Day 54 Broome - 21/4/11

Another rest day.  Here is some information on the amazing tides here.

The tides in Broome are among the highest in the world.  Broome is on a peninsula surrounded by water and the tides affects the lives of the locals and visitors so you need to have an understanding of how the tides work. 

The tide moves in for six hours and out for six hours.  Each week it alternates between a Neap tide (small movement of water) and a Spring tide (large movement of water) the next week all controlled by the moon.

When walking, fishing, swimming, boating or driving on the beach, you need to be aware of whether the water is coming in or going out, is it a spring or a neap tide and when is high and low tide.  Within minutes the ocean waters can be lapping at the tyres of your car if you are parked on the beach and decide to go for a walk.

Neap tide has 2 to 3 metres of movement and a Spring tide has 6 to 10 metres of movement.

If you go to the beach and tide is out then you have a long walk to get to the water!

For the rest of our time here there is only NEAP tides but we have seen the Spring tides and it is amazing how high they come in.

Another interesting thing about Broome is that houses don't have letterboxes.  In Broome there is no postal delivery and everyone has a post office box.  There are no traffic lights in Broome either.

Something else that we have been curious about is the houses in the north don't have gutters on their roof.  The reason is that the tropical downpours are so fast and furious that gutters won't hold the water.  How simple is that!

cheers
Pete and Roz