1st September 2012 (Broome)

---

Days on the Road = 63 Days (9 Weeks)

The Shinju Matsuri Festival continues today with a Dragon Boat Race down at Town Beach so that's where we're heading to this morning. First stop though we are taking Trevor to the famous Cable Beach.

Cable Beach actually derived its name from the telegraph cable that was installed between Broome and Java in 1889. It is just beautiful and provides a safe manned spot for swimmers to enjoy the warm waters of the Indian Ocean.

FACT FILE ~ Cable Beach is Australia's only beach rated in the World's Top 5

Off to another beach in Broome "Town Beach" to watch the Dragon Boat Race which is a first and it was certainly interesting watching all the local teams compete. This beach is unmanned so you are swimming at your own risk so we decide not to and just as well as there are hundreds of jellyfish. The girls were fortunate enough to have a water playground to play in so they had fun cooling off whilst Trevor, Charles and I enjoyed a drink at the local cafe whilst watching the races.

It's time to drop Trevor off for his flight back to Darwin where he was to fly out the next day to Bali for a brief holiday then back to the UK. I just want to thank you Trevor for taking the time to visit us in Broome it was lovely to see you. X

To take full advantage of my weekend off schooling, we decide to go out to Gantheaume Point which has some amazing rock formations and Anastasia's Pool which is a small pool carved in the rock for a former lighthouse keeper's arthritic wife. There are also dinosaur footprints out here but they can only be seen at very low tide. They weren't visible when we were out here, what we did see however, was a massive bush fire burning not far from Broome and apparently the fires are started deliberately every year by "Black Lightening!!!!"

We head back to the park for a quick swim and to get ready for the natural phenomenon "Staircase to the Moon".

The "Staircase to the Moon" is caused by the rising of a full moon reflecting off the exposed mud flats at extremely low tide, creating the beautiful optical illusion of stairs reaching for the moon. The best place to see this is at Town Beach so we head off nice and early as we had heard that it gets extremely busy and they weren't wrong. Lucky we sprayed ourselves with insect repellent because the midges and sand-flies were out in full force because of the mangrove trees in this area, unfortunately Charles wasn't so lucky and he got bitten quite abit. The Staircase to the Moon was well worth the wait and was absolutely an experience!

What a fun packed day and tomorrow is going to be another one.

---

Photos

Gantheaume Point
My youngest chilling in a pool at the top of the cliff.

Gantheaume Point
My eldest chilling in a pool at the top of the cliff.