Broome

In total we spent about 1.5 weeks in Broome excluding a 4 day side trip to Cape Leveque (see next journal entry). Broome has a colorful history as a pearling port which the Japanese pioneered. We did the pearl farm and historic pearl lugger tours. We were fortunate to see (P would say good forward planning) the “stairway to the moon” (moon rising with refection on mud flat and ocean) and “dinosaur footprints” – the former requires a full moon and the latter the lowest tide. Broome is also well situated in terms of star gazing. We did an astro tour and were amazed to see Venus, Saturn with its ring, Jupiter and 4 of its moons, Alphacentauri which we now know is 2 suns, and the 4 million stars of Omegacentauri. The girls also did a beach camel ride and we all went to Sun Pictures (oldest outdoor picture cinema in the world apparently).

My favorite part of our time in Broome was the 2 days we spent just lazing on Cable Beach with another family who are traveling in a black double-decker bus (with custom made trailer for micro light airplane, 2 motorbikes, etc!!!). The girls had a sleep over in the bus. The distance ed school put us in touch with one another – not only did the girls each meet their respective classmates, they really have new friends as the family (by coincidence) live in an adjacent suburb to us back in Sydney. We hope to catch up with them again on our travels. The coincidence continues, as we also bumped into yet another family from the Balgowlah area with mutual friends back at home. Entertaining in a camper trailer is not as easy as entertaining at home!

The less glamorous side was all the repairs, etc… that we did. The 4WD wouldn’t rev past 2K hence our slow trip back on hilly sandy unsealed roads from Cape Leveque. Thankfully this was not serious engine trouble, just some worn out wiring. The worst experience was getting to the bottom of our fridge troubles – in the end I went to the fridge dealer 4 times, called on an auto electrician twice, rented a fridge for a few days while repairs were made, called the fridge manufacturer to explain why I could not locate my warranty, and had the Toyota service centre install new wiring to suit the fridge. I now have six 12 volt power outlets in the car, a fridge insulation bag and a solar panel that is larger than our dining table and all is working (fingers crossed). I am still chasing a small leak in a jerry can, having repaired it twice already. We elected to leave the tyres and not repair the 2^nd windscreen chip as with the Gibb River ahead there is no point – I’ll tackle these in Alice. In short, driving in Australia takes it toll.