Day 36 Broome

Down the slippery and treacherous cliff we climbed, each person barely in front of the one behind, straining to retain a tenuous foothold, in the early morning light. We’d climbed out of bed at dawn and quickly tumbled into our clothes and shoes as we prepared for an early morning Dinosaur hunt. We created 10 meter tall shadows walking in the dawns early light, towards the lighthouse that marked the beginning of the climb to the unusually low, low water mark, off Gantheaume Point.

Jacqui had promised Jacob that while in Broome, we’d take him to see the Dinosaur footprints fossilised in the stone on Broome’s coastline. What we didn’t realise at the time of making the promise was that the tides are only low enough to expose the footprints around the full moon and if we missed today’s low tide, we might have to stay in Broome for another month. As appealing as the thought is, reality dictates a departure is required. We had a good look around and found 3 separate sets of footprints before being chased away by the rising tide.
During the climb back up the cliff, we found a lost and puzzled looking octopus in a quickly heating rock pool that promised an uncomfortable few hours before the tide again engulfed the rocky coast. It was while getting a few pictures of this rarely sighted sea creature that one of the few remaining Allosaurs in the area jumped from between the rocks and took an angry swipe at my leg, leaving blood trickling from the incisions of its triple clawed front legs. With Thomas’s help, I managed to fight off the rabid creature and climb the treacherous cliff to the safety of the lighthouse and the loving care of my family. Anyhow, that’s how Tom tells the story of a minor scrape on the oyster shell covered rocks.
Apart from the Dinosaur experience, nothing much happened during the daylight hours of today as we prepared ourselves for Zach’s birthday, tomorrow. We ducked into town to pick up some decorated Boab nuts from a local aboriginal artist, followed by me spending $25, and a little over an hour getting the car sort-of clean.
Later in the day, things got exciting. Just as we headed back down onto the sand of Cable Beach to again watch the sunset, we noticed a local Ranger placing a sign at the vehicle entrance to the beach. As I drove up to him, I saw the sign read, “DANGER, SALTWATER CROCODILE SITED IN THESE WATERS”. I asked him how recent, only to be told the sighting had occurred in the last 20 minutes. When I asked where, he pointed to the exact spot that we’d been swimming in, for 90 minutes, yesterday. As it happened, we still headed down to the beach for a light dinner and an hour or so of beach cricket as the Camels strolled past and the sun set into the ocean. As the sun slowly disappeared, we shared a quick toast to a good friend in the UK having his 40th birthday, one day before his godson has his 10th. All up, it’s been a great day.
Cheers,
Jorg