May 2007

Day 33 Sunday 20th May

Here we are Birthday boy!! Woke up early, as usual. Hot night low of 23 Deg. Top today of 34.
Off to the beach for a walk, went north of the rocks saw our first nudist!~! Couldn’t find the old bloke that used to roam the beach, you know elephant man!!!!!
Brenda want’s to know, why they are always old people? Where’s the bloke with the washboard Ab’s. I mentioned razor strops, but she didn’t know what I was talking about.!!
Got back to the van for our Brekkie, then off to town for something stronger to give us some relieve from these Sand Fly /Midgee bites. Got some cream and anti histamines to relieve the itch!!!
Kicked back today.
All the kids rang, caught up with lots.
Then off to dinner at cable beach, nice meal had fisherman’s basket, as we all did!!!
Back to Ricks van for coffee and Port, I keep telling you all how tough it is out here in the outback!!!
Brenda bought me some abbo clapping sticks !!! So be prepared I will be haunting everyone with them!!!
I told her I was going to buy a Didgeridoo, didn’t that get a response .
Also another hot night so Brenda says that the Aircon for the van is getting closer!!!!!!
For those interested Fuel prices in Broome:- ULP $1.48 , LPG .90cents a litre…….

Day 32 Saturday 19 May
Once again a warm night 21Deg top temp today 34deg.
Today we have to move sites, as when we originally booked it was only for 5 days, but decided to stay a couple more. Took a while though as the people in our new site were not in any hurry to go!!!!@#$%.
All moved so off to the Craft market in Broome. Some of the stuff is good some not so good!!
We also were also lucky enough to see the Navy in town. The Patrol Boat “BROOME’ had been granted the freedom of the city. So we watched that for a while(navy in the blood)!! Poor buggers though, it was really hot, the sweat was pouring off them.
Back to van for lunch( Pizza), and a swim. Then off to find a car wash. The car was still full of the red dust and mud from cape Leveque. Once again the sunset called so this time off to the hotel for cocktails. Like I keep telling you all it’s very tough here!!!!
Dinner and bed I’m a bit worn out HAHA.
Tomorrow is another day apart from that it’s my birthday, so we are all going out for dinner, tell you all about it in tomorrow’s episode!!!!!

Day 31 Friday 18 May
Another warm overnight temp of 22 deg. Made it hard to sleep soundly!!
I am off to the massage parlour today! Not what you are all thinking! I woke up yesterday with a very stiff neck. Could hardly turn the b….y thing. Persevered for a day , but didn’t get any better. So we found a place that does Shiatsu massage made a appointment with the guy. But when I got back at the time, I had a young French girl, only been in the country for 3 weeks!!!! Now that was fun!!! But she did a very good job on me!!!!! All my stiffness went, FROM MY NECK !!!!!
Anyways after the mornings excitement , we took ourselves off to a Aquaculture place run by of indigenous brethren. They used to breed a shell fish called TROCHUS. But due to the popularity of the movie Nemo, everyone wants clown fish. So Trochus got the flick, welcome clown fish!! They have trouble keeping up with demand and just for the record there is about 7 different types and colours.
Then off to a boutique brewery, had a beer called Matsumoto Blonde, Wasn’t impressed only had one then left.
We also called into the “Shell House” a kinds of shells , some quite expensive but I suppose a collector would pay their prices!!!
Once again the time had come for another Broome sunset, so off to the beach beer, wine nibbles, to watch the sun go down. It’s surprising how many people go to watch, the foreshore is packed every night!!
Sunset over back to park for a roast dinner at Rick and Tracey’s van. They have their next door neighbour from Melb up here for a week so a dinner was put on for them. Very nice too!!!!!
Mozzies and Midges were a big problem tonight not just for us but for everyone, even the “local” were complaining. Something to do with the High tide and the little bit of rain we had!!!!
Great night had lots of laughs a few good drinks. Then Rick opened the Grandfather Port, well that sealed the evening.
Off to bed very happy!!!!!!!

Day 30 Thursday 17 May
When we woke this Morning the sky was still quite cloudy. Hmm!!

We have decided to go to cape Leveque. A long drive on mostly unmade road. This will test the Land Crusher!! Once we leave the highway at Broome, the road in is 201Klms. Our first stop 90 Klms up the road, was Beagle Bay. We looked forward to this stop, as this was going to be Breakfast!! Well lets just say too many “brothers” around. Very dirty and untidy place. Car bodies all over the place. Here we could have got a diesel motor for the Toyota, they were everywhere. As Brenda called them Garden Gnomes because every “house” had a wreck in the front yard. What it did have, was a magnificent little church, All built by a Father Thomas and the local lads!! The altar was all made of Pearl inlay, the photo we took doesn’t give it justice! It cost us $5 for a look (donation)! Mosquitoes were a huge problem, they were all over us.
Onwards toward Cape Leveque.
The road hasn’t improved one bit, deep ruts and very slippery. What made it worse was that they are “fixing” the road and spraying water to cut down the dust, which is what was making it slippery! Some parts of it, the road going through Aborigine land was fully sealed. That made it a bit easier!
Finally we reached Cape Leveque, a place that I have wanted to go to for some time! I must say I was a bit disappointed, as I for some reason thought it would be better than it was! The price of a site for a night here is $60. We had to pay a $10 entry fee per car just to look!
Anyway Took the car down to western beach and had lunch. Had a nice chat to some people that came in via a different road as they had come from Derby. Supposed to be a minor road but by the sound of it , it was in better condition than our entry road?
We didn’t want to stay to late so we headed off by 1.45. The road had dried out a little by then. So made the exit a little better, no shorter but a little better!!!!
On the way back we nearly ran over a snake! So we did a U-turn and went back for a look and pic! Depending who you talk to! It was somewhere between 4 foot and 6 foot. Check out the Photo. Can anyone tell us what variety it is?
Anyhow back at park safe and sound . Just in time for guess what…… your right happy hour!!!!!!

Day 29 Wednesday 16 May
Woke up to a very over cast day. Actually looks like rain, bugger!!!!!
The day started slow , I decided to wash the van, had lots of red dust to get off. The chores had to be done!!! Washing , cleaning and the like.
Went into China town as I must have slept awkward. I had a stiff neck that was killing me. We thought China Town they will have a massage joint . Found one but couldn’t get in until Thursday!! Oh the pain, the pain!!!!!
We had a double Decker bus tour planned for 3.00, they picked us up and off w e went. It’s amazing what you can learn on these tours. The guy( owner/ driver) was a POM, been in Broome for 21 years. Sounded like he had just got off the boat?? Great tour only problem was that it rained for most of the time. We are seriously considering to hire ourselves out as drought breakers!!!!
Back to the park caught up with Rick and Tracey, planning our day for tomorrow, possibly up to Cape Leveaque. 190 Klm’s of mostly dirt road , might just go as far as Beagle Bay and work the rest out from there. Will see how the weather looks in the AM.
Couple of wines hic! HIC! off to bed.

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