To Broome and the Staircase to the Moon

We pulled into Broome around mid-day and managed to find the hospital without much difficulty. It’s practically brand new and despite a bizarre music video playing in the background, the receptionist of the A+E was exceptionally pleasant and immediately found the envelope with the keys to our house and driving directions. The house wasn’t too hard to find and was about three times the size of our flat in Alice (or about 20 times or more the size of our box we call home – the caravan.) It’s in a nice little sub-division and adjacent a park for the kids. It has A/C, a dishwasher and space for us to park Bessie and Gertie side by side under cover – ‘tis a thing of beauty! Once unloaded we headed into town to a weekend market by the courthouse, did a quick amble around the stalls and found some lunch to keep us going for the afternoon. It’s a quaint little place with a trendy shopping area and a large mall not far from an impressive looking aquatic centre. We needed to stock the shelves of our new digs so headed to the local Coles. The kids were overwhelmed with all the stores and were keen to check out the wares of the local Toy World – although our space to accommodate much more stuff in the caravan is extremely limited and as such our visits to toy stores are often fruitless and short-lived. Back at the new base the boys tucked into some school work and I attempted to get organized for our next couple of weeks here. Jen was eager to get out to the town beach for the Staircase to the Moon phenomenon that frequents a few days a month during the full and nearly full moon here in Broome. She’d been told at the Information Centre that the moon rise was going to be at 7:48 pm. Not wishing to miss a thing, she had us woof through dinner and jump in the car by about 6:45 pm. The town beach was just down the road and we definitely beat the masses. There were already people down on the beach all set up to watch when we arrived. Fortunately, there was a park for the kids to play in and Jen and I were able to garnish some entertainment from a rather abusive aboriginal couple who were up in arms over a dead battery in their car. It’s hard to believe people actually can treat each other with such little respect – it was almost verging on brutal at times. There was no physical abuse, just verbal – and nothing was kept to a dull roar – I’m sure the whole beach was aware of the goings on. As the darkness set deeper over the bay we scuttled down to the sand to await this majestic rising of the moon and subsequent display of steps on the tidal flats. At precisely 7:48 pm a slight glow emerged from the horizon, like a flame bursting forth and the moon gradually rose in all its glory. It was quite impressive. The camera snaps were flashing almost like popcorn – building up in frequency as the moon rose, peaking like some sort of paparazzi fest, then gradually dissipating as the moon ascended higher into the night sky. Feeling slightly more complete having checked off this experience in our minds, we headed out in search of an evening ice cream spot but were sadly disappointed in our search, as there was none to be found. With tears in our eyes and lumps in our throats, we toddled back to the base and tore into some fruit and a touch of chocolate to ease the pain of our failed exploit. The beds were comfy and environment cool so all was good and we settled off for another slumber, looking forward to a more substantial exploration of Broome in the AM.