Exmouth, en route to Broome

I woke up around sunrise on the bus, a cramped and stuffy deal this time around.  We were at capacity and I was seated next to the window with an equally large fellow in the aisle seat locking me into position.  Soon after the sun rose we pulled into the Fort Rescue roadhouse, a desolate place set in gorgeous surroundings: rounded hills that shouldered the road house like the dusty remains of giants.

I'm not a particular fan of the roadhouse food, so all I bought was a bag of nuts which complemented my food cache of chocolate bar and wasabi covered peas.  Along with water, this was all I ate for the duration of the trip, which actually wasn't that bad, considering that all I did for the rest of the trip was watch movies.  Toy Story 2, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Snow Dogs.  I read the rest of 'Forrest Gump,' by Winston Groom(e)[?] and enjoyed it tremendously--actually better than the movie and considerably more vicious in its satire.

It was a long ride to Broome and we arrived there about 45 minutes late, which isn't so bad if you consider the 1200km travelled.  Eighteen hours in a bus, though, and you feel somewhat wonky...

Broome

Prior to Broome, I had made little in the way of plans for accomodation; all I knew was that Broome was a small place and that there were many backpacker hostels available.  However, once in Broome, it was dark out, I had no clue as to where I was in town relative to the backpackers, and it was a bit chaotic getting off the bus.  There were representatives from the backpackers who were there to pick up the smart people who had made advance reservations and there were those (like me) who milled about, looking lost, picking up their bags.

Things worked out: one of the other bus riders introduced herself to me and asked if I knew where any of the hostels were.  No, I said, I don't.  Ok, then, she said, I believe that these guys here know where the hostels are.  We then talked to one of the hostel representatives who told us that every hostel bar one was filled to capacity at the moment.  So we trudged over to the one that wasn't and found out that there were exactly three beds available--and wouldn't you know it, there were three of us who needed a place to sleep.

I got a bed in a mixed room of 8--guys and girls--and threw down my stuff then went and hunted down something to eat with Emma, the british backpacker who had saved my bacon.  It was a sunday and all the restaurants were closed or closing down, but we managed to find one that could do us some fries and beer, so we did that.  Frangipanis was the first restaurant I went to in Broome and it said something about Broome's potential: while not fancy pants dining, it was fancy enough and had a decent looking menu.  Things were looking up, although I would have liked something more than fries after my high energy, low vitamin bus diet.

I called it an early night and hit my grungy bed in my funny smelling dorm room at 10pm.

Monday, July 12th

After living with the Jenners for two weeks, I'd been conditioned to rising with the sun--so I continued the trend and woke with the sun.  I did my laundry for the first time in weeks and had a breakfast of boiled eggs and toast.  Before eating I had gone shopping, printed up some CVs, emailed, phoned home, and handed out 3 CVs in the central part of town.  There were many places hiring, but as things turned out, they were looking for people who were willing to stay for the duration of the season, up until late October.

I dropped by Woody's Book Exchange and received $4 for the the $7 Forrest Gump I had picked up in Exmouth.  Talk about devaluation of currency.

When I came out of the internet cafe, I ran into some friends I had made down in Perth.  Henning and Claire were up on a little end of semester break, having driven up in their VW kombie, 90km/hr at a time, up from Perth, 2300km away.  They were in good spirit and were happy to see me again.  We traded numbers and that was the beginning of the next few days.

The major feature of Broome is the beach lifestyle: www.broomecam.com and www.broomewebcam.com feature the two sides of the peninsula upon which Broome is situated.  The surfing here isn't very good but the weather is and Cable beach is pretty damn fine.  I hit the beach from 1130a to 550pm and watched the sun set.  Claire and Henning met me there and then drove me back into town.  There's a regular bus service that goes around Broome to Cable Beach, roughly 5km out of town.