20240521 - 20240527 - Broome - Exmouth

 

20240521 - 20240523 – Broome. The Griswold’s (or as Moose is calling us the Clampett’s) have arrived in Broome and what a nice surprise Broome was – lots of restaurants and cafes.  We stayed at an RV Park in Cable Beach.  Once settled in we went to a few shops.  This weather is really drying out my skin – I need more body moisturiser, badly.  I had bought some ‘moisturiser’ from Coles and was applying it very heavily onto my body.  Mmm – maybe my skin isn’t as dry as I thought, it wasn’t’ soaking in at all.  Then it clicked, this time I read the label, with my glasses on – yep, I had bought a very moisturising body WASH for dry skin and now I was lathered in it. 

The next day we went to Gantheaume Point which was a great little place to visit, the colour of the rocks against the beautiful blue water was amazing.

Then we headed onto Cable Beach ready to watch the sunset.  Unlike us, we were very early and we had 3 hours to wait until the sunset.  To kill a bit of time we went for a stroll along the beach.  We would have loved to go for a swim but apparently the Irukandji jellyfish could still be around, so we just had a little paddle.  We ran into a lot of characters along the way, one of whom I had a bit of chat with – he was a local.  I was talking about the supply of alcohol and having to provide ID which is scanned into the system along with how much alcohol you have purchased – there is a daily limit which didn’t seem too much to me and I’m sure to a lot of my friends (only two bottles of wine).  You can’t go from one BottleO to another as they are all using the same system.  I do believe that if you are a tourist travelling through you can buy a little bit more but you need to fill in a form. If you are having a party you need to fill in a form 72 hours prior and get approval.  I love hearing all the little trivia – he also told me that if there is a murder or suicide within the town that all the BottleO shops are immediately shut.  He does travel a bit for work and he was telling me that when he visits other little towns / communities that some of them only sell very light beer.  He said he takes his own beer up – but that it is an offence to have more than 2 cartons of beer on you. 

We head back to our little car and set up with our beer and champagne and some nibbles ready to watch this sunset.  There were hundreds of cars on the beach waiting, along with motorbikes, caravans, little 2WD cars like Kia Rio etc.  The sunset was spectacular, probably one of the best I have ever seen – the sun was an amazing colour that I couldn’t explain, it had touches of Red, Orange and Pink – the photos don’t do it justice.

 

20240523 – 20240525 – Broome to Exmouth.  Whilst driving to Exmouth I did get to witness mustering for a really large number of cattle with a helicopter and two Dune Buggy’s, it was interesting to watch.  We stayed overnight in another lovely free rest area.  After driving most of the day, Dave is going to try and fix the diesel heater, again.  He phoned Tony who had nothing for him, so he then phoned the ever-reliable Andy Jackson, they both worked out that it was probably a fuel problem.  Dave has also worked out that his first problem was letting Tony do some work on it.  He soon realises that Tony has put electrical tape around the tank fittings – mmm what was he thinking, I’m surprised he hadn’t used his normal tool – gaffer tape.  Dave is honing up on his Mr fix it skills – thank goodness for the help of Tony, friends and YouTube.  He is doing a great job.

On the drive down to Exmouth, we stop and fill up with fuel.  We were on highway 1.  We have some lunch and when we get back in the motorhome, I let Dave navigate his way out of the Service Station, I’ve got my head down looking for a place to stay the night – my mistake.  Dave is driving for about 5 minutes and I look up – I really feel as if I’m going the wrong way.  I look at the navigation system and it is still trying to work out our route, Dave did tell me it did say to turn right, mmm.  Yep, you guessed it, we exited from a different driveway that we came in on, and we are now on a different road – it certainly wasn’t highway 1.  I’m guessing the navigation system had us exiting from the same driveway we came in on and yes, a right turn would have taken us back to the highway.  This did bring back some memories for when we were travelling in Canada on highway 1 - I was so tired, I let Dave know that I was going to take a quick nap and all he needed to do was stay on highway 1.  After about 15 mins I wake up to hear the USA/Canadian border guard asking a series of questions.  Somehow, he had managed to get us off the Canadian highway 1 and trying to cross into the US.

We pull into another great rest area for another overnight stay – Dave decides that he is going to level the motorhome.  Now this was not his best work.  First of all, he went up the ramp and then reversed back a bit and the ramp got stuck.  Next attempt we had success – well sort of, the ramp was in place, but when I went inside all my apples and oranges had rolled off the table – we were nowhere near level, but that’s the way it stayed for the night.

Dave must be getting excited to get to Exmouth, where we will be doing the Whale Shark swim, he’s travelling at the speed limit – woohoo.

20240525 – 20240526 – Exmouth.  We made it.  It was so great to see the water, which is just amazing.  Australia really does have some of the best beaches in the world. The town is really quaint as well.  Its really busy and apparently peak season isn't until July.  Motorhomes first drive on the beach.

Our first morning we decide to go into Cape Range National Park to do a bit of snorkelling and swimming.  The advice was to go to the Oyster Stacks, so we packed our snorkelling gear and some little refreshments and off we went.  When we were driving Dave says to me ‘lets just get to the Oyster Stacks and we can have a look around on the way back’.  Ten minutes later we diverted to a track to try and check out the beaches, don’t know what happened to the plan.  Dave looked at me and asked if we should try getting up the hill - of course I said yes, so it was a team effort.  We could not of picked a worse track.  All the other tracks seem to be hard – not this one, there was a hill with soft sand.  Yep, you guessed it we got bogged – arghhh.  So, Dave starts shovelling.  Of course, it is only one lane and you can’t go around us.  Luckily a very fit young man (nice on the eyes) is trying to get out and ends up helping us out by giving us push. He really didn’t have much of an option. I would of loved to give them had - but with my shoulder and all, I just stood back and watched.

Bit late now to check the track...

Once we got out we decide to go back to the original plan and head straight for the Oyster Stacks.  It was absolutely stunning, and I did need to cool off.  Dave did say that it was some of the best snorkelling he has ever done.  There were so many fish and they were big.  After this we headed onto Turquoise Bay, what a beautiful bay.

On our second morning we took it easy and did a few things around the motorhome before packing up to go for another swim, we our taking it easy today because tomorrow is our big day, we are swimming with the whale sharks - 🤞.  Whilst I was inside cleaning, I was wondering why Dave was sitting outside not saying much.  He later told me he was just admiring the park.  There are a lot of young people in their combies and 4wd's here. Now the toilets are at least 100 metres away, so some of the young ladies decide its just as easy to strip off and get changed outside their vehicles - he was a happy man.

I’ve learnt:

That after two days of talking even I was sick of hearing my own voice, and Dave and I had run out of things to talk about.  Now whilst I could turn my taking out loud voice off – I had no chance of turning off my little inside voice – gosh even I annoy myself, to all my friends I apologise. 

I really don’t like the red dirt / dust it gets in every nook, cranny and orifice.

The largest road train we have seen had 100 wheels and we believe it was approx. 54meters in length.

The last 10km’s of driving for the day always feels like 100km.

It’s only 5 steps and an army role over the bed to get from my passenger’s seat to the toilet.

Some days my navigation is only required to get in and out of our rest area.  It’s a really hard job to navigate 500km on the same road – highway 1. (yes, I did write this before the little mishap at the Service Station)

Someone likes the bed all to himself, that little bit of space between his right arm and leg is where I sleep.

We get entertained by the smallest thing.  Since the flies have started coming around – we actually discussed flies and I looked up Wikipedia to read out aloud what they had on flies – riveting stuff.  We did find out that if there weren’t any flies there wouldn’t be any chocolate (so Simone Eames, think about that when you kill the fly).  This is because the only known pollinator of the cocoa plant that gives us chocolate is a tiny fly.  We do miss Wi-Fi and phone– some days we haven’t been able to access it at all.

I’ve actually started listening when he talks about fuel economy.

The only exercise I’ve gotten in the last couple of weeks, is when I need to squat to do a bush wee (I miss your car Peter Gwynne the step is just the right height).

You can never have enough Bushman’s insect repellent.  If it’s not the mosquitos and sandflies it’s just bloody flies.  I think it has become my new perfume.

For me Bras are optional, Dave thinks undies are optional and Dry Shampoo is a great invention.

How lucky we are.....

We are soooo excited for tomorrow - bring on those Whale Sharks...