We had a lovely few days with Nick's mum Trish and her friend Heather at Cable beach. Unfortunately it started with us having a dose of the flu, but we all recovered quickly and managed to keep it to ourselves! We all spent most mornings at the beach and swimming in the milky blue waters. The boys loved it and Flynn made a new friend, Jo Jo, who he later played with again at our next holiday spot. We did have a challenging week with Flynn at the caravan park. Not sure if he was getting too used to spaces with no restrictions, but when we arrived here Flynn was completely on his own agenda. This meant he ran this way and that, and there was no sitting still. Those of you who know us have seen it in full swing, but multiply that by 10, and that was what it was like all week. The word feral comes to mind!
Nick and I were lucky enough to be able to have a night out and we went to the Broome Sun theatre which is open air, and saw the movie Red Dog, which we really liked, especially as we had just travelled through the Pilbara. Trish, Heather and I had a girls afternoon out and went to some galleries and had a look in the shops. Nick went and visited the pearl luggers to learn a bit about the pearling industries' history, which was really fascinating. This is what makes Broome a very interesting place; Japanese, Sri Lankan, Chinese and aboriginal Australians all worked under pretty brutal circumstances early on, and the influences that these cultures had on Broome are still present today.
While we were here, Greg, Dylan and Kyle did some work on the van to raise it up a bit higher off the ground. We are so grateful to them- it means we don't have to be so worried about scraping the bottom of the caravan over uneven ground which has been a problem in some places. And it means a better workout for the buttocks too! (getting in and out of the van)
We had dinner with Greg, Ruth and the boys one night- fish and chips. We were spoiled with some shark that Kyle had caught and it was coated in rice flour and salt and fried with a bit of soy sauce- delicious!!
We went and visited the camels on the beach for a pat, but at $50 a head we opted out of the camel ride. Both Nick and I have been on a camel before and the boys are a bit little yet. Aidan absolutely loves animals so he loved having a pat, and well Flynn couldn't give two hoots and just wanted to run all over the place, as previously mentioned!
Sunset over Cable beach, and Flynn was still running! We managed to eat some fish and chips on the run, the sunset was beautiful and we got a lovely photo of Aidan with Nana Trishy!
Our next stop was Cape Leveque. We left the caravan in Broome as we couldn't take it on the rough road. Cape Leveque is beyond James Price point where the new gas plant is planned to be. It is a really contentious issue up here at the moment and from what we have seen and read, many of the locals are not happy. We passed this demonstration area which is quite large and people are chaining themselves to concrete filled drums on the road, in the blazing heat of the day, to make their demonstrations heard. Nick and I don't know much about it, but an article we recently read says that there are hundreds of dinosaur footprints all along the area.
This is the start of the dirt road to Cape Leveque. It is about 100kms of bad corrugations in some parts, dirt, dust, sand and bumps! Remember the dukes of Hazard? Well Nick accidentally did a Dukes of Hazard aerial maneuver which resulted in the car flying through the air over a very hard to see bump. Flynn thought it was great and made loud 'broom broom' noises from the back seat and what looked like flying through the air hand actions! It takes about 1.5 hours on the dirt and then there is bitumen for about another 100 kms.
We stopped in at Beagle Bay and visited the famous Church that was built in 1915 by aboriginal locals and the German priests. The priests were under house arrest as war had broken out. The church is decorated with shells found on the local beaches- there are mother of pearl shells around the stained glass windows and other shells in mosaics. It is a beautiful church.
Unfortunately we forgot the camera recharger so there are only a few photos from Cape Leveque. We were disappointed that we couldn't photograph the changes in tide from up here. There were 10m tides and it was amazing to see. It also meant that we planned our trips to the beach mostly at high tide so that we wouldn't have to negotiate rocks to get into the water. We had our first taste of beach driving and had to let the tyre pressure right down to 18psi and went through a pretty sandy track to get to an absolutely gorgeous beach with just a couple of other people around. Nick caught a queen fish that was delicious and we could see baby long toms swimmimg in the water with us.
We went out on a coral viewing boat, but as the tides are fast flowing, it was like looking at the coral in fast forward, so we went whale watching instead. We saw a lot of whales, none very close, but certainly had a good look at them. They were beautiful and many of them had their calves with them.
We decided that four nights at Cape Leveque wasnt enough and headed to Middle Lagoon for another two nights. We visited one arm point which is an aboriginal community where you call into the office and obtain a visitors pass. We went to the hatchery where they spawn trocher shells, release them back onto the reef and then harvest them a few years later. The trocher shells are used for making buttons in Italy. They have a lot of different fish there are some turtles which they are caring for before releasing back into the wild. We were lucky enough to see lots of baby turtles that were about 5 days old. They were saved by one of the aboriginal elders from a beach where they were being attacked by birds. Apparently only 1 in every 1000 baby turtles survive. It was a really lovely community with friendly people and a nice feel.
We had two nights in Middle Lagoon where the beach again was fantastic. We listened to the whales flapping and banging around in the water from our hut at night, and we met some really nice people who have all come back to Broome and are staying right next to and near us in the caravan park- that always happens!
Where to from here? We don't know yet. It is warming up and it is time for us to set ourselves up for the rainy season or head south! Hopefully we will sort ourselves out soon!
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