A Day of Disappointment

The alarm woke us up at 5am! It was dark and I could hear a dripping sound outside - was that rain I pondered? Looking out over the porch, the resorts path lights were barely visible in the mist. Ah must be condensation I concluded.

We made our way out to the front of the resort for the 5.25am rendezvous with the tour bus. It was an eerie sight watching the headlights of the cars and trucks appear through this thick pea soup as they made their way to the port. This road was very busy early in the morning.

Our bus eventually arrived and we were the first and only ones to board from our resort. The driver gave us a blue disc - significant for which aircraft we would be allocated to. Our bus wove its way through the Cable Beach suburb and picked up one more larger group. On our arrival to the airport hanger, the manager of the company boarded to inform us as to procedures from here on.

Due to the fog shrouding the airport and Broome, the seaplanes would not be allowed to take off. We would be taken through to the hanger to be weighed and attend a safety briefing so that we were all ready once the fog lifted.

Finishing that process, the fog was still thick. We were shuffled back on to the bus and taken for coffee at a local cafe where we would wait. The fog needed to lift within the next 1.5hrs so before 7.30am to allow the planes to reach Cape Leveque in time to continue with the planned jet boat ride to Horizontal Falls and Indigenous tour. So we sat and waited frequently assessing the sky every few minutes while drinking our coffee.

At 7.20am, we were hustled back onto the buses and returned to the hanger where the manager boarded our bus to inform us the disappointing news that the trip had been cancelled due to the fog. She then proceeded to talk to each group individually in an attempt to reschedule their trip. For us, we only had tomorrow as a spare day before our flight was due to leave on Friday. Given that we'd booked this trip in January, our expectations of scoring a berth on a trip tomorrow was extremely low. The manager tried to boost our hopes by saying they try to contact those who are on the trip and are in Broome for an extended period to reschedule their trip. We would have a nervous wait ahead of us.

Needless to say the trip back to the bungalow was a quiet one with us all lost in our thoughts. Andy and I decided to drown our disappointment by going for a run from Cable Beach. From the surf life saving club, we ran south through the Minyirr Conservation Park on the track parallel to the dunes. After a few km's we split - Andy continues on while I turn right to climb up and over the dunes and onto the tidal flat of Cable Beach. Andy catches me up as we run along the flat, hard sand back to the main section of beach. Our run is once again complete with a refreshing swim.

We returned to the resort with some breakfast. After a few hours of hanging around, we'd recovered enough from our disappointment to venture into town. Ella went back to the op shop, her latest passion, while the rest of us went for coffee. While out, we received confirmation that we would receive a full refund as they were unable to find any spare seats on tomorrow Horizontal Falls tours.

For dinner, we decided to try Matso's Brewery as it is considered 'the' place to visit when in Broome. It also holds the title as the most remote microbrewery. The menu was a little limiting in regards to kids choices. We ended up ordering a few starters and a couple of mains and then sharing! My salmon poke bowl was deemed the best! Andy and I also stepped outside of our comfort zone, to try a unique Matso's brew. Andy chose the Mango Beer (the tropics in a bottle) while I selected the Hard Melon (alcoholic watermelon with a hint of mint.) A good night out.