23rd August 2008

Again this morning, it was a normal type of morning.

Prue set off on her walk to Cable Beach with the tide still going out. She had arranged with me to meet at a Cafe on Cable Beach.

I took off for another cycle ride around Broome but the reverse direction to yesterday. The wind was still from the SE and again blowing quite hard. Thankfully, it was not as strong as yesterday so I was rewarded with a wind assisted ride to Cable Beach from the Port of Broome. I met Prue and we had a cappuccino at the Cable Beach cafe and then returned to the Caravan Park.

After our showers and a tidy up around the Karavan, we went for a drive. The first stop was Gantheaume Point which is located approximately 6 km from town, this is a scenic area with red cliffs and turquoise water. In the sandstone at the water's edge petrified dinosaur footprints over 130 million years old can be seen (when tides are less than 1.5 metres). For the benefit of visitors a plaster cast of the tracks has been embedded at the top of the cliff. On the north side of Gantheaume point is Anastasia's Pool, a small man made rock pool built by a former lighthouse keeper for his wife Anastasia who was crippled with arthritis.

Then we drove along the gravel road beside the coast and eventually arrived at the Port of Broome. From here there is a great view of the jetty and the surrounding ocean with its beautiful turquoise colour. There is a large cattle export business that operates from here. A total of 76,000 head of beef cattle were shipped from Broome to Asia and the Middle East in 2007, making it Western Australia's largest cattle export port. There is a large fuel storage facility here along with facilities to handle containers and other freight. Boat launching is not a problem with the option to use either a concrete ramp or the beach.

We drove back into town and stopped off at a display of 4wd equipment. There a few interesting items but I believe we can get the same in Ballina a lot cheaper. Then we drove into the main part of town for lunch. We found a nice cafe that not only had a great menu with great food but also excellent coffee.

As we finished lunch, the owner walked past and started chatting to us. In our conversation, we talked about Broome being a little like Byron Bay but without the political issues and plenty of land to enable development without destroying the feel of the area. He told us about the issues in the town especially getting staff. Similar to Byron, there is a large backpacker population. The town seems to have a well thought out building plan and no high rise buildings. Water is from the underground filtered through the underlying sandstone.

The afternoon was predominately relaxing before going to Cable Beach and to watch the sun set. It was a chance to have a few drinks and nibbles as the sun was setting. We saw several wedding groups as well as the crowds, just like us, coming down to see the sunset. It was lovely with just a few clouds on the horizon. After it was gone the crowds and cars started to leave the area for the evening diners.

After a shower, we strolled around to the Divers Tavern where we had our dinner. Following dinner we stayed to watch the Wallabies beat the South African Springboks. There were not too many vocal South Africans in the Tavern but lots of Australians. Then we strolled back to our Karavan happy with a win in the Rugby Test in Durban.

I have been made aware of a site by the name of No Boundaries . It caters for a lot of travellers in one way or another.

Hey, how about an email from you to let us know either some of your news or feedback on what we have been doing! Send it to walda47@nnsw.quik.com.au