Sat. 8th June 2019
One of the lessons we are learning from our camping experience, is that you might just as well shift your body clock forward and go to bed early and rise early. Although we’re not currently camping, we need to do at least the latter part of this anyway as we want to walk along the beach to some caves. The caves are two or three bays away and one of the promontories is not passable at high tide. The board at reception says we need to returned beyond it by 9:30am. We’re moving on again so we’ll have to check out of our room not long after that anyhow.
So, the alarm goes off around sunrise, we wolf down some brekkie (there’s a kitchenette in our villa), slap on some suncream and our sunnies and we’re off. In one sense the directions are easy – walk down to the beach and turn left. Better still, there are two sets of footprints in the damp sand so we only need to follow them. However, there are a number of landmarks and points of interest along the way and instead of a map, we have an aerial photo from an oblique perspective that provides no sense of distance and is hard to relate to what we see in front of us.
Fortunately, good old Aussie naming helps and by sticking to the principle of “you’ll know it when you see it”, we manage just fine. For example, after a couple of false ‘is that it?’ the Old Boot really is pretty obvious (if not all that exciting). The Mini Bungle Bungles are a bit more problematic as we haven’t seen the real thing yet (only about a week to go though). Still, we work it out – after all, weird shaped rocks are definitely our thing. These ones are rocks in the shape of beehives (do they actually make beehives in this shape or is this what bees build when left to their own devices?) Regardless, we need to be careful not to get too carried away with photographs as we still have to beat the tide on the way back.
This is even more of a problem when we get to Osprey Rock – a tall rock stack with an osprey nest perched on the top. And in the nest there’s a fledgling! And Janet has the long lens on her camera!!! Mum & Dad osprey are clearly aware of our presence and decide that the best way to keep an eye on us is from the air. We try to get the photos we want as quickly as we can (tricky as the blighters are terrible at holding still for a pose) and then move on before disturbing them too much. We first saw ospreys (in Aus) back in Augusta in the very southwest corner of the country. We’re a long way north of there now but have periodically seen them all the way up the coastline. We still get a thrill whenever we see one.
The caves take a little more finding but, once again, we’re helped by the footprints of the couple we passed on their return to the resort. These are sea caves rather than limestone caves like we saw back between Dunsborough & Augusta and so don’t go terribly far back. There are, however, lots of blowhole skylights and Siren’s Cave has a huge natural window looking back out to sea. It’s a great spot just to enjoy the shade, drink a little water, collect our thoughts and just appreciate the view out in front of us (and talk about ospreys!)
We’re doing OK for time but we really don’t want to have to swim round that headland – and we didn’t do well at following the receptionist’s advice to not dawdle or take pictures on the way out – so we’d better start heading back. The tide is definitely coming in but there is no problem getting round and once past the pinch-point we can relax and start to look around us at the colours in the cliffs & rocks and the birds trotting along the seashore – and the osprey flying back with a fish in his claws!
Having got the walk done, we can now relax for a while (if booking tomorrow’s trip & sorting out stuff is classed in the category of relaxation). We don’t have far to drive to get to Broome which marks the halfway point in both time and distance for our time with the Beast. Given this, we had decided to treat ourselves and we booked into what we hoped would be a nice hotel, the Pinctada McAlpine – which we learn is named after the local pearl oyster and McAlpine the (British) builder whose house this used to be. The original building has been preserved and extended in the same style and from the welcome we get, we’re going to have a great few days.
Once we get settled in, our feet start itching again and so we head off to explore the local area. I have spotted that the local brewery, Matso’s, is in walking distance and so gradually steer us in that direction. First though, there is a park with a war memorial and a bust of Nicolas Baudin one of the original French explorers of the area. We’d also like to get down to the seashore which seems to be tantalisingly close but there don’t seem to be any paths and all we can see are mangroves. Nothing else for it then, we’ll have to check out Matso’s. Very nice too, but with a surprisingly wide selection of beers that either contain ginger or chilli or both (which we avoid in favour of the more standard ales).
Part of the treat of being in a large town is that we’re spoilt for choice in restaurants – this is unlikely to be the case again until we get to Darwin. Ronaldo (but not that one), our host at McAlpine, has recommended several to us of which our only chance to get to Unuva, an Indian restaurant, is tonight. And what a great choice. We’re welcomed by the chef a young woman who later confesses that this her first business. The menu isn’t large, but as she talks us through it, explaining how each dish is cooked, it all sounds tempting. In the end, I go for a fish curry and Janet for a beef masala. When, the food arrives, it all lives up to the mouthwatering description. Nothing like Indian food in the UK, but so flavoursome.
Janet reminds me that we ate in an Indian restaurant in Margaret River and that I proclaimed it to be my favourite Indian meal ever. Well this just exceeded that mark. We know that the clock is ticking and that all too soon, our three nights in Broome will pass and then we are off into the wilderness (literally). Time, and as we find out again tomorrow, tide wait for no man. We just enjoy the moment.