Bound for Broome after Dashing off to Derby

Monday 1^st July- Ben’s Birthday

Ron and I rang Ben this morning for his Birthday and ended up singing Happy Birthday to his answering service!

We drove down the road to the Shell Servo (because you could get a packet of Arnott’s Mint Slice biscuits for just $2.00 with any fuel purchase) but all of their diesel pumps were ‘out of service’ so we had to drive round to the BP (who had no such special).

Our day had not started well!!!!!

Bob and Fran had been round to say goodbye to the girls and so we started our convoy west.

We stopped at (631) Ellendale Rest Area for morning tea and ate Bob and Fran’s Mint Slice bickies (they got theirs yesterday!!!) and then drove on a bit further.

We finally stopped at (629) The Boab Rest Area. See if you can guess why they called it that.

 

 

It is a huge, gnarly old tree and is all hollow inside the trunk.

 

We parked on the far side next to the picnic table.

 

 

The flies were atrocious! Bob got out his own personal fly net. Sam on a Bike had a similar one and Ron wants one!!!

 

 

 

I built us a splendid fire and we enjoyed a sumptuous bar-b-que dinner (after the flames had subsided somewhat).

 

 

Tuesday 2^nd July

After a quite chilly night (we had our blankets back on), we decided to stoke up the bar-b-que again for breakfast. Bacon, egg, tomato, left over sausage and toast made for a much better start to the day than yesterday.

Ron and Bob played with our CB radios and now we can chat to each other while we drive. I still can’t understand what is being said through the static but they seem to be having fun.

As we approached Derby, we stopped to see The Boab Prison Tree.

 

 

 

 

The intimation is that prisoners were held inside the hollow trunk of the tree. However, on the written blurb nearby it says that in the late 1800s Aboriginal people were kidnapped from the Kimberley area to work on the pearling boats. They were put in chains and marched to the coast. Some may have been held at the Boab Prison Tree. I think WA Tourism may have taken a bit of a license here

 

 

Nearby is also a long water trough used for the cattle after they had finished coming across The Canning Stock Route.

 

We finally arrived in Derby just on lunch time.

We drove around town and called in at the tourist Information Centre.

It was here that Fran and I espied a personal fly net and bought it for Ronnie.

 He was so chuffed, he put it on straight away.

 

We drove out to the jetty to catch our first glimpse of the Indian Ocean.

 

 

Oh dear, how sad! It is actually King Sound and it is all mangroves and icky! So we have decided to reserve judgement till we get to Broome.

After a quick trip to woollies for groceries, we headed off to Kimberley Entrance Caravan Park ($40.00 per night – Yikes!!! – and we have heard Broome is worse).

Wednesday 3^rd July-Paul’s Birthday

Sadly, we have no way to ring Paul for his Birthday today.

Just outside Derby, we turned off.

Here is Indie after completing a gruelling 120 metres up ‘The Gibb’.

 

 

We tootled off to (625) Nillibubbica Rest Area where we circled the wagons thus producing our very own purpose built breeze way!!!

We certainly had the smickest camp site (and room for a pony!!!)

I finished off the rabbit for Bob’s little Grand Daughter

 

Thursday 4^th July

We finally swept into Broome and booked into Broome Caravan Park ($47.00).

I’m sooooooo glad we decided to reserve judgement because The Indian Ocean is much, much prettier here. In fact, Broome and its environs are quite pleasant.

After we went to The Town Centre (where I waited almost an hour for them to cook my fish and chips….which was worth it because they were yummo!), we drove up to the lighthouse at Gantheaume Point.

 

 

 

The colours in the rocks and the water were amazing!

Broome sweeps the floor with Derby when it comes to natural beauty.

As we tip-toed around the rocks, a young lady was seen leaping high into the air……

 

 

 

                                                        'Oh, What a feeling!!!!!’

From there, we really got into tourist mode and drove around to Cable Beach for the sunset and the Camels.

 

I know the spelling is wrong….

 

Xander should be spelt with an X, not a Z but the sentiment was there! As indeed was the coffee so we had a cup each before negotiating our way onto the beach. Because that entailed a walk of more than 100 metres we bought ice-creams each as well!

We walked along the beach. It was truly delightful.

I dipped a toe into the Indian Ocean (like all good tourists would!).

 

There was just us and approximately half a million four wheel drives on the beach at the time.

We were all waiting for the sunset into the water. Sadly there were no clouds so the sunset did not promise to be as beautiful as the Post Cards would have us expect.

As we walked up the beach, the camels were returning with their paying cargo.

I walked up and asked the fellow leading the camels if I could go out in front and take the photo because I did not want to do anything which may cause them alarm.

He assured me that camels are docile creatures and just generally get bad press.

Armed with this new found knowledge, I went happy snapping all over the place.

 

The man in charge decided that he was on for a chat and told me he used to be a Paramedic in Tasmania and had come up to Broome thirteen years ago and absolutely adored his new life.

So we walked along and chatted and I am now in so many tourist photos that I have probably gone viral!!!!

Finally, the sun sank slowly into the west and despite our best efforts, none of us actually heard the ‘shhhhhhhhh’ of the steam as the sun hit the water on the way down!!!

 

 

 

A most pleasant surprise came in the form of a phone call from Paul. He is on leave and in Rome at present where he celebrated his Birthday yesterday.

 

 

Our final view over Cable Beach (after watching the steady stream of headlights and tail lights of the four wheel drives), was the Evening Star and the final rays of sunlight over the ocean…….very beautiful.

 

 

Friday 5^th July

Dressed in my ‘colours of Broome’ frock, (so dubbed by me because it contains the blue of the ocean, the bright ochre of the cliffs and rocks and the purple to represent the sunsets) we set off to the Port and then Town Beach on our final sightseeing tour of Broome.

 

 

 

 

It was at Town Beach that Ronnie finally dipped his toe in the Indian Ocean and we found a gorgeous Boab Tree to clearly demonstrate to you all that we really have become tree – hugging Hippies at last!!!!!

 

 

 

We sauntered off down the road to (619) Goldwire Rest Area and set up again with the breezeway between Indi and Butterfly Turtle (Bob and Fran’s bus’s name).

We just sat and relaxed and it was fabulous.

While we were sitting about, a lovely lady called Judi popped into our breezeway and stopped for a chat. She and hubby John were travelling in a Toaster as well, with his brother and wife. They all ended up coming over for sundowners and we had quite a lovely time.

Saturday 6^th July

Today is our one year anniversary since we sold our house at Helensvale and set off on our adventure. And what a year it has been!!!!! We have packed in so much fun, had so many great experiences and met heaps of lovely people. Of course we miss our friends and family but we don’t really miss our old life at all.

In honour of this occasion, Ronnie baked another batch of scones – yummo!!!

 

Later on, I set about updating diaries and blogs. I hope you, my dedicated readers, appreciate the hardships endured by your intrepid blogger in order to bring you the latest happenings as they happen!!! It is much too hot to try and do inside and much too glary to try and do outside without my patented sarong/glare reducer!

 

 

 

Apart from this, Bob and Fran and Ron and I spent a quiet day together. There was the usual chatting with neighbours and bitching about inconsiderate generator users who insist on planting their generators right next to you so you not only have to endure the noise, which I’m sure would cause industrial deafness but you are also forced to inhale toxic fumes for the duration.

It was good to have Bob and Fran with us as it seemed quite fitting they share our anniversary since we moved into their back bedroom ‘for a couple of days’ immediately after selling our house and ended up staying three weeks!!!!!

Sadly, this will be the parting of the ways as they will be heading back to Fitzroy Crossing in the morning while we will stay here one more night before continuing on our southward journey.

Sunday 7^th July

We waved Bob and Fran off this morning and settled back for a hard day’s relaxation.

I dragged out my Pastels and drew up a Boab tree. I’m pretty sure that there is plenty of room for improvement in this medium but it was such fun just to play.

 

 

 

Later on we had a butterfly land on our window. He must have felt quite invisible because he sat there for a long time in his camouflage colours against the security screens.