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DAY 92 - 98 Thursday 22^nd - Wednesday 28^th October

Finally, the temperatures are back in the mid-30s and we are camping in our tent. We have a powered site so we bought a $15 fan to ensure we get some sleep. Mark and Sharon stayed until Sunday and have completely changed their plans for the remainder of their trip. They are now going the same way as us all the way down the west coast but we are staying on in Broome for a few days longer.

On Thursday afternoon we took a beach run along Cable Beach and noticed that many people were going naked. So we did what the locals do and found our own patch of sand and water along this 22km long beach.

I went windsurfing on Cable Beach on Friday but the 9m tides made it a little tricky. It has been the first sail I've had this whole trip so I didn't really care if it was good or bad - it was wet and I was windsurfing.

After a bit of sight-seeing around the township of Broome on Saturday we went to the Diver's Tavern for some sunset drinks at Cable Beach before coming back to cook dinner - thai kumera curry.

(written by David)
On Sunday we headed to Cable Beach for a swim. It was then decided that we head to the wind surfer hire place so that I could have a go. We ended up at Gantheaume Point and spotted a sail board rider. Michelle had a few rides and then decided to give me a lesson in the art of "beach starts". Trying to learn this on Michelle's little board made it very interesting. What fun we both had! Pity we did not have the camera to capture this moment - NOT.

The locals have been talking about tides and the best time to fish is going to be Monday through to Thursday. David spent an hour or so in one of the tackle shops getting more information and then we prepared for Tuesday's fishing. At 5.30am we surfaced and drove into town. At Broome's most historic pealing sites we parked our car and walked out through the mangroves whilst the tide was out. A narrow channel of smelly, muddy mangrove water was seeping out to sea and followed it out to the river on the other side of the mangroves. Once we reached the river we had to walked further upstream as the low tide had drained almost all the water away and had exposed what looked like sandbanks. On walking on these sandbanks we both sank up to our knees - in grey, mangrove mud! We pushed on for about 10minutes to get as close to the deeper water as possible. We were the only people fishing from the bank - all the other fishermen had boats.

Would you believe - after all that effort we did not bring home one fish. Although, a big barra took all my tackle in one huge bite and David caught 2 that were two small (about 45cm).

We're leaving Broome on Thursday to go 200km North to Cape Leveque. Just offshore from here is the famous Buccaneer Archapelago (you might remember Troy Dan rode through it on his jet ski?). We won't be able to visit the Archapelago as it is quite a way offshore and involves chartering a boat or seaplane. Cape Leveque is owned by an aboriginal community and entry is only with a permit which is included in your campsite booking. I think this is the first time we've made a booking for our accommodation on this trip. We intend to stay there for 2 nights and then return along the coastline stopping at some recommended beach camps. It will be November then and we must begin our journey south.