Back to Broome

Tuesday 27^th May 2008

We were very slow getting away (maybe something to do with me being determined to make pikelets first?!) but remembered to tape up the trailer before setting off with me driving.

We did a small detour to Beagle Bay to check out the church that all the guide books go on about. It wasn’t quite the pristine white of their photographs anymore but was still charming. Inside the altars are made of mother of pearl, every window is framed with shiny shells and the floor up the aisle was lined with yet more pearl shells.

The road was all good – til we hit the dirt. It seems to be incredibly full of soft dirt with deep ruts where vehicles have driven through. It didn’t help that the light was directly behind us and not creating much shadow to help judge the undulations. We realised that it wasn’t just us that thought it was bad when we met the grader about halfway along and the difference it made to the quality of the road was incredible. I still had a headache from concentrating so hard for so long and my arms were ‘fizzing’ for a while after we stopped!

Returning to Broome almost felt like coming home – we knew where to go and what to do and in fact were only one spot away from our previous site. Of course, Katie was hanging out for Hannah to be there and they did return while they were all in the pool (and I was uploading the blog and checking e-mails). I did eventually make it to the pool which was still freezing but definitely refreshing after being cooped up in the camper with the computer.

Our next door neighbours kindly pointed out some loose wires under our trailer which seem to be related to the ones that Paul cable-tied up when we were in Marble Bar because they were dragging almost to the ground. We decided that it wasn’t a job for us – this required professionals – and promptly put it off til tomorrow...!

Paul got a call from Billy Gibson – a customer of Munich Motorcycles who lives at One-Arm Point (next settlement to Cape Leveque). He was very disappointed not to catch us while we were there – apparently we’d have been invited to drink his fridge dry which has got to be the highest form of hospitality for an Aussie!

We decided to sample the delights of the Divers Arms for dinner since we’d soon be catering for ourselves for a protracted period and had a decent meal (Katie was very happy cos she got a plate of wedges and tomato sauce) but were also eaten ourselves by a few hungry mozzies.

The Young Ones watching moved on to series 2 – Paul was slightly horrified to find that he remembered lots of the lines without even trying – it’s a boy thing, isn’t it, to have watched something so often you can quote it?