We woke up to another foggy morning in Broome. That gives us 4 for the week when they supposedly only have about 20 per year! We felt very lucky to have had a clear day for the Horizontal Falls trip.
We had a few jobs to do in Broome before we got on our way. I finished the backlog of blogs so that I could start with a clean slate again.
We packed up the camper and checked out but still needed to do a bit of shopping and get fuel. We also pumped the tyres back up to hard road pressures ready for travelling on the black-top.
Fuel was 1.58.9/ litre at the Caltex in Broome and we added 89.53 litres.
We stopped at Sandfire roadhouse for an egg and bacon toasted sandwich along with dozens of caravans ( mostly heading north). There are a lot of vans on the road.
We travelled 500km from the hotel to our campsite on a rocky beach at Cape Kenaudren. We cannot believe how many others are here!! There must been over 200 campers altogether. At $32 for each campsite this is good takings for the council.
We managed to find a spot big enough for the 3 set ups together by following a side track and we are still hoping for one more reasonable moonrise viewing, although the optimal time for the staircase is past.
The track in off of the highway is about 10km long and we paid by phone to the council office at Newman (their preferred method)on a sketchy phone line before driving on in past a pretty inlet, and a beautiful sandy beach to our rocky beach which is mostly east facing.
We thought we were going to miss the others. Phone coverage was in and out and I was on a hilltop waving at Al and Zita as they drove past trying to tell them where to go. Luckily they saw me.
There are mud flats beyond the lethal spiky rocks, giving a great opportunity for the moon to do the staircase ripple effect. The beach is shallow and the tide goes out for ages.
Trevor found an octopus on the beach which kindly cooperated by spitting at him multiple times. How fantastic! There were also lots of sea cucumbers and crabs. Some of the rocks have heaps of shell attached and they crackle at you.
The rock is probably coral but looks almost volcanic. Some looks like mud, turning up on the corners of the section like mud flat does when drying, but it is as hard as stone.
Not the only strange thing here.
As we waited for the moon to rise we were treated to a terrific display. Trevor caught a bright glare in the sky which then burst even brighter, flashed, continued and then disappeared, but all of us saw multiple shooting stars. And then the huge orange moon rose above the mud flats and treated us to the splendour of another staircase. Sublime!!!
As the moon rose further and the tide came in we could see the water rushing in by the bright moonlight. It looked like a continuous forward surge. We had never seen anything like it. Quite surreal.
Add to this the fact that there had developed a continuous dripping from the roof of our camper as the condensation formed. The air was so humid that everything felt damp. The drying bathers got wetter!!!! The diary got damp.
This was a beautiful spot to camp.
Luvapuzzle 