Charlie and Wendy had assured us that we would have an easy ride to the coast today, and I was just pumped! Charlie and Wendy honked as they pulled out of the gravel pit traveling east…we were not far behind heading west. I wondered…Why do we meet the coolest people traveling the opposite direction? It would be fun to travel the same direction at some point! The day was off to a raging start as Kev had already ingested 2 flies while going over the days riding schedule! Now that is a funny sight! I do not know what is funnier..the sight of the entrance, or the bonus sight of the cough up exit! Sorry Kev…it was hilarious! So, now that Kev fueled with extra protein, we hit the road headed towards Broome. Your senses are so in tuned to temperature and smell on a bike. You can smell the ocean before you can feel it. My helmet fills up with moist salty air, then 20 kilometers later you feel the cool damp air enter your clothing vents. I never tire of this! Like a cold shower the coolness reactivates my warm drowsy body from the heated ride across. I am now alert, excited and full of interest as we enter the Broome area. It was at least 15 degrees cooler by the time we pulled into the Cable Beach parking lot. The ocean was an amazingly clear fixating turquoise blue and the sand pristine! I'm in love! We ordered an iced coffee oceanside, enjoyed the views and researched where we should stay for the night. Now, that iced coffee went down really easily, especially since we had not had any coffee or tea this morning, and secondly that they make iced coffees with ice-cream here! Totally rich, wrong, but yum! We decided on a caravan park within walking distance from Cable Beach. Our tent site was located in front of a waterfall, pool and palm trees. It totally felt like we were on some exotic holiday and became a very, very comfortable spot for us! Broome is 18 degrees south of the equator situated on the southern most tip of the Kimberly Region and is best know for its pearls. Cable Beach is named after the communications cable which linked Broome to Java, Indonesia in 1889. This allowed the pearling masters to get the best sell price from Singapore. Broome's township is charming and quite unusual. It developed from the early colonial Asian influence of the pearling heydays. Kev and I caught the local bus from Cable Beach into the township and enjoyed a day of browsing, exploring, a Yum Cha lunch, Dim Sum lunch for the yankies, and were caught by surprise how this small town stole our heart! There are no traffic lights in Broome, just a series of strategically placed roundabouts which I have grown to love, and have at odd times been know to ride around in circles a couple of times before exiting…just because I can!

Kev and I spent a complete blissful day on Cable Beach reading, shell collecting, relaxing, sleeping, and swimming. The water today was clear of stingers, yesterday they were dotted throughout the water and washed up all over the beach. I spent several hours playing in the crystal clear turquoise surf feeling like a carefree kid. I did get dumped by a couple of large waves that caught me by surprise. I felt myself tumble uncontrollably over the sand before surfacing only to be hit again! I actually surfaced laughing, with a slight headache but lost my sunglasses in the process, which, bummed me a bit. I headed back to the lounge chair that we had rented to recover. About an hour or so later I said to Kev that I was going back out to find my glasses! Yeah, "Good Luck" he boasts! Wouldn't you believe it as I am heading out I see a small pool of water with a brown object reflecting from it…I bent over to check it out…my glasses! I could not believe it, neither could Kev! For the rest of the arvo that is all I talked about! I can't live without my sunglasses! We watched humpback whales breeching silhouetted by the sunset over the Indian Ocean…what an amazingly, beautiful and lucky day!

Would you believe that you can view actual dinosaur foot prints in the reef here at low tide? These prints are 115 to 120 million years old and extend from the south of Broome, Gantheaume Point all the way to Cape Leveoue, 200 kilometers to the north. The tracks are embedded in the sandstone and are from the meat eaters species related to the T-Rex. After trekking and rock hopping/slipping around the coastline at low tide to view these tracks it blew my mind to actually see 120 million old foot prints in the reef before me! Wowzer!!

Now Broome was really turning on the charm and just when we thought that it could not get any better, it did! We watched the Australian Movie "Sapphire" at the World's Oldest Picture Garden, Sun Pictures. An outdoor open air movie theatre located in the heart of Broome. The ambiance could not have been more surreal…Lounging back in a beach deck chair watching a movie under the Milky Way sporting the Southern Cross. Occasionally, we were excited by a jet engine roaring as Virgin and Qantas airlines flew over while preparing to land 1 kilometer away at the airport. Flying foxes winged it across the movie beam into the neighboring mango trees and we enjoyed eating a "choc top". Broome, you swept me away! Yeah, I know that last line is corny, but, it's true! What originally was planned for a 2 night stay in Broome turned into a 5 night stay. Even after 5 nights we were trying to figure out of we could squeeze out 1 more night in this amazing place! We also managed to squeeze in a small "staircase to the moon" viewing prior to leaving!

Marie, from Gunnedah I really enjoyed our daily talks, thanks for introducing yourself, your kindness and your interest! And Hugo and Jet if you are reading this…thanks for chatting and visiting with us daily…we loved your guys bright energetic spirit!