After what was a very hot and sweaty night we awoke quite early and were straight off to Gautheme Point before the tide came in as this would give us the best chance to see the dinosaur footprints in the rocks there.
The point itself was very beautiful just to see all of it’s own accord with its many vivid shades of red and pink rocks against the backdrop of the deep turquoise of the sea and clear blue of the sky. Although we were not the only ones there searching for the ‘prints’ and had even read up a bit about where they would be, finding them seemed to be nigh on impossible and the sea coming in added the element of the clock running down. Then at last we came across some large three-toed footprints and a couple of what looked like sauropod footprints, some of the big veggie gobbling dinosaurs.
Whilst we had been wandering about on the rocks of the point we spotted a young Malaysian lady called Sue who we had first come across whilst diving at Exmouth then whilst we were at Port Hedland stocking up on provisions we were sure we had seen her in another shop and now here!!! Very possibly a stalker eh!!
The tide was now on its way in and we had to ‘escape’ and make our way back up to the shelter at the top of the point but at least we had seen the famous prints on the rocks. Once back at the shelter we partook of some breakfast and a nice cup of tea and as places to stop and grab a bit go, it was quite a charming little place, some lovely views of the beach that we had visited yesterday – Cable beach. Whilst eating we decided that next we would go for a trip to Broome’s library to look up some prices for the later legs of our journey.
Strangely enough, whilst driving on the way to the library over the radio we heard the most weird news story and in some ways it possibly summed up Australia and Australians far better than any other examples I could give. A man had apparently got together a petition of about 1,000 signatures or so, not many people by anyone’s standards and in relation to the total population of the country this is 0.004% of it. The reason, well he wanted to change the name of the Australian currency from Australian dollars to Dollarydoos and this was all because of a Simpsons episode, where they went to Australia and this was what the currency was called. By the sounds of it, this ‘proposer’ only needed a few hundred more signatures before the proposed name change would have to be discussed by their parliament, their parliament nonetheless what an amazing country eh! A country where such a small proportion of the population could make such sweeping and potentially hilarious changes to it, I love it!!
On a more serious note, whilst in the library we researched what the changes we had made to our itinerary in coming over to the West coast would mean to when and where we would be leaving Oz from and potentially Christmas seemed to the travelling time. Unfortunately too this also seemed to be bumping up the prices, which was a worry but not too much of a one. We shall need to pin it down a bit more as we go along but our travel plan changes may have come at a bigger cost than we first thought but as we have found before, plans can always be changed again!
By the time we had finished up at the library we decided to go back to our favourite beach of the moment, to have a bit of a bite to eat – salad, cous cous and some olives – very al fresco eh!! Food done and feeling nicely full, it was time for some sleepage with a wee nap so we relaxed under the shade of a palm on the grass near the car park. Now, I have been reliably informed by my wife the only reason we needed to have a rest was because I (alone) was feeling tired however when I awoke I found my little wifey emitting her own little Zzz’s besides me but the sleep had done the trick, we woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the rest of the day.
So as there were plenty of others already doing it, we did likewise and stripped down to our swimsuits, grabbed the GoPro and went off to enjoy more fun in the waves. This time we could capture our watery frolics for posterity and film our posteriors for …. well whatever! It was once again really great larks just jumping about in the surf and generally having a great time. It is possibly our present lack of worries and cares that means that behaving like a kid seems like an enormously fun and natural idea, this is the part of the whole backpacking thing that, even if you tried you cannot put a price on – it is simply priceless.
We eventually had to stop though as we had some serious camel riding to do … yeehaw! We thought we had understood the instructions of where to meet the camels but no-one was there – were we in the wrong place, where were those pesky camels? We had just decided to wander back to our van in the car park to give the camel owners a call and guess who should come out of the Sun towards us … lol! So we followed on and went down onto the sands and after a couple of ‘soft-camel’ photos we ‘mounted up’ and this is quite a precarious thing all in itself, the sudden lurch as the camel lifts one end and then the other. The guides who walked alongside us as we rode were quite a good laugh and one was even from back home (a Yorkie from England). The ride itself was not a hugely long one but it was a great lark and very entertaining and I would thoroughly recommend it.
Our camel was called Malaki (Messenger of the Gods) and was a very gentle beast, I kept scratching his head through his straggly hair to try and bond with him and wondered to myself what it was that camels cleaned their teeth with, as it smelt like poo!!
To be fair all the camels were very good natured and whilst riding along on the tour we were told the ‘epic blockbusting’ story of the owner of the company – a camel whisperer by all accounts. This lady had single-handedly wandered into the outback (or desert) with a single camel and lo and behold, came back with seven camels! Yes, I do admit that it sounds a bit like some weird and wonderful Biblical story in the offing – loaves, fishes and camels eh!
We wanted to be moving on from Broome tonight even though we had really enjoyed the place so after the ride we just had time for a quick shower, grab some beer and fuel before we were driving off into the Sun or rather the Sunset. So it was that by the time we were homing in on our next campsite we were driving in complete darkness with just miles and miles of bush either side of the road – quite scary eh! Although you know that there is probably very little life either side, the roads are just so long and straight that they actually start making you feel like you are suffering from tunnel vision. I was concentrating so very much just in case a Kangaroo should jump out at us and in my mind all I could imagine was super-jumpers coming down from all angles, so as my imagination got vivid my speed reduced to somehow compensate. By the time we arrived at the site and settled down for the night I was shattered and my head was pounding, who says backpacking is not hard work?
Our Excellent Adventure! 