Broome

28th-30^th June

It was a 600 km drive to Broome. Unbeknownst to me, we had enough for a 570km trip!!! Dopey husband! Luckily for us not only was Len following right behind us, but he also carried spare fuel. Another catastrophe averted and we continued our journey.

If you want my opinion I'm not sure what all the hype is about Broome.

Pretty? Yes, it's ok.

Expensive? Hell yes.

In fact, we couldn't afford the going rate in town so we stayed 30kms outside. To be honest it is so busy we couldn't even get a spot in town even if we wanted one. The Grey Nomads book their spot a year in advance and then plonk themselves in front of their vans for 3 months. There are masses of them. And even though they say they miss their grandkids and my kids make them think of theirs they don't park near us or ask us for drinks in the afternoon! I mean really, have they seen how cute my kids are? Doesn't that make up for the noisy play-apparently not.

The highlight for me was this cute organic cafe I found. It was called The 12 Mile cafe and had the most amazing smells wafting from its kitchen. We didn't try any of the meals but had coffees, smoothies and cake, it was morning tea time.

Click for Slide show

Broome

The cafe was in a lovely tropical setting with the verandah wrapped around paw paw and banana trees and a cool canopy of foliage. The toilet was an experience too. On entering it had a huge hole where a window should be. It was like looking at a living painting as you sat and did your business. Ben even found Green Tree Frogs in the ground drain hole when he was having his turn!

It was a place you could just sit at, the cafe not the toilet. The kids played with the toys that were provided and lay in hammocks that had been stretched between banana trees and Ben had fun exploring the Guppies in the pond. Everyone was having a good time.

In fact, I loved it so much we came back the next day for round 2 of cake and coffee.

We did manage to see a few other things in town. The local water park was a big hit of course. Next to this park was the sea which we normally have to avoid due to the crocs but as the tide was way out Rasmus took the kids for an explore. Amongst other things they found a Blue Ringed Octopus! A little on the scary side for me but exciting for them all. Did I mention I was napping on a grassy hill while they did all this? Mother of the Year don't you think?

After a couple of days we said good-bye to Len, Heather and Josh here as they drove on together with their daughter's family (Kylie and … who had been camping with us here at Broome). They lived in Darwin and we would be catching up with them there.

As Broome has a big pearl history we wanted to do do a tour of some sort for our last activity, but as they were all too expensive we settled on a self guided one at the local pearl shop next to the Info Center. Not quite as thrilling as a tour filled with artifacts, but lots of interesting information.