A small town on the North West coast of Australia originally founded in 1880 as a pearling port that now has the dubious distinction of being the start point for our road trip. Having arrived and collected our home for the next month we headed for a campground close to Cable Beach (named for the fact it is the place where a cable connection to the island of Java emerges from the sea) for the next two nights to (hopefully) give us time to work out firstly what day it is, then hopefully with that accomplished, what time it is.
After sleeping well for our first night and emerging into the 34° heat of the morning we decided the first priority was breakfast and coffee. Fortunately there was a Beam electric scooter pick-up point just outside of our campground so after downloading the app, bickering a little over how it works and donning our helmets we headed into town to announce our arrival.
Having ditched our scooters and eaten breakfast/brunch we walked around town in an effort to get a ‘feel’ for the town which, to be honest was a little disappointing. Whilst there is undoubtedly some interesting history attached to the town including its civilian evacuation during the 2nd World War following a surprise air raid by Japanese stukka’s on the flying boats that used this town for refueling and repairs I felt that it was struggling to discover a true identity resulting in it primarily feeling like a rather typical seaside tourist town. This said as a seaside town it did have an ace up its sleeve which is Cable Beach, relatively for North West Australia it is safe to swim in the sea (odds of dying as a result of shark, crocodile or jellyfish reduced to about 25%) and a beach orientated to be able to capture a fantastic sunset.
Following that sunset we hopped back onto our scooters to head back into town to Sun Pictures, allegedly the worlds oldest still-operating picture gardens having been established in 1916. On entering we colleted pillows and found our way to our deckchairs in front of the screen and enjoyed an entertaining movie (Thelma) only occasionally interrupted by fruit bats swooping in front of the screen and unknown birds calling from the trees.
After our second night, marginally less relaxing than our first night thanks to the person sharing my bed deciding she didn’t like her pillow and therefore had to swap with mine, it was time to hit the road and head to our next destination; 80 Mile Beach.