The hovercraft ride was short but informative. The 20 year old craft glided gracefully across the beach and across Roebuck Bay on a smooth cushion of air. The bay is very calm and the high tide means that the bay is a vast mud flat twice a day. We crossed just after the peak of high tide (with a 10m tidal range) and the water was dropping noticeably. Across the other side of the bay we looked at sand and soils deposited when the Fitzroy River had originally flowed out to sea at this spot. It was also the site of the fossilised footprints of herbivorous dinosaurs. Once it was pointed out what they looked like, we were finding them everywhere. The guide says it is the only place in the world to see them, but a quick google search showed otherwise.

The red sands of the beach were alive with crabs scurrying around with a variety of shells of their backs picking up the detritus left behind by the receding tide. The tour itself was a special one put on for a cruise ship that was visiting Broome, but we managed to grab two spare seats. the bus back to the hotel went via the wharf where the ship was rapidly dropping below the level of the wharf.

We spent the early part of the evening back at Matsos’s tasting the remainder of the home brews and sampling a variety of Mr P’s fabulous curries. The flight from Broome to Perth was late, but this was a good thing. Since our flight from Perth had been delayed by two hours, the wait at Perth was shorter than it might otherwise have been. We are back in a big city and already parts of the holiday are like a distant memory. Tonight we will be back in Sydney and the mad pace that we call a normal life.