Goodbye from Broome

Yes.........we have left Broome and are now in Derby. It is good to be back on the road and on the homeward journey. It is rather hot now so we will only travel in the cool of the day...I hope.

Keith has a new part time dog.........Diesel a Max look alike

I was giving some hints of Sun who is travelling around Australia on her push bike

We went reef walking and found all sorts of marine life.

We have tried all modes of transport.

Posing at the Lost City, Barn Hill Camp

Good News from Broome

Yes, the good news is that the gear box arrived right on time and Keith has been working on putting it in since.
We have decided to stay here until Sunday and we will be heading for Derby where some friends we have met along the way, are broken down in their Nissan Civilian!! Yes same bus and they are two girls so hopefully Keith can help them.
I am still trying to put photos on............thought we came up with a new way but it didn't work. I will keep trying though.

The Real Broome

We have been doing our usual walks around the town and have come to realise that Broome would never win the Tidy Towns award. There are bottles, cans and all sorts of litter scattered around the place. There is broken galass everywhere. It is a very unkempt town and don't think the council has ever mowed the footpaths. It is very untidy. There are some lovely parks around, very green, but not a seat, table or BBQ.
Apart from that it is a nice place!!

Bad News from Broome

We are still in Broome with no gear box.
On enquiring, we learnt that it was in Brisbane.........just what we weren't expecting. We thought it would travel via Darwin and Broome but apparently because it wasn't marked as Express, it is coming the long way!
The girl at NQX was very helpful and has tried to expedite it. With a bit of luck it should be here by Thursday. Then is has to be fitted which Keith says will only take a day but......!! We will then be on the road again but will probably be here another week.
As we keep saying we could be in worse places.
We have been for a swim today and while the water was freezing it is hard to believe we are in July and swimming!
Keith has now gone to do some fishing with some other campers.
Fish for tea.............I don't think so.

All About Broome

Now that we apparently live in Broome.......we are starting to know all about the place!!
Actually we have just had some good news.............our new gearbox is on it's way from Rockhampton, yes, Rockhampton, Qld. We are still waiting to hear back from the place in the Wait Awhile state! We are still not sure how long it will take but we will be here for another few days at least.
We are starting to settle in and I thought about getting a job........well, it was a very fleeting thought.
Broome is not a bad place to be broken down in. We are close to Town Beach which is nice on high tide and then there is the world famous Cable Beach which is about 7klms out of town. It has very white sand and is a very wide beach. Popular for camel ride and sunsets.
The Prison is right in town as is the airport. It is a bit like Cairns a long time ago.
There are also numerous pearl shops. By the way I did score a beautiful pearl for our 30th Wedding Anniversary.
There is the town centre and another shopping centre with Woolworths and about 30 speciality shops.
Apparently the fishing is not as good as advertised. The fish are being caught but before they can be pulled in the sharks get them.
Anything you need to know about Broome.......just ask!

No Go McDonalds

Went into McDonalds today to post some photos............would you believe ice cream machine was broken and wi fi unavailable. How dumb is that!!
We are heading down to Cable Beach this afternoon with Matt and Tracey to see the famous sunset.
Will have to go back to McDonalds later in the week to try again.

Goodbye Broome, Hello Broome

Yesterday we said farewell to civilisation, friends, power, TV reception etc etc to continue our journey.
Alas, 30 klms down the road, Keith detected a problem and we came to a sudden holt at a roadhouse. On inspection he found that there is a problem with the gear box and we drove back into Broome in 4th gear.
So back to civilisation, friends, power, TV reception etc etc for goodness knows how long. Between Keith and Matt they are hoping to fix it before too long but with the weekend looming, who knows.
Unfortunately it is still raining too!! But "all part of the journey".
I may even get into McDonalds to add some photos!
Never a Dull Moment

Another Recipe.......

I have not made this but have tried it and it is y-u-m-m-y.....and very easy too.

ICE CREAM
600 ml cream
1 tin condensed milk

Beat together until thick. You can add anything you like........chocolate, chocolate bars like milky ways, crunchies, caramel, chocolate sauce, crushed biscuits.

You have to use full cream as light doesn't whip so it is full fat!!!
It makes about 1 litre I think.

Go Queensland

Tonight we are having a State of Origin party here at the PCYC. It turns out that they have a big TV screen and have also loaned us the BBQ. Unfortunately we can only watch it at 8.30pm so no telling us before hand!!

We had "The Best Hump on Cable Beach"

or that's what the slogan says.........camel hump that is and it was fun. There were lots of surprises on Cable Beach..............old nudists who had obviously been there a lot, cars, camels and even lots of people.
It is a beautiful beach but we went for the sunset and it was too cloudy last night.
We then went to the open air cinema and saw Bran Nue Dae. It is like a local aboriginal movie which was a take off of aboriginals. It was made in Broome and I thought maybe only shown here but apparently not. We had a few laughs!

It's Raining, It's Pouring.......

It is not supposed to rain in Broome at this time of the year but it has been pouring today. This is probably one of the wettest days we have had since we left home at 5pm on 14 January!!
Our camel ride has been cancelled this afternoon so we will try again tomorrow.
It has happened again...........I went into Coles this morning and bumped into a friend of mine!!! She is one of the Directors of Torbay and is here for a few days with her daughter!! I couldn't believe it.

Did I say before that there is another couple here from Hervey Bay and also a man last night from Pomona. There is actually a number of Qld number plates in this park and we are trying to organise a State of Origin party for Wednesday night although it is all over bar the shouting.

And as Brian says Happy Gail=Happy Keith.

Family News

Rachel and Travis went to Townsville for a week to visit Travis's brother Lee, Rebecca and Addyson. Rachel is not going to be in Hervey Bay these holidays. Their house is now progressing after a slight delay.
Josh has started a new job in Gladstone with Coates Hire based at the aluminium plant.

Broome

We have arrived in Broome and have decided to stay a few days. We arrived last Friday and came straight to the "overflow" caravan park as we were told there were no vacancies anywhere. It is quite good and close enough to town for us to ride.
We haven't done a lot but we are going to Cable Beach tomorrow to do the camel ride. Keith was to go fishing in a kayak today but the weather has been overcast and windy so it was cancelled.
I have checked out all the pearl shops and hopefully will come away with some sort of a souvenir!!
We are hoping to get to the open air cinema to see Bran Nue Dae which was actually made in Broome and is supposed to be good despite being an Australian movie!
We will probably stay until Thursday so Keith can watch the State of Origin. There are a few Queenslanders here so we might be able to have a party. We are actually parked with the family of friends of ours from Hervey Bay so it is good to have company. There is also another couple here from Hervey Bay!
Never a Dull Moment.

Barn Hill Station Stay

We spent two nights on Thangoo Station at Barn Hill. It is a 430,000 acre working cattle property with 85 klms of coastline so a very nice position. They have set up a caravan park which would be a little gold mine as there seemed to be hundreds of caravanners, motorhomers etc there. (I think I have my facts right!).
It was a very pleasant place to stay even though we had to drive over about 10 klms of red dirt to get there. There was plenty of red dirt once we got there although some of the regulars have little lawns happening. Many people go there for months during winter so they have their own little cliques but I did get invited to the Craft Group..........me!! Idecided not to go, I didn't want to show the other ladies up.

The Rafters

You will be pleased to know that I wangled my way into "Stuffin" Barry's caravan to watch The Rafters with him and his wife, Lesley. Barry quickly earned the nickname because of the number of times he said "stuffin". I guess I should be grateful that is all that he said.
Anyway I wasn't disappointed and thoroughly enjoyed the first episode.