MONDAY 11 SEPTEMBER     EIGHTY MILE BEACH

I was up early and went for a long walk on the beach, even seeing the sunrise, which was beautiful.

Sunrise over the beach and dunes

The wind had gotten up during the night, and it was very windy in the morning, but dropped in the afternoon.

I printed the letter for friends that I’d written all about our Kimberley trip. That took over an hour – very fiddly.

John emptied the fuel from the two jerrycans that were on the back of the van, into Truck.

I did some more beadwork. Made a bracelet for R – black and ginger beads, with carnelian chips. Also did one for P – opaque blue beads with old gold antique looking metal highlights.

We went for a walk on the beach and watched the tide come in – from a long way out.

The picture tells a story….

The park emptied out a lot today.

I took some more sunset photos. It was not as good as last night’s, but still pretty special.

Sunset with people on the beach

Smoke haze obscuring the last of the sunset

John had reheated fried rice leftovers for tea. I had a little tin of tuna. We both had some salads, and some rockmelon – it was lovely – lots of taste.

What a pity we couldn’t have stayed here to watch the Olympics!

FRIDAY 8 SEPTEMBER     MIDDLE LAGOON

Weather the same.

Went for a bit of a wander after breakfast, and talked to a man camped at the Lookout site – as the name suggests, further around, looking out to sea. He told us he was here in April, with his son, when Cyclone Rosita went through. They were stuck here for a couple of weeks. There would be a lot worse places to be marooned!

In the late morning, we went back to the reef. It was just so fascinating to wander on it, look at the life there, the patterns made by reef, water, and what grows in the pools that remain at low tide.

Reef detail

We saw a bailer shell – don’t know the name of the critter that lives in it. A big, bright orange shell with a big, black, snail-like animal inside. It was just crawling around the outside of a little reef pool. We watched it for quite a while – no speed machine.

Bailer shell and its resident

Another late lunch and a quiet afternoon, in the heat.

K was back from Broome and came down for a chat.

The lady half of the couple that own the place came down too – to apologize in case we’d heard her lose her temper, earlier in the day! We hadn’t, but it must have been pretty spectacular, if she felt the need to come and apologize to us! She was very interesting to talk to. She said she despairs of some of her people, who do not look after their children’s schooling (like K’s mum!), or care for their houses, and the like.

They have certainly done a good job of developing a business, here at Middle Lagoon. She says the only help they’d had to do it, was from ATSIC to build the amenities block. All the rest has been done with their own money. I don’t know if the water bore and power plant has been government funded at all, though.

All credit to them. It seems well run – certainly more organized and efficient than Honeymoon.

We did the usual pre-pack up, in the dark, eventually, due to the social interruptions!

Tea was cobbler and fries.

The time here has gone too fast – I really want to stay much longer. We must come back, next year. It is a gem of a place.

THURSDAY 7 SEPTEMBER     MIDDLE LAGOON

It was another hot day, but with a strong breeze, which gave some relief from the heat.

The owls had gone back to their usual tree. Maybe the one by us was too noisy, after all?

Both frogmouths are in this picture

As the tide was going out, we walked around the beach and out onto the exposed reef. It was surprisingly extensive. There were superb little rock pools and crevasses.

The reef exposed at low tide. The rock pools in the deeper sections have their own ecosystems

A little pool still holding water in the exposed reef, with greenery

We saw crabs, iridescent fish, octopus, clams. The latter were quite fearsome looking. I would not want to get a hand stuck in that opening!

A clam in a reef pool

There were several different types of sea birds too, including a Brahminy kite, assorted plovers and sandpipers, and a beach thick knee.

It was all very engrossing, and the tide was part-way back in before we realized.

A little oyster stack on the reef

It was hot out there on the reef, of course.

The tide starting to come back in over the reef.

Lunch was a late one.

John had a sleep during the afternoon, and spent some time using his computer.

I sewed.

K came down. She’d come down in the morning to tell us that there were whales offshore, beyond the reef, but we’d gone off on our explorations. Pity. I think we would have had to have been around on the cliffs to see them.

K had a bar shouldered dove that couldn’t fly and she was planning to take it to a wildlife rescue service in Broome, when they went back this afternoon.

All the young adults and kids of the extended family left, and the place became very quiet. It was also much easier to get a shower – we had been sharing this with the extended family.

Tea was curried sausages and rice.

There was a superb sunset.

SATURDAY 2 SEPTEMBER     BROOME

In the morning, J tried to phone daughter R but got the answering machine and left a message.

We went to the markets and bought some vegetables. Then did the shopping that didn’t happen yesterday. I wanted to go to the book exchange to stock up a little, but John wanted to go straight back to the van so he could watch the football final on TV.

After that was over, we drove around Broome to see if any of the fuel depots were open. They weren’t, so we bought the more expensive fuel from a servo – $1.10cpl.

We did the usual preliminary pack up.

John tried phoning R again – still no answer. He left another message.

Tea was roast pork – very nice and lean.