So we are now in a town called Derby, not ventured back to the UK yet and this place is a tad warmer than the UK ever gets. Spent the last couple of days in Broome after some mamouth driving to get us from Exmouth.
In what the Rough Guide describes as the most boring journey in Australia, we decided to kill the trip off a short as possible. After a day of driving, 1,088.2 to be precise, and seeing a few things in the book (Cossack and an old Goal), we stopped off at 80 mile beach, which I did not measure but it was blooming massive. I reckon 1km was the tide, which I did not venture any near to as I have now got a bit paranoid of crocodiles, which I swear come up to the campervan every night checking whether the door has been locked (well not quite the last part). Upon our arrival at the campsite the friendly staff showed us our spot, which according to them was on a bit of sand. As you can imagine this was probably the most understated comment, typical Australian really, bit like when a someone gets their arm bitten off by a shark they say that it is only a small cut - yeah right! Anyway this understatement lead to the van getting stuck, and I mean properly stuck. The wheels were spinning, going deeper in the ground, which was to the amusement of our fellow campers. Thankfully this amusement finally lead to them feeling sorry for us and a couple of spade were produced. This was when once again we both felt like under equipped campers as the range of tools that were brought out to try and get us out of the sand was immense. Eventually we all failed, getting the van actually beached on the sand as the wheels had spun too far down. The friendly campsite people kindly pulled us us with their 4x4 for free, so I think that this is something that happens pretty often - may I suggest they tell people to not camp there.
The last couple of days were spent in Broome, busy town, well compared to most that we have been to over the last week, but an awesome one at that. The main beach, Cable Beach, was a walk away from our campsite, well I say campsite but is was more like a town, I counted 4 coaches that people were touring in and everyone seemed to have a huge 4x4 and a boat - no wonder why they are worried about the carbon tax.
The couple of days was spent chilling, watching some excellent sunsets and trying to get rid of the t-shirt tan.
We left today for Derby, on a quest to get a horizontal falls trip. We are booked in for Wednesday, not ideal as Derby to be fair is not the best of places I have been to, however as a warning to you all there are 3 days a month that the falls are apparently rubbish as ath height differential is low and therefore you do not get a great show - this happens to be Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
So we are now just camped out in a Derby, reading Ok magazine, planning the rest of the trip (booked an Bungles Bungles flight) and drinking some beer. Rather hard to do when all Oz auditors are probably getting a bit busy now!
Anyway enough from me and to address a few friends comments:
Jimbo - no speeding fines as yet - Helen has me under control! Officier Griever has not gone on secondment to Australia thank god (for those who don't know he is the man that caught me speeding in the US)
Macca - hopefully I am not ranting anymore (Russell mentioned this to me!)
Alex - hope your foot is okay - helen just saw the updates on facebook - shame you are about to lose Luka!
Steve & Helen
