Broome & Beyond: Broome

A random memory or two:

Driving -- on Sunday -- and there's a car stopped by the road. Pulled over, bloke looking at the trailer. He didn't wave so I drove on. Half a kilometre further, a young(*) woman walking by the road. So, of course, I screech to a halt. You okay? I ask. It seems that the trailer gate had flapped open. Broke a trailer tail light. The woman had been sent back to pick up the pieces while her husband looked at the damage. No help needed. I drive on.

(*) "Young" is relative. She could have been thirty.

I know there was a second memory, missed from an earlier post. I've forgotten it again.

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Monday 10th July, 4pm:

I did the usual waking up in the middle of the night, cold, turning on the air con. This air con may not have had a "heat" setting. Not to worry, I wrapped the quilt a bit tighter and went back to sleep... To wake up with the alarm at 6am.

Last few days I've set the alarm for seven and not needed it. Today I wanted to be absolutely sure to reach Broome -- preferably with time to check out the town. Before Deb arrives. I slept till the alarm rang, not much more than nine hours' sleep.

Aaaahhh... a cup of tea in the room :-) With enough milk to make another cup -- in my insulated, sealable mug -- for the drive. And I have a shower & shave -- so very civilised -- because I'm meeting a babe in town this evening :-)

Between cups of tea I check out that geocache. It's right next to the roadhouse cafe. The gps (and the hint) tell me that the cache is on the old, rusty, kero fridge. My experience of caches on old, rusty, metal objects kicks in. I don't even look.

Pack up, close up, return the key, start driving. Breakfast -- choc bar (Picnic), pear, banana, tea -- on the go.

Twenty km warming the engine at 60km. Another 20km at 80. Then cruising at about 105. All on cruise control: no corners, no traffic, no intersections...

The traffic builds up. A steady stream heading south, lots of caravans and campers, quite a few road trains. Very little traffic heading my way but that could be because I'm cruising at caravan speed: not much traffic would pass or wait to be passed.

I pull in to Stanley(?) "24 hour stopping area". There are a couple of dozen caravans and campers, it's crowded, like all the official stopping areas. This is obviously a great time to be in the northwest, unless you object to crowds.

I'm just here for a geocache. I stop, suspiciously, near the caravan dump point. Wander, even more suspiciously, 40m into the spinifex. And there is the cache! Excellent! I drive round a bit further to the toilet. Then head for the highway...

There are three caravans stopped at the exit. Probably doing last-minute checks, agreeing on convoy procedures. That's all good... but the lead caravan pulls onto the highway just as I am about to pass the group. I don't think that he looked behind. Not to worry, no other traffic, I cruise past.

For a Great Sandy *Desert* this area is very overgrown. Okay, the bush is no more than two, sometimes three metres high. But it's all well grown. Sparse, with spinifex as most of the understorey, but covering the ground.

Until I cross a cattle grid. Suddenly it's all grass, as far as the eye can see. On one side of the road but not the other. I doubt if it's natural. But I wonder is the grass is native and the cattle have destroyed every bush, or if it's an introduced weed for pasture.

A bit later and it could be a flood plain that has stopped any bush from growing. This whole area is flat, flat to the horizon. Up and down perhaps a couple of metres. Occasional patches of taller -- three or four  metre -- bush. But still not desert barren.

Old memories make me turn off towards Port Smith... A red dirt track (Pindan soil?) through Frazier Downs station. I spent a night at Port Smith caravan park, years ago. The memories wear thin after a couple of km... I mark the spot and head back to the highway.

And it's an easy cruise into Broome. I arrive just before noon.

I start at the Information Centre. Pick up and advertising booklet, eat lunch on the verandah. Go back inside to buy the essential tea towel souvenir... and wait in the long slow queue to pay. Even paying is slow! The first eftpos machine won't take a credit card. The second has a flat battery. The third takes a 1% kickback. But I'm done... and I was stalling till check-in time, anyway.

Drive through town to the Broome Vacation Village. It's a bit out of town... past the light industrial area... I'm beginning to wonder if I've booked into a slum. But it looks okay. It's still early, so I just look, and drive on...

To Cable Beach. The Surf Club is easy to find. That's where Sunday's runs all start. Today the tide is in, it's all sun and soft sand and bikinis. It's 28 degrees and very pleasant...

Back to the accommodatioin and I check in. The key won't fit! A man in a nearby caravan leans out, calls out, Try the front door! Aha! the door nearest the parking area is the back door. I walk round the front and let myself in.

Our chalet is old but clean and comfortable. Tea, coffee, sugar, a little bit of milk. I relax for a while, decide where we will eat dinner, then go shopping. The Village shop doesn't have much but the woman agrees that my choice of restaurant is good.

I drive to town. The restaurant is easy to find -- and closed. It's near the edge of the town centre, if it's closed when we want to eat, there are plenty of other places within sight. Now all I need is a supermarket.

I've seen a supermarket. I circle the town centre -- several times -- and can't find it. Into the Information Centre... the queue is a bit shorter... The supermarket -- not the one that I saw earlier -- is just across the road. I shop.

And return to our chalet. The air con is on, set to 23. (It only has the one temperature.) A bit cold but Deb will have come from an air conditioned plane. I plan to read but this post has taken a lot of time. Not that there's any rush, the hotspot connection won't connect, so I can't send.

This morning's drive was 330km in 4 hours.

Accommodation is $145.

Now I have just a bit of time to read and relax :-)

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"The man who cannot visualize a horse galloping on a tomato is an idiot." ... André Breton