The Truck is Bleeding

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DAY 198


Waking up to a hot but overcast morning following on from the rain we had last night, still it’s hot and that’s what counts. However it is not long before the clouds give way to some rain and we have a downpour for about 5 minutes which then eases off into a gentle trickle for about an hour, the sky remains overcast for a spell.

The Truman family and us have decided to go to the Broome Sunday Morning market to have a mooch around, we are up early as usual (much easier in this climate), Caroline has a mountain of washing to do, specifically because it is covered in red dust so busies herself to and from the Laundry in the ablution block, once we are done with breakfast and the like finally get amongst it.

The Sunday Market is supposed to be a pretty good market, however we both find that the market is a bit dull, nothing for us fella’s but lots of tat, there were a number of jewellery stalls, pretty much all selling the same things, a high quantity of pearls, being that this area is famous for its Pearling, oh yes and quite a bit of the fake hippy shit. The Truman’s had offered to shout us up for a coffee but the prices where ridiculous, so we settled for a curry puff, then drove to Maccy D’s for a decent well priced coffee.

Macca’s had run out of sugar and the milkshake machine was broken so the Josh was disappointed that he could not get a milkshake, and for those that took sugar a forced intake of the fake stuff “Equal” had to be used.

We parted company at Macca’s and we went for a look around the town of Broome. We find Broome to be a lovely place, a population of 15,000 and a deceiving size, with quite a bit of industry spread over a large area.

One thing that is quite obvious is that everything is quite expensive, because there is always a freight charge for bringing it in to this remote location, newspapers are over double the cost for example, food, fuel and everything else suffers the same problem.

The truck was in serious need of a wash so we took it to the local BP station, the only one in the area that had a pressure washer so we washed the truck top to bottom, it was so covered in red dust that when it mixed with the water the truck looked like it was bleeding.

After lunch we return to the trailer we had a sit down with a cup of tea then a swim in the pool was called for, as it is gorgeous albeit a little bit on the cold side, but not as cold as some swimming pools we have been in. I takes Caroline a while before she is fully in but not as long as normal and definitely not as long as it took to get into Fern Pool at Karijini.

We put the awning up this afternoon, a job that Caroline particularly hates, but although we are on a shady site, we feel that if we have a bit of that tropical rain then at least we have some shelter. We only need shelter as even when it rains it is warm. We are told that the caravan park have only just turned the hot water on, during most of the year the water in the cold pipes comes out warm and people don’t want hot water because it is too hot, they want to cool down.

I get chatting to Stuart next door, I find out that Stuart came to Australia, from New Zealand, when he was 15 years old, on a Russian Freighter he comes from Invercargill (spelt with one l to save on ink). Stuart tells us that he came over with Greg Munroe who incidentally is the nephew of the famous Bert Munroe and if those of you who are not film buffs and have not seen the film “The World’s Fastest Indian”, you won’t know that Bert Munroe held the motorcycle speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. He struggled to get the money together (& equipment) in order to achieve his ambition. Stuar purchased a 750 Triumph Bonneville 5 speed from a small motorcycle dealer in Invercargill and that day Bert Munroe was in there and he remembers it well as a young man. We are told that the character played by Anthony Hopkins, in the film, was very close to how Bert Monroe actually was. I can recommend this excellent film.

The rest of the day was taken up with catching up on e-mails, blog work and various other chores, the truck needed sweeping out and the floor in the tent needed washing down as it too was red.

The Trumans have invited us over for dinner this evening, but before dinner we see that the sun is going down Caroline, Jodie and Kahlia all rush off to the beach to catch the remainder of the sunset. Unfortunately they did not catch all of it, they got there just as the sun had disappeared behind the ocean. Although they knew that they would be slightly too late a woman shouted across to them “you are too late girls!” Caroline shouted back “It is better than nothing.” Sometimes once the sun has set, providing there is good cloud cover you can see the most amazing colours in the sky so it is always worth seeing even if you are too late to see the sun go down. In the tropics once the sun has gone, the darkness comes quickly, there is not really a twilight.

When we could smell the lovely fragrance of a roast dinner cooking in the evening we wandered over to the Trumans caravan, Jodie served up a lamb roast, with potatoes, carrots, beans and pumpkin followed by Ice cream, we sat around talking and looking at our computers sorting out blog stuff for the rest of the evening.

By 10.00 everyone started to retire, while Caroline finished up on the blog I climbed into bed exhausted, it had felt like a long day, but the night was warm, it makes a lovely change to feel that we don’t have to wrap ourselves up in the sleeping bags and blankets.

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Photos

Red Dust
Rear Step on Patrol, this is just a little bit of the dust that needs cleaning off.

Cable Beach Sunset
One of worlds top 5 beaches.

Kahlia
Not really posing, just captured one of those moment