2012 Around Australia: Day 139 - 141 1st July

Day 139 Sunday 1^st July 2012.

Left Barn Hill on our way to Broome. Broome was only 140-150K’s away so this was a very easy drive for us. Walk in the Park!

Arrived in Broome and visited our friendly Information Centre. Extremely busy. Broome is the “pearl” capital of Australia. Next door was a retail shop selling pearls. Vania found two pearls that fitted onto her Pandora’s bracelet so she gave herself a treat and bought them both. One white and one black. They look great.

There was a nearby market so Vania and I had a relaxing stroll and squiz. Lots of stall holders selling many and varied goods. A lot of the stall holders looked “hippish”. Reminded me a lot of Nimbin in Queensland. We bought some Thai food at one of the stalls and then treated ourselves to a pineapple / mango ice cream. Hmm, yummy!

Vania has some friends (Bridgette & Brad & their lovely 2 girls Lucy and Alex) in Broome and they were extremely generous to put us up for a few days and had a terrific place to store the caravan. We arrived at their place mid-afternoon.

I must sincerely thank all the fantastic people who have “put us up” along our journey around Oz. It is absolutely fantastic as it gives us an opportunity to recharge our own batteries and catch up with you guys and in some cases get to know each other and of course on must do maintenance chores on the car / caravan. To all those people (Paul & Avril, Mark & Kath, Lester & Annie and now Brad & Bridgette) thank you very much. Your generous hospitality is very much appreciated.

Sorry, no photo's today.

Day 140 Monday 2^ndJuly 2012

Had a lovely BBQ with our hosts and their lovely 2 girls last night. Conversation was mainly around “memories” of friends and family shared between Vania, Bridgette and Brad. I felt a little bit outnumbered as there were 3 “ex” South African adult to 1 “Oz” adult. However, I did have some support from the 2 little girls as they are “dinky di” Aussies. Five month old Alex and I are still trying to make friends. Every time she looks at me, she cries. I’m starting to get a complex.

Most of today was catching up on maintenance work. I tried to get some spare parts for the caravan that needed replacement after the tyre blow out on the caravan but there are no Jayco dealers in Broome. Decided I was not going to stress about it as it was no major problem, just very cosmetic.

What I am finding as we travel around Oz is that only “major” cities tend to have spare parts for whatever you want. In non “major” cities they have to order these parts in and it can take a long time to source.

I had done some shopping and Vania organised a roast Pork and Veggies done in our fantastic Cobb oven. Once again great meal shared with great people and naturally all washed down with great beverages.

Panarama view of Cable Beach.

This is the lawn bowls rink at Barn Hill. Amazing how people coming to visit look after it, ie water it, feed it, mow it, etc......

Rocky part of Cable beach.

Boab tree in one of the main streets in Broome.

Sunday morning market in Broome. Very "hippish"!

Cable Beach. Human whales beached themselves.

Jet plane coming into land at Broome. The airstrip in Broome divides the "city" into 2 sections.

Dolphins playing 200 metres offshore at Cable Beach

This gorgeous Alex.

And this is georgoue mum, Bridgette.

..... and georgeous (handsome) Dad and young georgeous Lucy.

Day 141 Tuesday 3^rd July 2012.

Vania and I decided to go for a drive up to Cape Leveque. We had heard some nice reports about it and along the way I wanted to visit a Catholic Church in Beagle Bay (aboriginal settlement) where the alter is made of Pearl shells.

Cape Leveque is approximately 210-220K’s from Broome (total 420 – 440k’s) so it was going to be a big day driving. Approximately 88k’s (total 176K’s) of the road was “dirt” as well. By now, those following this “blog” know how much I “love” driving on corrugated dirt roads. As it turned out this was not the worst dirt road I had driven on. A large portion was very “solid” and it was relatively good. At one stage I got up to 80K’s per hour only to be overtaken by another car that was going like a bat out of hell. I am still a bit nervous about “blowouts” and the fact that I only have 1 spare (which is only a bitumen tyre) I am fairly cautious.

When Vania and I arrived at what we thought was Cape Leveque we were both very disappointed. Nothing really there. There was a fish hatchery which was interesting but that was it, and another minor accident to boot. Vania reversed WDU564 into the back of another UTE. Damage: broken tail light and scratch on the bumper. What was the woman thinking? Now I have to source a tail light and I have just got finished telling you about how difficult that is. (This was edited in by Vania NOT Oscar)

When we arrived back at Brad and Bridgette’s home we found out that we never actually got to Cape Leveque. How embarrassing. I am sure that I am NOT going to do that dirt road again to go back and see the Cape. Near enough is good enough in this instance.

After getting over our “embarrassment” we all decided to head down onto Cable Beach and watch the sunset. Well low and behold, we arrived around 5.15PM and the beach was “full” of 4 wheel drives on the beach. Drove down onto the beach and drove up about 1.5K’s, backed up the car to the sea, took out our portable table, unfolded the chairs, laid out the blanket, opened the champagne and took in the sights. Absolutely superb. Five month old Alex was rugged up, 2.5 year old Lucy was building castles with Brad, Vania was taking a million and one photos of the sunset and everything else and Bridgette and I sipping on our Champagne. Life doesn’t get much better than this. Sorry if it sounds like I am “rubbing it in”, however ALL of you in blog land could do the same. Life is too short. Get out there and enjoy.

OK, that’s the end of my sermon for today. Till next time, cheers from Vania and Oscar’

PS Thanks Marl for suggesting “Champers” on the beach. Great idea.

Catholic church in aboriginal settlement in Beagle Bay.

Church alter inlaid with Pearl shells.

Most of the church was "decorated" with Pearl shells.

Fish Hatchery at Cape Leveque. Oops, this is at Bardi (one arm point), as we never actually got to Cape Leveque.

One of the many creatures in the tanks at the hatchery

Vania and I thought this was the best looking "thing" at Cape Leveque. Wasn't Cape at all. Two "silly" nomads not knowing where they are. Must have been the long drive on the corrugated dirt road that lost my senses.

Can you actually see the "billion and one" corrugations. Actually it wasn't the worst dirt road I have driven on.

This car had only travelled 5k's along this road before this happened (just joking). Obviously stollen, trashed and dumped. unfortunately we have seen a few of these along our journey.