Day 43, 13 August 2009, Broome

Managed to book into Broome for a few more days. We move to an unpowered site for Saturday, then back into a powered site for Sunday and Monday.

We've bitten the bullet and booked for a 'Horizontal Falls Seaplane Adventure'. It's pricey, but sounds great. I'll report back in tomorrow's entry.

Finally visited Cable Beach today. It's all of 500 meters from the caravan park and has long, very wide sandy beach. Finished with a coffee on the foreshore. We investigated going to the crocodile park next to the caravan park, but Pam thought that I'd get overexcited seeing crocodiles fed on the same day we go to the circus.

We'll schedule that for another day.

Had a nice counter tea at the Roebuck Hotel in 'downtown' Broome, then the Circus.

The circus was really, really good. Small but really talented cast. The performers take tickets, sell trinkets and, I imagine, put the Kremlin shaped tent up and down.

The ringmaster was English and also did a clown act and a session on the trampoline, "The world's fastest somersault."

There was another clown act, a dancing couple who changed clothes rapidly, a magic act, a juggler, three trained ponies, a balancing act, two Mongolian contortionists who turned themselves inside out while balanced on one hand, and two biggies.

Biggie #1: There was a big arm with two cages where the performers ran inside to get the thing moving, then climbed onto the outside and did thing like skip rope while revolving high in the air. No nets and lots of planned/ unplanned close calls. A bit rough on the edges but that's what made it so real. The audience (all ages) of over a thousand was united in our gasps, screams and applause.

The finale (Biggie #2) was a big four meter diameter cage where performers rode motorcycles around at 80 kph. With one of the dancer/ balancer/ usher/ popcorn sellers performed in the middle. Absolutely brilliant.

The tent was packed, mostly with locals. Everybody LOVED it. There was lots of audience participation and the Pommy ringmaster was brilliant at getting people engaged. The whole thing reminded me of seeing the circus in Shawano (northern Wisconsin) when I was a kid. I couldn't recommend it more. One suggestion: if you see it, try to see it in a small town.