broome beach therapy

We arrived to a busy and bustling Broome in August. The shop car parks were full of travellers vehicles, restaurants were full of grey nomads and the beach was packed. The weather was quite perfect: warm during the day, sunshiney yet cool enough in the evenings to carry a cardigan with you. 

The town has emptied out now, it's lovely and quiet and the 'wet' brings a really different vibe. It also brings with it hot and humid weather and very little 'wet'. Sometimes a brief storm will roll through during the night and rain will fall but by morning it is sunny and dry again - I always feel so ripped off when this happens!! 

So, in this season it is easy to feel just a little cooped up. There's not alot to do but run errands, stay cool in air conditioning, and swim at the fully shaded pool. Sometimes the cabin fever starts to set in. We have realised just how important it is to get out in the afternoons. There is usually a suprpisingly refreshing breeze at the beach (just don't get there too early!) which isn't necessarily present in the early morning. So we go, and walk, and explore and let the cabin fever fall away. It's my therapy! 

Gav is on holidays so we are going to be going on a little break for a few days. We're looking forward to a change of scenery and a pool to swim in, even if we are only going 10 minutes down the road! Then we will spend some time at home getting a few things 'baby ready' and just taking it easy. 

The following photos were taken at a range of coastal spots: Town beach, Reddell Beach, Gantheaume point, Cable beach.

Beasts of the Northern Wild

We had been looking forward to getting out of the city so much - getting to some place where we could feel a little more connected with the natural world.  Now we're living here we're loving being able to just duck down to the beach - or even just out into the front yard - to find some creatures doing their their thing - combing the beach for food, hiding in logs, eating each other...

Here's some of the local characters from round here.

 

Above the Kimberley ~ ranges and rivers

These were taken in the East Kimberley, flying between Kununurra and Kalumburu.  It was raining when we landed in Kalumburu, and even felt a little cool.  It's one of the most isolated places I've been and felt strangely like being in PNG (probably helped by the rain and the missionaries).  The flight crosses over some remote territory, and I realised pretty quickly that the famous gorges of the Kimberley are just a fraction of what's really out there.  Would have been nice to have had a better camera, better weather and a less bumpy ride, but hopefully I've captured some of the sense of mystery and wildness out there.

Local tales

Since coming here to WA, one of the things we've enjoyed is getting into some local stories.  Tim Winton has never been too far from the top of our reading lists, and we've both read a little of him here, as well as enjoying Cloudstreet on DVD, The Turning at our local Picture Gardens, and his interview with Jennifer Byrne on ABC a little while back.  We loved watching Satellite Boy at Sun Pictures so much that we did it twice.  I've read Jandamarra and A Town is Born, both gut-wrenching, brilliant accounts of people rising against injustice in the Fitzroy Valley.  We got Bran Nue Day on DVD too, a bit nuttier than I expected.  

It's intriguing how soon after coming to a new place you start to feel a special connection to the local stories, and how the stories then help to build and deepen your connection with the place.  Those stories from the Fitzroy Valley especially had more meaning for me as I've developed more of a sense of the place, and reading them has given me a much richer appreciation for both people and land.

I've just finished That Deadman Dance, a great book that caught my eye at a yard sale in Derby.  It seemed somehow familiar to me.  A beautifully told story from the south coast of the state, a place once known as 'the friendly frontier', although of course, no frontier has ever been 'friendly' for too long.  Looking forward to our travels down there.

Above the Kimberley ~ the dry lands

Work has had me flying around a bit, mostly in small planes.  Seeing the land from above, the patterns crafted by soil, water, wind, fire, and cattle, the occasional straight line of road cutting through, I love it.  Thought I'd share the view.  These pics are from the Fitzroy Valley - an open space, the ranges of the Kimberley to the North and the Great Sandy Desert to the South.