Today was a quiet day prior to starting our proper trip tomorrow: we start tomorrow with an early (8am) coach ride over to Derby.

We did some kayaking this afternoon though.

Very stable sea-going kayaks, basically a trip around Gantheaume Point, seeing some extraordinary rock formations.

We had seen these rocks on our first day from the land; seeing them from the sea was even more impressive.

The tour was promoted as a way of seeing sharks, rays and turtles, but this part was a little disappointing, although we did se  one turtle (to be accurate, though, we only saw its head as it popped up to breathe).  We did see an osprey seeding though, and were treated to a magnificent sunset.

Today started off with a visit to Broome Museum: an interesting collection showing amongst other things the appalling dangers faced by early divers, with the all-over diving suits with huge brass helmets.  Also the terrible history of the diving masters “black-birding” aboriginal divers – forcing them into slave labour diving for pearls, actually mostly for the pearl-shells, from which to make buttons, etc (Mother-of-pearl).

Then we set off on a boat tour to see the dinosaur footprints.  The trip started in an area with more fascinating rock formations.

And lovely coloured sand-cliffs.  There are also patches of mangrove trees.

Actually the dinosaur footprints were a little underwhelming, in my view.

Most of them appeared to me to be patches of discoid compressed rock (which is, of corse exactly what they are.

The mud was compressed by these huge creatures (the footprints come from a brontesaurus-type reptile, about 30m long and 12m high), and so resisted erosion enough eventually to be made into ovoid rock patches.

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This picture shows a footprint with much of the surrounding rock eroded away.

To me it was a tribute the the people who worked this all out.

We were shown other footprints which were less elephant-like, and more like the prints left by a huge bird.

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This is the print of large carnivorous dinosaur, apparently.

Actually the boat tour was really good, as we learned all about the Roebuck Bay ecosystem and much about the way that this important area has been changed into a marine reserve and National Park.  There are lots of wading birds, kites, ospreys, ducks, geese and others.

Today was another day in Broome.  We had an introductory tour, but the main impression from today was going for a camel ride at Cable Beach.  For some reason this pristine beach is a focus for 4WD “enthusiasts”, who drive in large numbers around some rock to then spend hours in deckchairs on the sand next to their vehicles. 

An otherwise lovely beach looks like this:

Despite that, the camel ride was excellent.

… and the sunset beautiful

At the end of a very long flight from Sydney we are in Broome (Q: what sort of country can have an INTERNAL flight which lasts over five hours?).

We have a few days here before our boat trip starts.

Today we just pottered around Broome.

This is an area called Gantheaume Point.  Just a short drive from Broome itself.  Fascinating rock formations, seen just at dusk.  Many people were setting up to watch the sunset over the water.