Staircase to the Moon

Or maybe this post should be called ‘Our Attempts to See the Staircase to the Moon in Broome’.  There are actually several places along the west coast where you can see the staircase to the moon, but the best known is Broome.  There would only be three nights while we were in Broome that we would have a chance to see it.  The first night we grabbed some fish ‘n chips and headed to a hotel that has a prime viewing location.  It was quite busy, I can only imagine what it would be like during peak season.  Unfortunately it was way too cloudy to see the moon rise.  There was a fire glowing in the distance that rather looked like it could be the moon rising over the horizon and had some people happily snapping pictures of it, not realising it was a fire.  When it came time for the moon to come up the hotel turned off all the outside lights but there was no moon to be seen.  Other families we’d met in our travels were also there that night so the kids had fun running around with them and playing hide and seek.



Our next attempt had us at the beach hoping for a good view.  We watched the time and hoped the moon would make an appearance, but we were again foiled by clouds.  By the time the moon broke through the clouds the tide was in too far to get the staircase effect.



It was quite pretty, but yeah, not really a staircase.  Just a nice reflection of that full moon.




If you do a search for images on the web you’ll see what it’s meant to look like.  I don’t think the timing will be right for us to see it as we move down the coast so it looks like we won’t be lucky enough to see it, but we tried.  :)

Sunset at Cable Beach

Cable Beach is one of those famous beaches in Australia.  White sand for ages, warm water…it’s too perfect.

We hadn’t been to the beach in ages.  We’d had a nice sunset in Darwin, but no beach play because, well, it was Darwin.  Croc country.  So we hadn’t had a proper beach day since…somewhere on the east coast.  Months. (Do you feel sorry for us yet?) Our first visit to Cable Beach had little TurboBug (2) sooooo excited.  There are steps leading down to the sand, then a long walk to the water.  I was lagging behind with him and he didn’t make it past the bottom of those steps.  He immediately had his shovel in the sand and was filling up his bucket.  He needed lots of convincing to go any further.

Meanwhile the rest of us were fighting off seagulls!  They were not afraid to explore our belongings when our backs were turned.  The kids kept trying to scare them away but they’d just hover in the air nearby, not intimidated in the slightest!

We came back another night for the sunset.  We rode our bikes and stayed up on the grassy part with a good view of the beach.

Plenty of seagulls in the evening as well.  We see so many missing a foot or a leg, like this one that was hovering above us.  We’d taken sandwiches with us that evening and the birds were very hopeful.

I’m always drawn to these statues of locals.  I wondered if this man, Lord McAlpine, was still alive because there was no date of death but he died just last year.  He invested much money and time in the town in the 1980s, believing Broome could be a good tourist spot.  He was given the honour of ‘Freeman’ by town leaders just a couple of years before his death.  I wondered what it meant to be a freeman, a search reveals that the term originates with serfdom, of granting respected citizens their freedom.  It’s still bestowed as a title of honour.

Meanwhile, on the beach…

Can you see the light from the lighthouse way out in the distance?  It’s just a speck of light.  That’s the lighthouse at Gantheaume Point.  This beach was the beautiful white sand we could see in the distance.

After sunset we saw the camels in blue heading back to their home.  Camel rides on Cable Beach are one of those iconic Australian experiences in Broome.  They walk the camels right down the sidewalk, all the tourists happily snapping pictures along the way.  There are also camels who wear red, and others who wear yellow.  I promise these camels aren’t on their own though it kind of looks like it from the pictures!  They are all tethered together and they’ve done the route many times.  There is someone at the front to clear the way and at the back to keep them in line.  The camel bringing up the rear even has a light on the back to make them easier to see after sunset.  I missed getting a picture of the camel roadsign in Broome but that’s okay, I got the one at Uluru.  :)

A camel ride was in our future, but back to that beautiful sunset for now!

These sunsets in WA are spectacular.  We are spoilt to get to see so many of them.

Kununurra: Crocs & a Jabiru

Our first stop in Western Australia was Kununurra, just over the border.  We stayed at a caravan park right on Lake Kununurra which offered some lovely sunsets and wildlife spotting.

 

It didn’t take long to spot our first crocodile gliding by in the water.

There was a platform nearby that the kids made use of.  I suppose it was a stage.  The boys all took turns pushing each other off of it.  TurboBug (2) even participated, though he’d often run up and touch one of his brothers, then just jump off by himself, pretending he’d been knocked off.  It was so hot in Kununurra that he spent much of his time in just his nappy.

We enjoyed the sunset and watched the Jabiru who was resting nearby.  I only knew he was called a Jabiru because of our visit to Kakadu and the town of Jabiru. 

We headed closer to the water to see if we could spot any crocs and had no trouble finding them.  These are all freshwater crocs.  They don’t view people as food but you still don’t want to reach out and pat them on the head.  :)

Meanwhile the Jabiru headed on his way and I was happy to get a picture of him up on those long legs.

We could see some people gathered near a bench by the lake and found them all gazing at this rather large freshie.  He had no teeth and was probably hoping for a handout.  He mostly stayed in the shallow water and every once in awhile would roll his head to one side and try to grab one of the small fish swimming around the water’s edge.

The hill we could see is called the Sleeping Buddha, we were told that if you view it from the other side it looks more like an elephant head complete with trunk.

The next night I wandered back down to the lake and the Jabiru was much closer to everyone.  He  kept looking in the water, I suppose for some food, while keeping one eye on the nearby croc.  I was so thrilled to see him up close!  I nearly could have reached out and touched him.

The crocodile that was visiting that night definitely had teeth.  And scarring all over his head, presumably from fights with other crocs.  He was one of the larger ones in the lake.

I know this is a blurry picture, but I so often forget to take pictures of where we are camped that I’m posting it anyway.  We love our string of lights though we don’t always get them out.  We were camped right next to the pool which was lovely because it was so stinking hot in Kununurra.  The heat was relentless and we made use of the pool multiple times a day.

That’s LadyBug’s new purple camping chair, she had her birthday while we were in Kununurra, and so did SkeeterBug.  Post to come on that!

Fogg Dam & Another Darwin Sunset

While in Darwin we chose to go on a jumping croc cruise.  We loved it.  I’ll post about it later after I’ve had a chance to go through the video we took that day.  On the way home from that fabulous jumping croc cruise we drove through the Fogg Dam Conservation Reserve for a quick look.  After our hot morning we weren’t in the mood for any walks but you can see plenty from the road.  Apparently even turtles, though we didn’t see any that day.

What we did see were lots of lily pads and plenty of birds.  The wetlands are a haven for birds.

We drove through Humpty Doo and saw the Boxing Crocodile, but viewing it through the car window as we drove by was as close as we got.

That night we watched the sunset from Cullen Bay.  There’s a lovely grassy strip at the beach which is a popular spot for sunset viewing.  There’s also a lovely fish and chips restaurant there which we chose to indulge in.  We couldn’t remember the last time we’d had fish and chips!  Always enjoyable and always incredibly greasy.

It was another of those nights where we weren’t sure we’d see much of a sunset, but then the sun peeked below those clouds and it was gorgeous.

I found this cool rock and you need to take a picture of it and I’m going to look all serious.

I know, I’m totally hilarious.  Did you see what I did with that serious face?  Funny.  There was another little boy at the beach that night wearing the same shirt, TurboBug noticed it and pointed it out to us.  ‘Dinosaur shirt!’ I don’t know why they bother putting these silly sayings on kids’ shirts, he’d be happy with just the dinosaur!

I love it when you can see how far the tide comes in because of what it leaves behind.  So many beautiful rocks and shells to pick through.  LadyBug (5) had a collection of pure white shells that she brought up to the grass, the white was so striking against the green.

Look at that toddler just wondering the beach on his own.  Where on earth are his parents? ;)