Learning New Skills and Seeing Old Friends at the Broome Bird Observatory

We arrived at the Broome Bird Observatory just in time to grab a really big hug from our friends who we haven't seen since Blackwood River National Park (down in the South West of WA) in April and then run on down to the beach for some "Cannon Netting" fun. 

Now for others (like me) who have never done this before, it may seem really cruel.  People lurk in the shadows for about 2 hours waiting for the shorebirds numbers to increase then suddenly, with a cannon, release a net over the birds.  The birds are then covered with a huge shade cloth, then carefully, carried one by one to a portable cage to be classified, counted and tagged.  All in the interests of understanding birds and their patterns.

waiting for the message to move

front line has the message to move

birds under the net and shadecloth, being handed to "runners" (people like me) to take to cages

bird being taken to cage

The kids were terribly excited, especially because they were picked to be on the "front line" which meant that they had to run down first.

After about 1&1/2 hours of this Matt & I realised that we needed to go as it was beginning to rain, and we had not had lunch (it was now 3pm) and we hadn't set up.  As it turned out, they did not finish until 5.30 that  night.  379 birds were netted and tagged that day.  Apparently that is a mammoth effort (especially when there were only about 20 people there).  Roebuck Bay,  a place of world significant in shorebirds.  I learnt something.

Great to catch up with Fiona and Darren, Amber and Jaxen.  The kids had a blast, and we ate, drank, talked and smiled. 

Tuesday saw us going back into Broome (did I say that we were leaving Broome) to get Frank's stitches out.  The nurse said we would have to come back in again the next day...would we ever leave Broome?

The boys really got into the bird watching and the "Bird Log" which happens at 6pm every evening there and you name the number of each species of birds that you have seen that day.  I was glad that the boys were not making up species that didn't belong there.

Darren is a great coach for them with birds, his knowledge is incredible and they really listen to him.

Tuesday we got a call about a job in Derby for Matt helping as a roady for a gig for the Rodeo for this weekend (6-8 August).  Great opportunity.  We decided to go for it.  Not long after, we got another call from Trac (see previous entry) about a job back in Broome working for AEC for the election.  Given the state of the funds, and the price of fuel, and food, we decided to spend another 2 weeks there.

So what if we have been in Broome for .... 2 MONTHS????  ok, a little moment in Derby, One Arm, etc, but really, this is a long time.  Never mind.  We are going with the flow of it.  It is warm and lovely.  At least we can swim here (not Frank yet) and we can always change our plans (I am not sure we really had any anyway!).

Another peaceful day in the observatory with our lovely friends, then goodbye to them, then off to Derby.

a few classic broome moments

Sunrise at the overflow

To finish our time in Broome while we were hanging around there, we went down to Cable Beach and lay under one of those numbered umbrellas, then John scooped up a pearl from in the sand!  It is yet to be discovered whether it is of any value of not, if not it is our treasure.

We also met up with Jen, my sister-in-law's friend, Trac and had a Barbie at Town Beach and chatted with a local who joined us and took home some of our leftover tucker for his mob.

The boys continued to do some beading, I cut the hair for the neighbours (and got some pocket money! yippee!), and we went down to Gantheum Point for a sunset dinner with all the other locals (or were they also tourists....).

(Frank's leg before leaving Broome)

Felt a little sad to leave, however, time to go and see other things, excited about seeing our very good friends, the Wallaces who we were meeting at the Broome Bird Observatory (OK, we were not going very far).

really on Broome time now

We are now hanging out in Broome for a length of time that feels a little like a piece of string.   As people say, there are worse places to be.  It is warm, hot even.  The sun shines.  The rain does not come (at the moment anyway) and the wind seems to have calmed down. 

Broome seems to be a place for weary travellers to arrive and find that things have gone a little awry.  There is the family who have discovered that their brakes on their trailer don't work, then there is the couple who had the back of their car rammed into up at Cape Leveque, all of the caravans needing their wheel bearings done, a man with a broken foot, a Nissan with a blown up engine, holes in mufflers, and gashes in legs.  It is a long way from everywhere and we are all weary.  None of us intend to stay for this long.  Most of us spend no more than 2 days in a town whilst we restock our food boxes and fuel and get out of there, however, Broome holds onto us for longer. 

The caravan parks are all full to the brim, bursting at the seams.  They are like little cities with people who have made their way up to stay for 3 months or more.  There are 500 sites or more in each.  There is the overflow caravan park for the weary worn out sick and bedraggled traveller who needs the work or rest.  It is the footy oval with shade only on the side, but it becomes home.  Maximum stay is 7 days for travellers, however, for those who fall under the exception rules, Medical or Broken Down, this is stretched to a piece of string.

So here we sit like a piece of string on the side of the oval at the overflow due to our Medical Exemption, in a lovely shady spot which I have hung cotton sheets all around to get as much shade as possible.  Frank is making his slow recovery. 

He had a visit from the medico, Brett, who worked on him up at One Arm as we had been to the Op Shop and the lady there, Di, knew him, said he would be in town, called him, he said he wanted to know how Frank was...and dropped by with his family to check on him.  Unfortunately for Frank he a really bad day the next day with a terrible bout of vomiting (dehydration is considered quite serious up here in the heat).  Another trip to hospital and a miracle tablet to fix that so he could actually keep fluid down.  Next day he woke up like a normal, happy Frank again.  Hallelujah.  Stitches looking good, no infection - the rest will take a while to heal.

day 3                                                               day 8

By the way...while at the op shop, I found myself a sewing machine....I know I said that I wouldn't bring it, however, I am finding it too frustrating.  Will only be able to use it when in power, still haven't had a chance to check it all out (what with sickness, hospitals, blah blah blah...) but Di at the op shop said it did work.  That is tomorrows job.  The boys have cleaned it out for me already.  The only thing wrong is that it doesn't spool up bobbins, so Di said I could do a bunch there.  Nice.

Our time is not wasted here.  We have been making the most of it. 

Chris Schrapel who we met up at Gambanan is in the helicopter industry and gave the boys a tour of a helicopter (see the smiles!).

We sold Jude Brieffies bike for her to a very happy German backpacker.

We have discovered the port where the locals are entertained on a Sunday afternoon watching gooses trying to their boats back in (or not) for hours on end...

after we watched the hovercraft long after we heard it coming in.

John and Pete have been having a great time playing with the Schrapel kids who have been staying here (stuck because their brakes don't work on their trailer...need to be sent from Melbourne).  Learning to ride a rip stick, playing Monopoly Deal, scooter soccer and watching movies during the heat.

The lady next to us, Robyn, has been teaching us how to make beady spiders which is lots of fun, and I have realised how much I have missed crafting around.  Time to get something to play with.

Matt was really lucky to get some work through my sister in law, Jen, at Troppo Sound, playing at being a roady watching the sun go down on Guantheum Beach.  Tough, hey! 

While he did that, we went down to watch Staircase to the Moon, a natural phenomenon where the moon rises over the low tide mud flats and the reflections look like it leads to the moon (telling you in case my pics don't really show it!!).  

Finished the night off with watching fire circus dudes. Silver lining.

We will leave Broome one day.  The Gibb River awaits, but those gorges have been there for millions of years.  Just getting Frank strong and healthy first and making sure our house gets rented out again first.  Sitting on Broome time now.

Second time up the Dampier Peninsula - a time to remember

We roared (in our snail paced way, with our new sports muffler) up the Cape Leveque road for the second time in about half the time it took the last time as it was a lot drier now to stop at an Aboriginal camp called Gambanan.  It is just short of One Arm Point which is on the tip of the peninsula. 

We arrived to find that our friends, the Brieffies, had caught fish aplenty that day, so it was fish for dinner!  Yummo!  We had a room with a view of the Indian Ocean and it was great to be camping with the the Brieffies again.

Lyndon took the boys and another boy, Ryan, from another family, the Sharples, out fishing in the morning in the boat, but they came back empty handed. 
At the first low tide, the kids all ran down to look at the natural fish trap to see what had been caught and Frank slipped and gashed his leg open to the bone with a 20cm cut from just next to his knee.  We were very lucky to be with two other families.  Ryan (a 12 yr old) yelled for help.  The other 2 dads, Lyndon and Chris, ran down the cliff to the kids where Frank had ripped his t-shirt off to wrap it tightly around his leg to stop the bleeding and they carried him up to where they had told me to wait with the first aid kit.  I had been warned that Matt & I would need to take him to the medical centre and quickly, but I was not prepared for what I saw. Frank was a really brave boy.  We had a short drive to One Arm Point where there was a small medical surgery and Brett and Dean, the Medico's in charge did rock, paper scissors to decide who was going to treat him. Matt had a "quick" drive down to Lombadina (40min) to pick up the stitches while I let Frank squeeze my hand until Brett was able to start the process of 20 local anisthetic needles in preparation.

Thirteen stitches later and a lot of breathing to get through it, we could no longer see his bone, muscles, fat and everything else.  We were very thankful to Brett (who worked on Frank) and Dean who popped his head in and out and provided lots of support.  We were also very thankful to Jude and Lyndon who took care of John and Pete, and Lyndon and Chris and Ryan for their great first aid.  There are times that we are very thankful that we are talkative people who make friends along the way.  This was certainly a day that we needed a friend.

Frank is continuing to heal, but it will be a very long road as the nerves and muscle have be cut.  His leg has lost feeling in one half it and this may take a year or longer to come back.  I don't even know what the damage is to the muscle.  Once the wound heals, we will begin to try to exercise it slowly.

Catch of the day

Frank's fish filleted

Frank's fish

This did not stop Frank having a great fishing moment thanks to the lovely generous Lyndon who took him out in his boat enabling him to catch a beautiful Golden Trevally.  Lyndon that day also caught a 1.3m spanish mackeral - certainly making him the provider for the 3 families!

Jude made twisty damper sticks for everyone that we filled with honey and butter!  Yum!!

We also visited Lombadina which is a beautiful Aboriginal Community and had a great picnic there meeting some other Melbourne couples who had travelled up and across.

Peter and John also caught Trevally and Queen fish to feed us the day before.  It was great eating so much fish and great for the boys to catch fish to eat for the first time.

Beautiful sunsets again and then the wind whipped up so we decided to make our way back to Broome to keep Frank's leg clean and get out of the wind.  Sad to leave the Dampier Peninsula, but now we will certainly never forget it as we start the road to recovery for Frank.

Cape Leveque Road again, this time hard and corrugated and lots of dust