompanying them.
The 630pm showing was the current remake of
Agatha Christie’s ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ with Kenneth Branagh playing
‘Poirot’. It may not have been the number
one film to see on our list, but we felt we should experience the outdoor
cinema (I just cannot get away from the day job!). Tickets were $17 each but we were able to
bring our own snacks and soft drinks in, so it didn’t break the bank
completely. Well, we both got distracted
for distinct reasons. Simon, because we
were in the flight path of Broome International Airport and we could almost
wave at the pilots as they landed over our heads. Me, due to the fantastic parrots squawking
overhead as dusk fell, the moon shining above and then the large silhouettes of
fruit bats swooping over us. What an
experience! Oh, and the film was also
quite good, though I won’t spoil the ending (Poirrot cracks it).
Returning to the campsite, we estimated where we might get
some shade in the morning and parked up.
This was definitely a boot, door and every available window open kind of
night!
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