Australia: Two Moons whale watching Survey ?

So, excited we are, and we travel some crap bumpy dirt road around 100km of this, this is OUR road with 9 overtakes( there and back), and the bumpy part goes for over 100km, a big sign upon starting this track says towing or caravans aren't permitted, guess what we saw! Yep lots of them and it serves 'em right they will be full over bull dust and all shook up whenever they arrive, which would take a while if your travelling at 30km an hour!

Delta cant handle the bumps so she sits on dad's lap and rides it out.

When we arrive, as well as a car full of French backpackers at the same time, Andrew our host tells us to set up, and find a spot, and he is taking the crew out fishing on the boat. Including the newbies, but not us (?). Were cool here and by the time we have set up and chilled out for a bit, decide to walk to the beach, where our girls meet Lola the resident dog. Was kind of friendly (well no fights) and We both had a chance to cool off with a dip in the sea, we had a chance to meet a few of the girls and get to know them briefly. One wasn't happy here and couldn't wait to leave, we thought that a little strange as it was such a beautiful place.

It was a tad disappointing as it wasn't like a Aboriginal Community in the sense that im used to, this was a outstation/homeland about 10km off from the actual Community, but that was OK as we had lots to explore. We had an amazing sunset from our camp that night

We had settled in quite well, but were disappointed that our girlies didn't get along well with Lola. We spent our mornings gardening for Andrew from 6-9 am then had the rest of the day free. Everyone had Sunday off, and we had a great morning and even managed a sleep in. We went snorkeling with the crew later on in the arvo, Nick saw three massive sting ray.

Amazing bay, all to ourselves

We walked down to where the whale survey was taking place about a Km one way, and when we got there we joined in a little bit with what was happening. It was conducted in 5 minute intervals, with the volunteers calling out the whale movements to the Main research conductor who recorded the results. This went on for 5 hours at a time, ether morning or afternoon, 5 min on and 5 min off. Kind of glad we hadn't signed up for this, and got to do our gardening as it was really hot, and you sat in a clapped out old caravan.

Spent our afternoons playing with the girlies on the beach, was our own private bay, and was a lovely spot to chillax. The tide movements here were massive and at low tide to high tide there would have been nearly a 10 metre difference.

Andrew took people out very selectively, and favored the boys alot. Nick went along on a fishing trp and they encountered a whale! Lucky i asked him to take the camera. It was a juvinille Humpback and after they had pulled anchor it swam around the boat. Nick said it was so close he could have touched it.

We ended up leaving and were happy to do so, as we didnt really feel part of the main group, as we had been put seperate from everyone to camp, and were eating our own meals and not with the group. We were left alone a few times and were surprised to find the camp "abanndoned" and no cars or people around. This hapened to us again the next day also.

We headed back to Broome and stopped at a lovely little aboriginal community called Beagle bay, its "famous" for its church, which has pearl shell decorations everywhere, and Iif I remember right was built in 1916 ish.

We set off towards Derby. Derby is a cool little lace, with Boabs growing everywhere. The whole town was lush and green which is a surprise when your driving through this country with its red dirt. We checked out the warf/Jetty at low tide ( and stayed well clear of the water).

Then came back at High tide, the water comes in so quick. Derby has the highest tide movements in Australia at up to 11 meters. It was a 10 meter tide when we were there, and you could tell.

We went to the Museum, which we tought was quaint and cute, as you had to get the key from the info centre and let yourself in. It was a real mash up with bits and pieces from all through te past in there. We had fun on the old switchboards.

There was also a really long trough there, to water livestock before they boarded at the warf. I think i read it had been designed to water 5oo something head od cattle in one sitting. (needless to say it was massive)