Jurrasic Tracks - Broome

Our alarm was set at 5:30am, today we would search for dinosaur tracks! Not that this search would take all day, but the 135-million-year-old tracks are fossilised at the beach, and only visible at very low tide (less than 1.60m). The resident birds were kind enough to wake me an hour before the alarm with their 'friendly chirps' right outside our van. Anyway, we were up as the sun rose, and after a quick run to the amenities we decided to just drive off. It was too early for breakfast.

Sun rise over Gantheaume Point

At 5 past 6 we parked near the lighthouse at Gantheaume Point. Broome's tourist brochure had a sketchy little map with the location of the 3 sets of prints. We had expected, or kind of counted on, other tourist to be huddled around the prints and lead the way. On our tour yesterday we were assured that would be the case. But we were the first ones there! Getting up early doesn't make sense at all. This was going to be a proper treasure hunt. 

As we changed our footwear, a taxi stopped and offloaded three girls, we weren't alone anymore. 

Our treasure map

We then walked past the lighthouse to the cliffs. Since the prints are only visible at the lowest tide, they must be near the waterline. But jumping down 2 meters onto slippery, barnacle covered rocks before breakfast did not seem like a bright idea. We decided to scout the route a bit further to the right. And we both made our way down, just one scratch, and fifteen minutes later our search was on! The girls followed suit 5 minutes later.

Clambering over rocks

We tried to make sense of our treasure map and find locate landmarks. One of the girls had a slightly different methodology: Pokemon Go. One of the track was a Pokestop. And a Pokestop only becomes active when you are in its direct vicinity, thus when the Pokestop is active the dino print is close. Now that's what I call modern archeology!

Just visible when the tide receded

In the end though, our deduction-theory that we should look closest to the tide line beat Pokemon. We found the middle print first. But it wasn't very defined, so we weren't completely sure if it was a print. But if it was, 17meters out or in should be another print. Looking around we saw a little plateau in the receding tide. Could that be...? It was the outer print! Three well defined dinosaur footprints. Minutes after we found it, the tide came in again. It had been visible for maybe 10 minutes. 

Having found two prints the third was easier to locate. This turned out to be the Pokestop print. However, the girls had already left so couldn't share in our excitement.

Pokestop dino prints

We made our way back up around the other side, which turned out to be a lot easier and were back at our campsite at 8:15, just in time for a refreshing shower and some breakfast. 

A few prehistoric looking animals