Thursday, July 24, 2008

DAY 267: Day off Broome









Thurs 17th July 2008
Sunny, 31 deg C
Elevation of /destination 20 m
Distance to date 16165 km (10103 miles)

My bad run with CP’s continues; my 3 Irish neighbours and several other friends or whatever they are, were up until 0200 talking and giggling loudly. I sound like a grumpy old man, but is it too much to expect 7 hours quiet for sleep? Apparently it is. What sleep I managed was intermittent and light. I felt sorry for a young son of one of the Irish girls who kept crying out in the night, but as far as I could perceive there were no words of comfort and it seemed he was just ignored. The adults were occupied with smoking pot judging by the sharp coughing and giggling, so it seemed.
Oh well, just gotta get on and do my day, and I cycled the 4km into the town centre - Chinatown is the main shopping area - to upload and have a look around. I used the Telecentre ($6/hr) which was very fast, then had a look at the Pearl Luggers (pearling boats) exhibition and a few of the rather expensive shops. Broome is the world centre for wild pearl harvesting, and has been for over a century. Aboriginal men used to dive without equipment in the 19th century, before the bends were understood, and many lost their lives.
To be honest I did Broome more or less to death this morning - it is a lovely place with beautiful blue seas and white sandy beaches, and palm trees, but after that it’s a bit yuppified; restaurants, pearl shops, postcards at $1.50 each etc.....and I find that somewhat boring. And it is so crowded that I feel quite lonely; a place to share with someone I guess. With Lyn and a wad of cash I would love to linger here!
So I did something practical and finally went to the hospital to see if I could sort out recurring diaorrhea. This has bothered me for several months on and off, and I think I may have a parasite like Giardia. Again I presented at Emergency Dept. and saw a doctor within the hour (much faster than my NHS experiences), and he agreed with my suspicions, and prescribed a ‘big hit’ parasite treatment - a one off dose of 4 tablets. So we’ll see if that sorts the problem.
I rolled over to the beach again for sunset and had a Toohey’s Old stubby whilst taking pics of people taking pics of people taking pics of the setting sun. I experimented with very slow shutter speeds when it was getting quite dark, including a pic of the moon and Venus together, and the results were better than expected I think.
My Irish neighbours are still around but hopefully they’ll be worn out after last night, and will go quietly to bed. In any case I’m outa here tomorrow, and probably outa Broome too - I may cycle out the 20km to the Broome Bird Observatory which is on the way I have to go back, and then possibly suss out a good stealth camping site out there, or otherwise ride the 34km back to Roebuck Roadhouse, where I turn right for the wild open and dry desert country and 600km to the next town, Port Hedland.

No comments: