World Australia Western Australia Broome

Lorraine & Gary's big lap of Australia

Broome continued, Josephine & Adam's visit Sep 22, 2009

Saturday 19th – Tuesday 22nd September

Josephine & Adam, (special guest bloggers):

Dear Readers,

This blog comes with the disclaimer: “If you are after a travel guide to Broome, stop reading now.” This blog is about a couple of city folks (Jose and Adam) who go to visit their adventurous friends and partake in cards, gin, cards, more cards, cold beers, the international sport of crab racing and learning (the hard way) the local Broome rules of Pool. There is also a bit about the Ashdown Roebuck Bay damming system, magic sunsets and caravans.

Not having seen Lorraine and Gary since the start of their big adventure there were squeals of excitement and many back slaps all round at Broome International airport when we landed on Saturday. After checking into our onsite van at the Roebuck Bay Caravan Park we went off to Cable Beach for some sunset action and the fantastic picnic provided by Lorraine and Gary. Hurrah – no clouds and a beautiful sun setting over the water. Photo ops galore my dear readers.

After this we took ourselves back to HQ for more catching up. Lorraine and Gary are obviously real favourites of the ladies who run the Roebuck Bay Caravan Park because they have an excellent camp site directly on the water – it was a perfect setting for long chats into the evening.

The following day we took ourselves out to the lighthouse at Gantheume Point where the combination of the colours of the rich red earth and the blue water are just spectacular. We then went and visited the town of Broome before it was back to the on-site van for some air-conditioning and discussion about our crab racing strategy. After a few tasty beverages we went to the sporting stadium hosting this event: The Satay Hut. No hut, no satay, dear readers, but a lot of hermit crabs. The general idea is: you buy a raffle ticket to participate in a race and then if your number is drawn you pick your crab and then your crab races while you stand by and drink a refreshing beverage (for those paid up members of PETA I assure you it is a short race). It is clearly a highly technical sport so happily our in-depth discussion on crab racing paid off because one of our team and her crab were very proud to come second in the first race!

After meeting a charming young man with an interesting back handed pool playing shot, a very definite view on the Broome rules of play and an impressively insatiable thirst we took ourselves back to the onsite van for another card playing marathon session.

The next day, we woke to yet another gorgeous day which meant the card sharps took our business outside for some alfresco play. Owing to the new moon there were very high and low tides and oh dear readers how we frolicked in the sand with one of us (hint: his initials are GA) deciding to dam the Roebuck Bay, I will leave you on a cliff hanger with how that one turned out.

That evening we went to Matso’s for some home brew (if you are not a big beer drinker I would recommend the ginger beer) and a great dinner – it was a bit sad though because we were leaving the next day!

For all of you who haven’t seen Gary and Lorraine since they left Sydney I can assure you that they both look amazing and are obviously both very happy (much as it pains me to admit this because I know that we would all love them back in town). For those of you who haven’t seen them since they lived in the UK then “well where the bloody hell are you?”