Broome in sight

Sunday, September 30, 2018

Once Swiss, always Swiss. 

So far, we haven't met many people, let alone Swiss people, as most of the campgrounds were mainly filled with families or German safari professionals. But when we met a couple from Lucerne at the beautiful Bell Gorge, everything changed. 

We also met the couple from Lucerne the next day, and suddenly there were only Swiss people at the campground. Coincidentally, all the factions (whether Swiss or German) had already been to Namibia  🇳🇦 and everything was being compared to Namibia. It's funny how small the world is 🙂!

Not having a party every night doesn't bother us at all, but it's interesting to exchange experiences with other travelers from time to time and get tips or just share beautiful stories. Most of the time, we see so many incredible things that we have to process them first. I'm pretty good at doing that by writing blog posts and looking through the many photos, which allows me to relive everything again.

Giana's incredible experience in the world of animals once again gave us a sleepless night. She said we can leave the garbage outside at night because no one will eat it. Of course not.😑 

All of a sudden, we were awakened by loud rustling, and right in front of our ladder to the rooftop tent, a kangaroo was enjoying its midnight snack! It couldn't be bothered by anything (pushing it away didn't work, nor did water), and we could only drive it away with great difficulty!

The next morning, I had to embark on our hike at the Tunnel Creek alone, as for Giana, the terms cave, water, and crocodiles are not exactly her cup of tea. 🍳

You enter the dark cave through a small entrance and navigate through the darkness with a flashlight. After about 10 minutes, the real part starts, and I was glad to be able to join an Australian family from there, as it became really dark! We made our way through knee-deep water, passing colonies of bats.

All of a sudden, a crocodile (about 2m) appeared on the other bank of sand in our flashlight! Comfortingly, it then swam right into the area that we had to cross afterwards 😱.

I survived and made it out safely, but it was a bit eerie when the eyes of the crocodiles were shining in the flashlight 😬.

And still, for me, it was one of the most beautiful "hikes" I have done in Australia so far!!

Over the past few days, our trusty camper took us to Broome for a quick McDonald's stop. There is always guaranteed WiFi there, and after a pretty exhausting 5-hour drive, we can treat ourselves to something for our figure again! 

The problem is not the 5-hour drive itself, but the monotony. You drive for 2 hours and it can happen that no other car crosses your path! And then there are the roads.. Kilometers of straight ahead. It can't get more boring than that..

I'm currently writing this blog above Broome, at Cape Leveque. Since you better not know what you're missing, here are some photos of our campsite and the view 😉!

Once again, we found a place where we never want to leave!!

However, as always, there is a small catch..😱

Because swimming is not possible here.. Yes, there are crocodiles in the ocean as well. But it doesn't matter, we love it here because a day here is very exciting. From a small rock, you have a great view of the lagoon, and if you spend a few minutes here, you will once again understand why Australia was and remains my dream destination!

Yesterday we saw a small blacktip reef shark hunting fish, and this morning the madness continued..

While enjoying the most delicious breakfast in the world, made by the best chef in the world 😜😘, we could watch a sea turtle and a monitor lizard basking on the warm rock!

I discovered hundreds of crabs, blue, green, and red, a sea worm-something, and another something when I took a walk through the rocks. As I was walking, a group of dolphins was playing further out at sea!

As for me, I have mentally moved here a long time ago, but Giana has already written down her first menu for home: cheese rolls with Toggenburger cheese, fresh bread, and Mailänderli from Dad 😃!

We've been missing the cheese since the first day, but otherwise, we can't complain about the food. Since the meat doesn't last very long and doesn't taste great from the pan, I usually skip it and hopefully treat myself to a delicious piece in a restaurant again. 🥩 Steaks and fillets taste much better when you don't have them every day, and the last time in Darwin, the meat was simply divine 😎! The chef will surely provide detailed explanations about the food in another blog post 😉.

As Swiss people, who are pretty neutral and diplomatic, I would like to show you how we deal with difficult situations at the campground..

Lesson in nonverbal communication: So, we were sitting comfortably, cooking our dinner. In front of me, there was a big cauldron, which of course needed to be heated properly with a campfire! Then, a German couple found it particularly funny and squeezed themselves between us and the other neighbors, staying 3m away from us. 

Well, do what you want if you can't even say hello.

All of a sudden, things happened very quickly, and they came over, said hello, and asked how it would work now because the smoke from the fire is blowing in our direction? 🔥 OOOOOOOH SORRY! The fire only smokes at the beginning..

It doesn't - HAHA!😬

They were visibly delighted, so they had to tear down their whole table, move their car back by 5m, and then they could finally eat! I skillfully used my diplomatic skills to express my opinion seriously. It said: The campground is huge, you 🏹💢🚳🔞☠️💩👻 better find another spot 😡!!

I found it quite amusing that the young lady was so overly polite, and I secretly chuckled 😈🎉🎊!

Now we have arrived in Broome and unfortunately had to return our car 😭! We will rent a camper van with a high roof for the West Coast, as it costs only a fraction of the 4x4 Land Cruiser...

We also got an Australian SIM card here in Broome, so that we can upload the blog from anywhere. Because as it seems, the West Coast of Australia is not densely populated either, and we can usually only dream of fast internet. To upload the blog, it usually takes me about 1-1.5 hours, depending on the internet reception!

So be patient, the next entry will definitely come 😉! Someday..