Up a bit late and had breakfast at the Roadhouse then loaded up and headed down the road to Broom. We swept into Broome at about 10am and the GPS once again got confused and we drove around in circles for a bit. I was running on vapour, with the bike being as empty as I have ever had it. It took 23.5 litres to fill which I guess means there was about 1.5 litres left, good to know for future reference on the Nulabor plain which is the middle of the middle of nowhere. Broome is a nice little tourist town. We tried to find and Internet café and eventually ended up at McDonalds as they were meant to have Internet. We needed to organise servicing for the bikes in Perth hence the need for Internet. Unfortunately the McDonald Internet was not working. I ended up turning on the data on my phone to get the info and phoned ahead to BMW on Perth but unfortunately they are fully booked up for servicing on Friday when we will be there. I got their recommendation for Albany Mechanics and that will have to do.
Broome is famous for its pearls and while looking for and Internet Café I called in to the information centre and noticed they had some nice Pearls for sale at a neighbouring jeweller, and was surprised at how cheap they were. I saw a group of very nice single pearl on a gold rope necklaces displayed on sand in a display cabinet, The price tags said $20 - $25 which I thought was very good as it was a very nice pearl. I thought Di would like those and asked to have a look at it. The shopkeeper opened the cabinet and lifted out the necklaces and up popped the other tags that had been buried in the sand. Very cunning. It was $25 for the Gold rope necklace of the one I liked the look of, but $1250 for the single pearl. “It is a south Australian pearl, and the rest of the Pearls we have are from fresh water farms in China” said the Shop Girl. “Mmmm very nice” I said, “I’ll have a wee think about it”.
I thought about it as I was walking out, and the thought was “No. Nice but not that nice” Maybe I’ll have to go for a swim and crack open a few oysters, Di likes hand made things anyway, not that factory made stuff.
We rode around the corner to the Beach at Cable bay and had a look. A very nice beach and it was pretty busy with people sunbathing, swimming and surfing. Very appealing and the thought of going for a swim crossed my mind but Dad was keen to keep gong so off we went. It took a while to get going as Dad lost his key. We turned the place upside down trying to find the key, eventually I went into the restaurant that we had been in front of and asked if a key had been handed in, and sure enough there it was. Must have fallen out of his pocket while we were looking at the beach.
Headed west and it was another 3 hours in the furnace. Beautiful clear skies with a hot sun. High humidity making it feel very hot. The tube of water coming from my camelback was turning to hot water in the time between drinks despite the fact that we were riding at about 120km/hr with a significant wind. Stopped after about 2 hours for a cuppa at a Rest area, in the middle of nowhere. Once again there were a couple of caravans there set up for an overnight stay. These places really are in the middle of nowhere, and it works out that the middle of nowhere is a really big place in Australia. There is plenty of life in this savannah land just not human life.
The GPS lady is having a really easy time, as driving out of Broome she said “Continue for five hundred, ninety, six kilo metres, Continue for five hundred, Ninety, six kilo metres” (I had Port Headland programmed in for the destination). I have the American lady telling me where to go as I got bored the other day and thought I would give Australian Karen a break as her voice must be sore, so I changed to a different voice. The GPS has several options for the accent and language that you have announcing instructions. I am always keen on variety so I went with the Cheeky option, she was great, very mysterious and sophisticated as she described in Chesky where I needed to go. I was enjoying her accent but as I do not speak Chesky, there was a problem, I did not understand a word she was saying other than “kilometres”. I changed to Australian Lisa, but she did not want to talk at all, “very moody!” I thought so changed to British and got a very severe woman who kept telling me that she was “recalculating”. After a while I felt like I was sitting in a British bank with a stern woman looking over her glasses at me telling me that of course you can not open a bank account with cash, or in a railway station getting a recorded message about departing trains, so I switched to the American accent. She has a very saucy accent that made me feel like she was undressing me with her eyes, made me a bit uncomfortable to be honest. She also talked very slowly and says everything twice. That’s enough I thought I want good old Australian Karen back for some Fare Dickum instructions on where to go, her voice should have recovered by now. But there was a problem; American woman wouldn’t let me change without restarting the GPS. Cripes once they get their hooks in they just won’t let go without some sort of remuneration, a tip or something, so I am stuck with American woman mispronouncing all of the Aussie names. I will restart the GPS to get Karen back soon, although I am concerned I will get a letter from a lawyer about it for not holding up my end of the bargain with the American woman. I hope Karen forgives me for trying out the others. She is definitely the best.
The roads were long, straight, flat and very dull. The land was pancake flat and featureless. It wouldn’t matter which side of the map you were looking at, the printed side or the plain back, as they would both be completely empty of any features, “a baron desolate wasteland Blackadder!” was all I could think.
The traffic is pretty thin now, maybe a vehicle every 15 – 30 minutes. Seems to be about one third caravans (Grey nomads), one third Road Trains (many carrying fuel (probably for the Grey Nomads), one third dusty four wheel drive utes with about 100l of spare fuel tied on the deck, and one third us.
Stopped at Sandfire roadhouse (ominous name) as it was getting dark and the Roos and Cattle were looking at the road longingly. I have noticed when we stop and I add up the mileage for the day that my ability to do simple sums is a bit slow. Perhaps my brain has boiled? 511km despite a late start and about three hours poking around in Broome. Not too bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment