Day 23
A nice bitumen drive to Broome. I haven't been here since 1968 and I am quite intrigued to see all the changes that have been wrought to make this one of the top holiday spots in the North West since that time. I plan to maybe stay here for a couple of days and catch up with myself.
The first stop in town of course is the Tourist Centre for a list of all the caravan parks. I need to sit down and digest this for a while as everything is over $35/night!
The place is not that big so I decide to have a look around and see if any of them actually justify this sort of pricing. It's very strange to me. This is now a more popular place with more people and better access on the coast etc. etc. but to tell the truth Katherine "feels" nicer and is a damn sight cheaper for everything. I am glad I am carrying enough fuel that I don't have to fill up here. I feel an overwhelming sense of "Club Expensive" about this place. It's where the beautiful people come to show how much money they can spend doing the same stuff they can do everywhere else a lot cheaper, but of course it's easier to be seen doing it here.
After working my way through a couple, which look remarkably similar to most of the other caravan parks I have seen, except the last one I look at has the speedway next door, you are not allowed to run generators at all and asking the price before you book in is taken as the ultimate sign of a poor upbringing!
I decide to go and park on the famous beach for a while and cool off while I sort this out in my head. You can get to about 300metres away in the carpark if you feel like negotiating the 50 or so "traffic calming devices" on the way. Now there is the ultimate oxymoron in my opinion, install a device which causes frothing apoplexy in the average driver and call it a "calming device"! Never the less the phone and internet are available so I go for a walk and make a few calls and do a bit of internet update and it occurs to me that the real reason for staying IN any of these towns is for precisely that and I have just done most of what I wanted to do. I have no desire to ride a camel along the beach at sunset . . . I would be sure to get an ugly one with a bad temper and there is way too much deja vu going on there. To me it doesn't compare with the week I spent on the last horse based muster on Minilya Station over 40 years before. And my doctor says it is not a good idea to sit in the sun for long periods of time and some of the things that are thought suitable for attire in a bikini these days are completely beyond my comprehension. I can't understand why I can't get Herman Melville out of my head.
No, sorry. Doesn't look like I am going to be able to sort it out here.
I think it's time to head home for a while.
I know the inland route is a couple of hundred kilometres shorter but for some crazy reason I choose the coast road, maybe it will be cooler at least.
So now it's just a long drag with little to see along the way.
The towns have changed some since my last visits but on the whole are still recognisable.
A stop in Carnarvon, where I worked in 1967-68 and explored much of this region from at that time, where there a couple of friends in town for a while and then back on the road.
The overnight stops at the new style shire "rest points" are some of the nicest so far. The weather is cool enough for the first time, apart from Yulara, that you don't need air conditioning to prevent heat prostration but it's still "boring as batshit" down this coast.
Again the few obligatory "nice" sunsets and finally back where I started.
A lot to think about for a while now with regard to how well the truck "works" and the lifestyle it represents.
I am sure this trip was not representative or really even indicative of what to expect for true long term cruising but it sure tested a few concepts both physically and mentally.
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