A clean sweep of Broome...

So we decided to take the last few days and chill out in a town in North West Australia called Broome. It's in the same state as Perth, but is about 1500 miles north, so we flew -- good choice, as it turns out, since some of the roads close down during this time, officially known as The Wet.

As it turns out, this town is very seasonal, with high volume of tourist traffic coming through in The Dry, but turning into a much more sedate country-town-on-the-sea during the wet, when they can get over 150cm of rain a month and are prone to cyclones. This was just the low key, forced relaxation that we needed.

Instead of our choice of tours, busily ticking off things from a list of "must-see" attractions, we have been carefully rationing the possibilities, with time spent on the beach, wandering through the small downtown, hanging out at the local swimming pool, and mostly spending time in our room inhaling the stack of junk books that we brought. Who would have thought that, with 7 books for an 8 day holiday, Kris needed to get another Sue Grafton novel today?

So, I know what you're thinking. During cyclone season, with all of the really good tours shut down for the season, and a hire car that you're not allowed to leave town in or go off the road in, what is left. Well, I'm glad that you asked!

First, there is the World's Longest Continuously Running Outdoor Cinema, called Sun Pictures. We saw that there was a showing of, appropriately enough, Australia, and jumped at the chance to check it out. Best of all, when you got tired of Hugh flexing onscreen, there were geckos on the actual screen hunting moths, and during a hushed campfire part of the movie a very large fruitbat flew through the picture. All very cool.

The next day, there was a trip out to the bird sanctuary. We got special dispensation to take the 4wd that we hired on a dirt road for this purpose, passing through puddles deep enough to house a fair sized croc, and spotting our first wild dingo, only to find (you guessed it!) that the interpretive centre was closed for the season. Oh, well, we had a good trip out and got to see some amazing coastline.

A trip to the pearl farm was next -- Broome has a pretty amazing history based on the pearling industry. Initially, they collected "wild" oysters and used the shell for mother-of-pearl buttons and stuff, with the pearl as a bonus in every 15,000 oysters or so. Now, they culture pearls, still sell the shells, and sell the pearl meat overseas for $600/kg. All in all, it's a pretty labor-intensive, but fascinating industry, and resulted in me trying on a pearl-diver's helmet (35kg), and us holding a pearl valued at over 100,000 AUD. Whew!

e did spend some quality time on the beach, watching sunsets, and getting lured into a camel ride (it was actually pretty cool -- Australia has over 1,000,000 wild camels, and they are 'recruited' for hauling tourist butts up and down the beach in the dozens), but did not dare go into the water. Although it looks idyllic, and the water is warmer than most of us bathe at up to 35 degrees C (about 95 degrees F), it is also the perfect climate for the Irukanji and Chironex jellyfish, colloquially known as stingers, but more widely known as box jellyfish. For those of you who don'e know, these jellyfish are widely and wisely feared, as they produce copious toxin which will leave you screaming in pain -- even if you are unconscious -- until you die. So, um, we didn't go in the water. Wimpy, huh?

Anyway, we weren't done yet! There were still two reptillian attractions left. First, the awesome killing machines that are the estuarine crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus, if you care), known as salties. We had hoped to see some in the wild, but went to a wildlife park/croc farm and had a great time! We got muuuuuuuch closer than we would have in the wild, learned a little bit about them, and got to see them at feeding time. More pictures will surely follow, as we get my film transferred to disk.

The other reptillian attraction is the presence at low tide of some dinosaur footprints. Real ones. The locals aren't thrilled about people traipsing down to look, so there is only a vague description on where they are, but there is a pretty good explanation of what to look for, complete with a concrete cast. Anyway, we scrambled around, and found some therosaur prints, which is just about the coolest thing ever. I mean, ever. This is, apparently, the only place where dinosaurs are in the oral history of dreamtime in the indigenous australian heritage.

Incidentally, we also saw in a tide pool a blue-ringed octopus, another of Australia's incredibly lethal aquatic critters, this one able to deliver a paralytic neurotoxin. Pictures also to follow, hopefully. As it turns out, it is pretty tough to get a picture of something under the water. We'll see.

There is much more to our trip, including the other couple at the B&B, who are visiting from outback Aus to have their dog's leg x-rayed and biopsied. I tried to stay out of conversations, but was unable to keep my curiosity to myself. Also, we are trying to implement new fitness goals for the new year, but 90 degrees and 95% humidity is not really all that conducive to activity.

Anyway, I'm about out of time on the internet cafe here. Hope that 2009 is a banner year for everyone! Happy New Year!

(I just thought that this was a funny sign...)