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Paulines Birthday!
After a morning of shopping and lunching we hit the beach for some birthday sun! Arriving in Broome we were both wearing all the clothing we could so we wouldn't get done for extra baggage on the flight. This was a splendid idea when we were in Freemantle 3000k's south, but when we stepped off the plane into 30 degree heat the 3 jumpers, trousers, thick socks and hiking boots seemed a bit foolish!
As it was a certain someones birthday we had ditched the tent for a few days and checked into a 'flash packer' resort which was very nice. After checking in to celebrate Paulines last night as a 26 yr old we went out and had some tapas from the place next door and a few glasses of white wine to help it all slip down. Soon enough the big day was upon us and Pauline had decided she wanted to explore Broome first. So after a card, present and breakfast we went into town. Broome was lovely but there really wasn't much to it. A few art galleries and clothes shops and a couple of nice little cafes and the oldest cinema in the world - and it was open air! It must have been someones lucky day (and unlucky depending
Cable beach sunset
The first of many cable beach sunsets on your point of view!) because the cinema was showing the 'Sex in The City' movie that night- needless to say 2 tickets snapped up. After treating the birthday girl to a new dress for her big premeire night and some lunch we bought the necesary items for a birthday bbq and then hit the beach. Cable beach is stunning and is possibly one of the best beaches we have seen in our travels so far. The sea is... refreshing, to say the least, but once your in its b-e-a-utiful! And after a few hours of sunning we wandered down the beach watching the camels having their daily walk and the sun melting into the Indian Ocean. Again, one of the best sun sets we have seen so far and definitely one to remember. Whilst the sky was burning orange, red, pink and purple we sat by the beach bar and sipped a birthday cocktail before heading back to the hotel to ready the bbq. Whilst Pauline beautifed herself for the movie and checked her birthday emails (thankyou everyone she says!) i whipped up a bbq fit for a queen with fillet steak, chicken kebabs and a big salad. When
Birthday cocktails
slightly blurry photo but the batteries on the camera were on their way out we arrived at the cinema there was distint lack of any male company to watch the movie and it was clearly an evening for the girls. The cinema (Sun Cinemas) was really cool and had deck chairs laid out under the stars which really adds a unique aspect to the film watching. We had been warned that the cinema was on the flight path but nothing really prepared us for the roar of the plane engine and then the sight of the small propeller plane come zooming over the top of us heading straight for the screen! Very amusing afterwards but at the time brown panties all round i can assure you! With the last hours of the birthday remaining there was just enough time for a one more pressie - mamouth bar of dairy milk creme brulee chocolate (double brownie point s for that!) and of course a birthday cake with candles. Lighting the candles was a slight issue due to the super sensitive fire alarms but Pauline blew them out just as fast as I lit them so all was good. All in all a very enjoyable birthday!
The following day we had a bit of decision
making to do in the morning and that decision was eventually made by the lack of funds in our bank account! So instead of 4x4ing it off into the middle of nowhere for 5 days we resigned the time to improving the tans and getting some qdt (quality derriar time) in on the beach. As the beach was amazing and the sun set one you could never tire of it wasn't too much of a sacrifice in the end! We still had to go out for a meal to celebrate the birthday (can't let a meal out slip by!) so headed to a place called to Zoo Cafe which was really nice. The starter was the best and was called a Kimberly Taster plate and had little bits of all the wierd aussie stuff including Barramundi (white fish), Kangaroo (basically like tender steak), Pearl Meat (not oysters), Crocodile (like a meaty fish or chicken) and Camel (kind of lamb-ish). All very tastey and definitely a unique tasting experience. A bottle of wine and a couple of cocktails later and it was time for bed!
Unfortunately we had to leave our luxuary resort after 3 nights and it was back
out with the ol' tent - joy. Now I love the tent and it has done us well these last nine months but there is something very depressing about leaving an airconditioned queen bed walking round the corner and putting up a tent. After 1 night back in the tent we realised that we were saving quite a lot of money not taking the 4x4 for 5 days and so decided to book back into the resort for our last 2 nights in Broome - yay! We still had 2 nights left in the tent but they were much more bearable knowing the was luxuary at the end of the tunnel!
The campsite we were staying at had the 'best pool in WA' and it was a very cool pool - if not bloody freezing as well! So we spent Saturday morning around the pool. There is no breeze around the pool and it gets very, very hot so when lunch time came around and we had both just about lost consciousness due to heat stroke we managed to peel ourselves off the sun lounger get some lunch and head to the beach. This was the evening we had
booked up to do our camel ride at sunset - a very Broome experience! This was the other half of Paulines birthday present but is very popular so had to be booked a bit in advance. It was really nice watching the sunset from the back of a camel as it plodded along the beach and gave it a different perspective to sitting on the beach. Right at the end of the camel ride one of the camels must have got a bit aggitated as it kicked out and caught one of the trainers in the knee cap - painful! It gave everyone a bit of a shock as the girl was just saying how nice the camels were and how much fun she was having training them! It was a lovely evening though all that aside.
Sunday was a whole day on the beach only really moving from the beach to the sea to cool down a bit before lazing back down on the beach again - a hard life but some ones got to do it! In the vening we went out for a couple of drinks with a couple we had bumped into from NZ. Funnily
enough it was the couple who had sold us our van in NZ about 5 months ago, and we bumped into them in the resort we were staying at - small world! The guy (Rob) looked a bit shocked to see me intially but when I told hime all went well with the van he seemed a bit more relaxed!
So our last night in the tent was over and we were back to luxuary - oooooh yeah! To break up the hardship of life on the beach we also hired a small jeep to go off for the day and see what else Broome had to offer. As it turned out there was another lovely beach 25 mins down the road which we took some time to appreciate. We also saw a Japanese cemetary which has 700 grave stones from all the early pearl divers who suffered from the bends and other nasty diving accidents back in the early days of pearling. Sunset this evening was viewed from Redding Beach which we found in the morning and luckily enough it was just as nice as Cable beach.
By Tuesday we were getting Cable beach withdrawl symptoms so
by 10 we were back there getting in the qdt. We had to check out on Wednesday but our flight wasn't till the evening so we had all day to kill. We decided the beach would be an approprite option. Our last Cable beach sunset was watched from the terrace of a beach side restaurant where we had our last dinner in australia. A very nice way to end what has been a fantastic 2 months downunder.
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Marianne and Mathias
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The Belgiums
Hi guys, West Australia sounds a lot of fun, it makes us sorry we didn't go there but reading about it is already half the fun. We went back to real life quickly - work work work. Although we 're far more relaxed then before our trip to NZ en AUS. We found a new house to live so looking forward to see you guys in Belgium. Have fun in your last months of travelling, we 'll keep on watching your adventures. greets m en m