There
were mumblings at the start of the day about having a quiet, relaxing day…
however, today turned out to be a monster of a day! We started with a very touristy thing to do –
a ride up Cable Beach on the famous camels.
After seeing our friends do it a couple of days ago, the kids were
eagerly anticipating this… Apart from a
slight panic attack from the boy when the camels got up and down from the
ground, it was a nice leisurely stroll up the nudie beach (thankfully there
were no bare bums out at that time in the morning…). Megan and I even scored a
free pair of pearl earrings! (Lucky I hadn’t already spent thousands of dollars
on a pair in one of the squillion pearl shops in town)
We discovered after the ride the red camel group are marched up to the grass area where they hand out carrots to the kids to feed them… this was an unexpected bonus to our ride.
I posted an overcast picture of Cable Beach a couple of days ago… that was our first visit to the beach and at the time I took it, I thought the beach was overrated… this morning, in the bright sunshine with the water a dazzling turquoise, I now admit Cable Beach IS a pretty spot…
The only problem with a popular tourist spot like Cable Beach, it was near impossible to get a spot in the café… so we headed to a little café right on the Town Beach to get some coffee.
From Town Beach we drove toward the port facility and jetty. The jetty was a nice walk out to the end passing loads of fishermen… not one of them had caught anything nor looked like they were about to… Apparently the boat all the way down the end on the right hand side ferries supplies out to one of the offshore oil rigs…
The drive from the port facility around to Gantheaume Point took us past some stunning landscape. This is the view along Reddell Beach. The red cliffs along the turquoise water was a sight to see.
We stopped at Gantheaume Point for a quick look, knowing we were coming back the next day to go hunting for dinosaur prints. While the tide is up this is apparently the spot to jump off the cliffs… No photos of us jumping, just some random trio who were there at the time…
By the time we got back to camp and had some lunch, it was time to jump in the car again to head out to the Malcolm Douglas Wildlife Park. The main feature of the park are lots and lots of crocodiles as well as some native Australian animals and birds. Every afternoon they do a feeding show in the main croc pen then they walk you through the park feeding and talking about the other crocs.
Pffft… the kids don’t even know who Malcolm Douglas is… OR Alby Mangels… We tried to explain that Malcolm Douglas was Steve Irwin before Steve Irwin was around…
We were surprised at how big the park was and there was a really nice collection of native Australian birds. Here’s Megan with a Barking Owl.
This is the main crocodile pen with a whopping 70 crocodiles in there. Watching them climb out of the water covered in that green algae was like watching a horror film… something from your worst nightmares… They knew it was feeding time so they were all slowly making their way up to the fence.
They bought out some baby salt water crocodiles and a python for us to hold. I usually refuse to touch or hold any creature that is slimy, scaly or cold-blooded… so I had to include photographic evidence that I actually held one…
Megan proved she is well and truly fearless… she was always front and centre at each of the croc pens. The crocodiles were jumping and snapping and banging into the fence but she didn’t flinch once… when this croc was fed she was even splattered by whatever poor creature it was given… and no, this didn’t deter her…
After all this excitement, you would think our day was done... but wait, there’s more… We headed back into town to Matso’s Brewery, another touristy thing to do. Matso’s is well known for their exotic flavoured beers and ciders. You can get mango, lychee and chili beer among their selection. I tried a wild lime and ginger cider while Dave had a go at their tasting platter.
Dave showing off his ginger beer to Cass, a friend who has a soft spot for the Matso’s ginger beer…
Finally, one last destination for the day. At the Wildlife Park we had run into some
friends who were previously from home, but are now living in Karratha. Fate would have it we crossed paths in an entirely
random spot in Broome… Anyhow, they were heading to the Mangrove Hotel to sit
and wait for the staircase to the moon.
So, after our drinks at Matso’s we picked up shop and headed to Mangrove’s
for a drink and some company other than our own…
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