Day 45 Tuesday 22 August
JD-
Went to bed last night with thoughts of a jog in the morning, however I slept right through the night which I have done only once before on this trip, so, the thought of a jog was less than appealing. From 5.45am onward I choose to lay in bed a read my book until the rest of the crew arose. Quick round of muffins for breakfast and everyone set off for there respective mission for the day, bit like a clean break in a game of eight ball. Nicole being the white ball who was left to clean up! Which she was content to do..... I think. I unloaded my bike to check out Broome. I headed for the headland and the industrial port. After checking all it had to offer I thought I would head into the town centre for a look. I was sure I was on the correct trajectory for the town centre but my inner compass might have been a bit off because after cycling for a 25 minutes or so without any sign of the town centre I decided to take stock of the situation with a coffee at a roadside coffee van. Lacking any signage I continued on finally finding a IGA supermarket. I must be close! Not long after that after riding through more residential area the rear tyre of my bike went flat. In the excitement of our first day in Broome I had left with a drink bottle full of water and my wallet but not my phone so no goggle maps to assist in the walk back to the caravan park. After pushing my bike for 30 minutes or so I came across an older gentleman who yelled across the street "taking your bike for a walk mate" I stood and chewed the fat with the fellow for a while. He had long grey hair and the makings of a grey handle bar style moustache except the handle bars were swept back like he had held his head out the window of a car doing 150 kms an hour. Eventually I swallowed my pride and explained that I had arrived in the dark last night and wanted to confirm with him that I was on the correct path to Cable beach. He confirmed that I was and with numerous wavings of his arms and finger pointing he gave me directions. My problem was that his moustache was far to distracting and stupidly (possibly typically ) I didn't listen to a word he said. I trudged on, happily. The shining light happened about 5 minutes on, I came across a sign "Cable Beach 6km" hallelujah! Not far now. I pushed on with some determination now as " nature was calling". I eventuality found some familiar surroundings and finally reaching our van via the toilet block. Expecting a hero's welcome, I was a little deflated to find that no one had noticed my absence. Nicole was busy spring cleaning the van from top to bottom and the children were back and forth between the pool, playground and the pantry in the van. Unperturbed I set about repairing the flat tyre. I'm not sure what the plant is that drops the little thorns that punctures our tyres up here but I have never had so many flat tyres! My puncture repair kit just wasn't going to cut it, so I made a call to Broome Cycles to secure the purchase of some thorn proof tubes. With goggle maps firmly in hand I rode off on one of the kids bikes to pick up the purchase. 14kms later and incident free I fitted the tubes.
One non negotiable task for the day was for our children, who have the term off school, to make some progress with their journals of our trip. This task which our school had encouraged had been slightly neglected. Neglected to the point that Olivia had only documented up to Port Augusta, day 4 of our trip, we are now up to day 46. They all have a considerable amount of work to do. This afternoon, with much protest and with Nicole's firm guidance they made good progress on their journals. We had a quick swim before the pool closed and a dinner of leftovers and whatever else we could find in the cupboard. Another perfect day in paradise.