Since arriving in the dark and the center of a storm Broome has grown on us over he last two months, well not Broome more so it’s weather. Most days since that night we set up in the rain and wind have been near perfection, no cloud, no wind and over 30c.

The people that we had ran into all the time as we moved north have kept moving and after old mate Gordon left Broome we haven’t seen any of the many people we had got to know south of Broome. The Roebuck Bay Caravan Park is on the shores of Roebuck Bay and our penthouse is situated only a left foot kick from the water, well for me anyway for most of the people I played footy with its two kicks away.

The park is split into three parts due to its beach location, we are in the old but better split by a cliff and the newer part who reside a few meters above a rocky beach, the backpackers getting a rough deal who live in the MCG, the mango camp ground out the back under the harsh sun and a couple of mango trees.

When we arrived not even a third of the 200 or so sites were taken now it’s a full house most nights with the sign out the front going up most days prior to lunch. Ninty percent of our fellow residents are gray nomads who make the 2000-kilometer trip from southern WA each year. One group in front of us have been coming for 15 years and all gather at 4:30 each afternoon for a drink and chat until 6:00pm when they all disappear until 5:00am the next morning when most appear with a little conveyance of some type that the contents would be best dumped on a lemon tree.

Ian and Mrs. Ian in there 80’s were the first of the veterans to arrive around a week after us and we found it funny that Ian mowed the site prior to setting up and once set up started watering the grass each morning. From Mandurah south of Perth Ian (and Mrs. Ian) are a nice couple and love footy, it’s a dam shame they follow the Dockers and then Eagles if the Dockers are not playing, a rare thing in the west the norm is you love one and hate the other.

Over the next few weeks one by one the group arrived and now they are up to 20 strong on some nights as they sit around talking Eagles and Dockers until the clock strikes 6pm when they all turn into pumpkins… some nights they have a feast not unlike what we see at Christmas with a long table and each stands to give a talk about something. We have been brave on a couple of occasions and entered the nomad space to see what the fuss is about but been warned off (with a smile) “you just aren’t old enough” something to look forward to… or not?

We have Bob and Linda from Numurkha in Victoria behind us, Bob’s an ex copper with some stories from underbelly, he’s the same Bob who put a hook through his finger in the fishing with Bob video we posted way back.

The West’s from Wonthaggie arrived on a Saturday morning to stay for a night before heading to Cape Leveque but stayed for a week when the road north was closed after rain. Bevan, Jo, Fraser and Harry were half way into a three month trip up around the country, you can see the Wests in the fishing with Bob video Bevan is the guy who pulling the hook out of Bobs hand. Bevan came along to footy training with me one night and after chatting to one guy for some time realised they knew each other from Victoria, the local had played cricket with Bevan’s father for years. They even knew a guy I went to school with having worked with him on the Wonthaggie decal plant. The West’s were Carlton supporters and named the boys after Carlton players, not sure they admitted to this but it seemed obvious to me.

Eddy and Leah in there 20’s pulled up a day or so after us and became our neighbor’s for 7 weeks, being Queenslanders like us we had much in common, every night we would have a beer when Ed and Leah had some fruit or pasta, in the morning (around 5:00am) when Ed and Leah were over in the park working out we were living it up in the penthouse snoring.

Ed found work as an auto electrician and Leah as a teacher but we became good friends spending plenty of time having a chat or feed together and on a special occasion we even had a beer together.

We see many people arrive on motorbikes loaded up with tents and supplies not unlike Mike on his bike just out here traveling the roads of Australia some cover the distance in a few weeks, some a few years…

Vinnie a Kiwi guy was doing the trip with his father Murray on bikes, I spent the night chatting to them over a few beers and admired the bond and fun they were having as they rode a few hundred kilometers a day with a swag and not much else to keep them going. Murray lives in Esperance shared stories of his early life in NZ and his time now in southern WA, he’s even played a few games of aussie rules a game in his words “gee its tough”.

Another guy out here on his bike is a fellow Bomber and shares a name with his father and journalist Tom Prior, most of you Bombers will recall Tom senior as the chief footy writer with the Sun and the man who wrote Kevin Sheedy’s first book Pockets of Greatness. The Priors hale from Geraldton in the west, the same town as Paddy Rider and a heap of boat people. Tom junior is a cook in the town beach café where Shell is a Chef and I dishpig on occasions.

Our campsite is the highest of many levels as it rises from the beach, next to us on the left we had three 4×4’s pull up and set up 5 swags (on legs) and camped out in the open air, they had driven up the Tanami track to Broome from Shepparton (County Bovalino) in Victoria. We ran into these guys at the Satay Hut (a bar only 60 meters from our park) whilst watching the Bombers Suns game, Gus Underwood a bloke in his 60s or 70’s sat down next us and introduced himself and the treasurer (Mrs. Underwood).

Gus is the local sports writer around Shepp and knows Bova and many of other names we know who hail from the area.  We had a few beers with Gus and the Treasurer who were great friendly country people who would have talked all night.

We have had many tents and small camper vans pull in to the site below ours and a few weeks back we had Max proudly ease the Blue Heeler in pointing to the sign on the front of his mid eighties Toyota van with his head out the window saying “do ya like me blue heeler”. Max pulled up grabbed a seat out of the van and jumped up on our site to sit in the shade and read his paper. The 85 year old told us he was an ex farmer from Wangaratta in Victoria and has been traveling the country for years “I stayed here 5 years ago you know”. We were heading into town and Max asked us to grab him todays paper “my paper is yesterdays” he told us.

We returned an hour or so later to find Max’s head still firmly planted in yesterday’s paper. He continued to chat away before we told where we are from, “do you know Reece Plumbing” Max asked “my grandson works at Reece Plumbing in Noosa” I said, I know your grandson and I dropped in to see him at Port Hedland because he left Noosa last year. Max’s face light up when he realised I knew his Grandson “you know Jezza” I sure do mate “wow you know Jezza A” It made his day to hear my stories of his grandson’s time in Noosa.

Max stayed for around nine days and each of them he was waiting for me to come down from the penthouse in the morning for a chat about his travels or the Sydney Swans before being ready for another quick chat prior to retiring for each afternoon. One thing Max talked about with passion with his favorite sandwich, bacon, egg, onion and cheese with BBQ sauce toasted sandwich so one morning I set him up on a table by the water at the Town Beach Café and served up his favorite sandwich with a cup of tea, he was one happy 85 year old.

I ran into nine guys from Melbourne ranging in age from late 20’s to mid 50’s they were packing up after camping over near the café about to set off on another long day in the saddle, these boys left Melbourne two weeks ago and will be home in two weeks after they spend some time in Perth and ride the Nullabour east to Victoria. They are traveling with a set up a little more elaborate than most out here, the convoy consists of eight motorbikes a van and large trailer with a cage on the back with tents, chairs and few eskys to keep the lads refreshed in the evening.

Whilst eight of the boys are riding with the wind in the hair at a time one of them is bringing up the rear in the van towing the luxury items. The two weeks so far have taken them west to Adelaide where they turned right to ride the Sturt highway north through Alice to Darwin before heading south west to Broome where we had a chat this morning.

Right now the Victorians are arriving and our current neighbors are from, Leongatha, Berwick and Nicholson and in two days our friends are arriving from Darwin driving hire vans back to Perth.

One guy “DJ Madman” decked out in a Hendrix t-shirt carrying cheap a $20 CD player from Target has just sat next to me on the beach as the tide recedes half a kilometer with his VB stubby and ACDC bursting the cheap speakers, this nutter is rocking hard to Bon and Angus singing Kicked in the Teeth, his head is rocking that hard whilst playing his air-guitar that I wont be surprised if it falls off soon.

Yep, you meet many types, most great some just plain mad…

Shell & Bruce (or Stan)

Cuba

Broome Pearlers

The Wests

Fashion Show

Two Up @ Broome Races

DishPig

$320 to get out!!!

Two Up @ Broome Races

Bogged

Happy

Dawn Princes

Shark

Satay Hut

Dusk

Dawn Princes

Birthday Bowles

Ed & Lea

Fishing

Mad DJMan

Shell & Bob

Working

Birthday

Good spot to write this blog

Hair

Fashion Show

Bowler

Gus Underwood

mOOn

Camping

Broome Races

Camping in Wild

mmm

Camping Food

Home

Winner

Broome Races

Winner

My mate Max