Basically a free day in Broome today as we weren’t being picked up till 3.30pm so I arranged a half day tour of Broome to get a feel of the place and where we were at. Broome has really only ‘come of age’ since the 1970’s and now boasts a regular population of 15,000 which explodes to 50,000 in the peak of the dry season which is where we are at now so every caravan park in town is full as is most of the accommodation. The Broome races also happened to be on in town today so people fly in from everywhere for that as well.

The beachfront at Cable beach is absolutely beautiful – very flat and 6 – 10 metre tides in this region means that low tide is way….y out there but high tide is close to the show but just a gently wave roll, no surf as such and more often than not, a gentle ocean swell, nothing heavy and roll!

Weather is 30 degrees so it’s nice to get away from the cooler weather we’ve had on the east coast of late.

Grabbed a bit to eat and something to drink at the end of our tour and were then deposited back to our accommodation where we whiled away the time with our bread roll and drink for lunch, around the pool. Surprisingly the pool was freezing! no way I was getting in – even another lady who turned up for a swim casually sat on the edge and went ‘shiiitttt!!!!’. She didn’t get in either!

The bus rolled up to collected us at 3.40pm as scheduled, to join the other 40 odd folk already on the bus. 1 more stop as our last pickup and we were then headed for the port to embark on our ship.

Passports, health questionnaire and departure cards all filled out and handed in and we were then allowed to our cabins and refreshments in the lounge.

The ship has 97 passengers on board and 75 crew. Crew were all introduced to us a short while later – many of them as marine biologists, oceanographers and whatever so we are in great hands for our ‘expedition cruising’! I thought it was just a ‘cruise!’

Dinner not long afterwards with ‘here’s the recommended wine for you to drink – is there any other?? Well yes, but this is recommended 0 thank you but can we see ‘the other’? Bottle turns up opened ready to pour – all very nice but lack of choice.

Early to bed (9pm) for probably many of us who had come from the east coast that day, ready for another tough day ahead!!