Needless to say that next I was into town early and looking around the area they call Chinatown, named from past association with the mainly Chinese pearling workers that lived in the area. Not at all what I was expecting but the whole area is very nice and well geared to the tourist crowd, I mean there is one street where almost every store is a pearl shop, so I just wandered about the place taking photos and looking at what was there
From here I made my way down to the town beach end of the place and to say that where Cable certainly has it, this end does not, it is all mud flats and mangrove and the tide goes out a long way, so the mud flats are extensive. This is the area that they have identified as a good vantage point for the Stairway to the Moon that basically only happens three nights per month when the tides are just right, the first two night they have a night market down here for the event as well, though as this was the third night I missed that, but more of this later. When the tide comes in the water is a really intense and vivid colour and the place looks completely different, though the mangroves are sill right there.
I then managed to find my way to some obscure street where the local car parts store is located and purchased the parts that I was needing to sort out the light switch over heating problem that had presented itself and which is basically preventing me from driving the car in anything other than daylight hours. On the way back from there I decided to try and drop by Matso's Brewery and Restaurant for lunch, the place looked quite busy and sure enough as I was a single male and not a blond, tanned, 20 something female guaranteed that I was ignored by the male wait staff and male seating manager for a good 15 minutes. Once they actually decided they probably could not ignore me any longer they advised me that they may be able to find me a spot at someone else's table as I was "just by yourself" and advised me to get a drink at the bar and wait and they would find me if something became available, mind they took the names of everyone else looking for a table, just not mine. Anyway I got a Ginger Beer, which is supposed to be something amazing and proceeded to stand in the corner for a while. The Ginger Beer had a vague hint of ginger in it and otherwise was quite sour, maybe it was a new barrel of something, so by the time I got to the end of it I figured that if I had to pay $8.00 for a glass of ginger beer and it was, to me, rubbish then there was no way I was waiting any longer for a seat and left.
I went back to the Van park and worked on the Count's electrics for a while to try and sort out the switch over heating problem by installing a pair of relays into the system (along with some more fuses, never a bad thing in a Morris), with a lot of back referring to an article and wiring diagram that I found online from and MG Car Club person in I am not sure what country and about three hours I was able to turn the lights on without the smell of burning resin and wiring, so I guess it was successful and didn't look too messy.
From here it was time to go back to Cable Beach for the sunset I had missed the day before, which was certainly colourful indeed
And now to town and find something for dinner and then head to the town beach for the Stairway to the Moon thing to happen. It is quite something to see really and well worth the standing in the middle of no where with a huge number of strangers who you can't actually see as it is so dark. To be honest I am amazed that anyone can get a decent picture of the event as the number of people that were taking pictures of the Moon, yes we are talking about the real moon, in the sky and a really long way from earth, with their flashes going off! Really I mean it was like some weird psychotic paparazzi frenzy. In the end I just don't have the focal length in my lens to do the event justice and with all those flashes, well I got what I could get.
Back in the car tomorrow morning and a long day drive to Port Headland, just because it is on the way, not because I particularly want to see anything there, we shall see...
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