May 2007

Day 28 Tuesday 15th may
Woke up to an overcast day, but still, had to go for our walk! Overnight low of 21- max34Deg. Enjoyed the walk along Cable beach. Couldn’t think of a nicer place to go for a early morning walk. Thing is every man and his dog is doing the same thing!
Back to the Van for a well earned breakfast( bacon and egg sandwich).
Then off to Gantheaume Point, which is the southern tip of cable beach. The rock formations here are to be believed. It looks like layer upon layer of different coloured sand. At low tide there are fair dinkum Dinosaur footprints in the rocks.
Went back to town , fuelled up the car , as we had a Coles voucher to use( cheap skates!!!).
Back to park for a coffee and swim, to make ready for Brenda’s hair appointment at 1.30.
While Brenda was having the hair do!! I went to Macca’s to send off all the latest instalments in the travel diary. Wasn’t that fun! I asked them if they had “Hotspot” she gave me sugar!!! “No I said Telstra hotspot “no we don’t that here” I sat done and noticed on the door a sign( BIG) saying Telstra Hotspot. Brenda asked them again” The guy says I don’t know I’ll ask the boss. Finally “yes we have that but you will have to use your own PC“. I know things happen slow in the Bush but!!!!!
We decided to go on the Beach for another sunset but , the sky was overcast and not a great sunset tonight. But the booze was OK!!!!!! Put the car on Cable Beach only to be told by the ranger “you can’t park there”. Didn’t matter as I already had the Photo I wanted of My car on cable beach. They local folks (abbo’s) have claimed native title and don’t want cars on the beach!!
Well for the first time there was no happy hour@**@@##. But we were both in bed by 9.30. Pleasantly tired!!

Day 27 Monday 14th May
Another tough day to go through up here!! 32 deg.
Woke very early so off to the beach for a early morning walk and all this before my breakfast! Got on the beach after a walk through the foreshore reserve. Watched the Red Camels come on the beach. One of which definitely didn’t want to play, was roaring and carrying on. I certainly would have not trusted the B…..y thing.
While we were there we were watching a guy trying to land a fish, the rod was bent double!
When he finally landed it, it was about a 6 foot shark. Poor bloke though, he tried to get it with a gaff hook, but must of hit the line and broke it , ( I would have cried).
Coffee on Cable Beach, then back to the van for breakfast. Then I heard the words” I need to go to the shops”. So I got tough and said “I wait in the car”. Once around the shops , then off to China town. This is the old part of Broome where all the pearlers used to operate from. Actually bought some good stuff!!! I was right out of Beer got some Cascade for $30, happy with that!!!

Then of to the Port area around at Roebuck Bay, saw lots of fish, a turtle and a big “shape” going through the water!! Had a nice lunch there then back to the park for a swim and a read.
Once again the time came for Happy hour so…………..

Day 26 Sunday 13 May
Another day in paradise, warm night and an excellent morning. Didn’t know what the overnight temp was but pretty warm! Today is supposed to get 36 Deg. !! Might have to give the aircon in the car , a big workout today!!!

Left park by 0815, After having locked ourselves out@##$%. Ricks boy Wes, got in through the top flywire so only locked out for 5 minutes, thank god!!!
Off on the dirt road 10 Klms to get back to the highway. The van has changed from white to red!!! 50 klms up the road stop for Breakfast at the Sandfire roadhouse. Which had burnt down 2 weeks before but they were still serving petrol and diesel but no LPG. I did a quick fire investigation and came up with an electrical fault!!!!!! Funny thing was that Rick was out of smokes and drove the 50 Klms to Sandfire only to find that it had burnt down. But luck for him they had one pack left!!!!

Back on the road, it just seems to go on forever!! Stopped for another coffee 2 hours later, couldn’t convince Brenda to pee behind van “ no thanks I’ll hold on”.
Got my first road kill for the entire trip, a Goanna was waddling across the road , if he kept the same pace, I would have missed it , but no it decided to speed up! The car missed it but the van did the job!!! 5 minutes later swerved to miss a Roo but the Van once again got it . I hit it with the stabiliser. Blood and guts now needs to be washed off the van!!!! YUK! (No damage to van)

Finally got into Broome, booked in decided to stay 2 more nights here( the boss has spoken)!! But we have to move sites on Saturday, as the site we are on is already booked.
Of course there are shops here and we had to go and do the rounds. But we found Macca’s so I can do the internet thing from there tomorrow.
Off to see one of Broome’s renown sunset . It didn’t disappoint, spectacular is the only way to describe it!!
You have to be here for this event, as the whole Beach and foreshore get packed with people, their chairs, drinks, and dips this all happens just before sunset. 5 minutes after sunset it’s empty!!!!

Had a great dinner tonight, Fresh fish ( Threadfin salmon caught at eighty mile beach) and salad . Of course the usual lubrication to make it slide down better!!! The girls were on the Champers!!!! Happy hour or two complete, so off to bed.
What great joys will tomorrow bring?
Let me tell you it all sounds so easy , but it’s tough out here!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 25 Saturday12th May

Woke up to another great day in paradise! Overnight low of 21deg.
Left C/Park by 0750. Had to stop at the shops as we used up the last of our spuds last night. Well what really happened was that Brenda was boiling some spuds, she came outside the van for happy hour, and forgot about the spuds. So consequently we burnt the crap out of them. So she was banned from wine for 10 minutes, or until my dinner was cooked!!!
Our first stop was at the Pardo roadhouse, Brenda freaked out here as there were lots of our “brothers” here. As usual, they had a car that wouldn’t start, so they were pushing it around the servo trying to bump start it. One of the funniest things I have ever seen, lots of noise and instructions from the wings!!!
We arrived at our new “garden’ at 1130. The place had not changed, just as good as last time., plenty of green grass sites. Caught up with Rick and Tracey haven’t seen them for a couple of days!
We then went surf fishing for Salmon. Did alright, caught 5. Tracey caught a shovel Nose shark, but we let that go. Ricks boy Wes, scaled and cleaned the fish. So we decided to have them for Dinner tomorrow night. Our first Night in Broome.
As per usual happy hour was a great success, we had to stop so we could have dinner.
For those interested Here are the fuel prices for this section of the journey. Pt. Hedland $1.47 ULP. $0.86 LPG. The Pardo Roadhouse LPG was 99cents a litre and that was only180 Klm’s up the road.
Rich telephoned us as he wanted us to pick up a packet of Smokes. He went to the Sandfire Roadhouse, some 50 K’s up the road. But the joint had burnt down and they only had one pack left. How desperate can you be?? Turned out the fire was caused by an Electrical Fault
Ok, off to Broome tomorrow. Just about 380 Klm’s away. We are booked in there for a 5 days but we are hoping to make that 7 days.
Ricks next door neighbour in Rosebud Baz, is flying up so this could be a fun week!!!
It’s time to open the Grandfather Port !!!
We are looking at this as about half way for us!!

Day 24 Friday 11th May
Woke up today after another very warm night overnight low of 23Deg.
Packed up headed off by 0815. First stop Whim Creek pub for breakfast. Brenda rated the coffee here as bloody awful!!! We had a bit of a shock here, Last time we were here, it was a very friendly pub nothing was to hard for them! But as the Mining boom is in full flight. The mining Companies are buying anything with accommodation attached. This was a great old country pub a bit like Ettamagogha( don’t know is that’s the right spelling), but now it’s lost all it’s charm. When we were here last there was a Joey hopping around and a snake slithering around inside the bar. Now it’s all very business like! These mining Companies have bought up lots of the caravan parks too.
This proved true as we got into South Hedland, headed for the park we knew, but it has been sold to the mines. Completely pulled down and Motel style accommodation in it’s place @#$%^.
Still we went to one that we have stayed at before and it’s very nice, right on the banks of a river and no bore water!!!
Here I did a few renovations on the back of the car, so as we could fit in the Engel fridge better. Must have cold and easy to get drinks!!!!
Once again I had to do the romantic beach walk ( yeh I know!!). The water was quite warm but didn’t go for a swim as they said there could be Stonefish around, Pass!!!!! So back to the park for a swim in the very safe pool.
Once again the time has come for happy hour, a few drinks read of the book, then dinner. Doesn’t get much better than this!!!!!! The sunset was also magnificent( I need to get back amongst the boys!!!!).
To date we have done 6888 Klm,s