Sundays are special. We always look forward to the weekends and I always recall the special breakfasts and dinners we would have on Sundays when I was growing up. The tradition has continued. It just seems right to whip up something a bit more involved for breaky and later in the day have a good and proper evening meal with family (and friends if any are around). We did the eggs benedict thing for our Sunday morning and then headed out to the markets for a proper coffee and browse. Jen was actually feeling like spending money on herself – a rare thing in this bird – and had found a rather larry sun-dress at one of the stalls. They also had some very groovy (and cheaply priced) grass-reed woven fedora hats that fit the kids' heads perfectly – so we were all getting in the groove! The kids have developed a profound love for the John Butler Trio since our Triple J One Night Stand in Alice Springs and wished to emulate the look of their new pop hero. We had school work to do though as we’d been a bit slack during the previous week and had to do some catch up, so headed back to base to get it done. As per usual, the sun was out, sky was blue and temp – rather hot (35 degrees +) so after plodding through a bit of work, it was time to head to the beach! We’ve come to Broome just in time for ‘the Dry’. They’ve just come out of ‘the Wet’ which arbitrarily ends around the end of April. The significance of this is that ‘the Dry’ brings cooler temps and more comfortable living. In terms of the beach, it means the water will also get cooler which reduces the proximity of stingers to the coastline and hence – any unsuspecting human flesh! As we made our way down to Cable Beach, a white board sign posted the temp, where to swim and the date of the last Irukandji Sting – April 26th, 2010. Irukandji are small box-jellyfish about the size of 2 matchsticks. A sting from one can lead to mild and short-lived or extreme and prolonged excruciating pain and potential pulmonary oedema or cardiac manifestations. Over 5 years, Broome has had 159 stings from these beasties and 4 of the unlucky swimmers have had to be airlifted to intensive care with full blown Irukandji Syndrome. Fortunately, there have been no deaths but in other areas of Australia, these have been recorded. Naturally, we weren’t aware of all this and as far as we were concerned and could appreciate, people were swimming (mainly with foreign accents though) and all looked fine and dandy. We spent the better part of the afternoon boogie boarding and hanging out in the surf! The sun was gradually descending in the sky and so we opted to do some exploring of some of the rock formations on the beach with associated tidal pools and catch the sunset. Aidan actually stumbled upon a pair of Oakley Sunglasses buried in the sand that some poor tourist had lost in some potentially drunken lascivious evening on the beach – his/her loss – our gain! One of the iconic images of Broome is the camel trek at sunset along Cable Beach and we could see the camels herded up and ready for their clomp along the beach with eager tourists shelling out hard earned savings to take part. As the sun truly began to set, spreading its magical light across the incredibly textured and multi-coloured sandstone upon which we were sitting, some tourists (probably American – sorry Josh) decided to go down to the water’s edge directly in front of where the sun was setting and took turns taking photos of themselves for what seemed like a millennia. No matter what incantations or hexes we were able to dispel in their direction – they just wouldn’t move…until the very last minute and we were able to get some pretty good shots without their silhouettes invading. We finished the evening at one of the resort restaurants overlooking the beach and were herded to the back corner without any view whatsoever – such is the way when you arrive kitted up in your swimming togs and 3 young kids in tow. The young waitress felt the need to impel upon our children her dietetic wisdom that it was important to eat all the food on their plate – just like all the superheroes do!? It was a bit awkward as we never push our kids to finish their plates – just to eat until they feel full, wishing not to perpetuate the myth that we need to overindulge and overeat just because there is food in front of us – a seemingly encultured trait of our industrialized sensibilities. She was young and naïve though – so we gave it a miss and reassured the kids they’d eaten enough. With darkness pervading we headed home to our cool house and languidly ventured into sleep, looking forward to another day.
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