Hovercraft ride over Roebuck Bay to see dinosaur prints

Camel rides into the sunset.

The old 1905 Sun Theatre with deck chairs.

Jen on Cable beach.

The unit in Palm Resort... Do we all look tied of the van?

We have arrived in Broome on Thursday 9th of September after a 2 Day intensive drive from Kununurra (1200km) with a stopover in Fitzroy Crossing only. Well it was worth the drive , we checked into The Palms Resort and are staying in a family unit. Broome exist as two parts ,west side is Cable Beach which is a beautiful and well patrolled beach and lots of very exclusive accomodation with some great cafes and resaurants and the east side which is on Roebuck Bay (the town beach) with all the shops and Chinatown. Broome has about 15,ooo pop with a furthur 50,000 hitting it in the high season, which we are happy we have just missed. It's still like summer to us, with days of 32 deg. and clear skies. You can't help but see some parallels to Darwin with it's Cyclone disaster and the Japanese air strike in 1942 (just after Darwin). The stories go that the Japanese population was big due to their expertise in the Pearling industries here and all of them were locked up because of this air strike and many then had close frienships with the locals that now had to round them up , tough job!

We were staying on the Cable beach side so we made best use of that and have enjoyed some great sunsets driving right onto the beach and watching the Camel drives go past in the sunset.

The water is pristene , blue ,warm and safe so we hired some boogie boards , recliners and beach umbrellas that are all available set up on the beach and this made for some easy and great days.

I have now had a run in with a pearl shop , as pearls are the fame of Broome, from it's history with the Lugger boats . There are so many shops here displaying and selling pearls but most of them are imported which I find quite bizarre so we only looked at the locally produced pearls of which there are only 3 outlets from about a dozen of them. ...Andrew

We also enjoyed a night out at the outside Sun Movie Theatre. We watched Bran Nue Dae, which we found out on the Town Tour that we had done in the morning that it had been filmed in and around Broome, infact in one scene the actors are watching a movie in the same theatre we were watching the film in.

On the first look around we didn't think there were many good places to eat, but on closer inspection when we had a walk around we found a lot of great little cafes and restaurants in back allys and malls. We had a great lunch one day in Matsos micro brewery, where Andrew enjoyed a taste or two of the locally made beers.

We spent a lot of time on the beach during the day and at night watching the sunset, trying to get the perfect sunset photo!!!!!

I really loved Broome and wanted to stay longer but we knew that there were plenty more adventures to be had so we left our cosy cabin and we are headed for the Ningaloo Reef!!!!.Jude

Girls in charge of the boat.

Boab tree, this is one of the bigger ones we have seen!!!

The jetty from where Cait spent hours fishing and caught nothing, but Jen and Courtney fished for about 5 minutes and caught two catfish. Also the BBQ boat that we hired for a couple of hours to cruise on!!!

Jen on the bank of Kununurra river at the back of the caravan park!!!

Boarding the boat for the Lake Argyle Cruise!!!!

We packed up and left Darwin on Saturday 4th September and headed back to Katherine for an overnight stay before heading to Kununurra. Kununurra is famous for its diamond mines and in particular its very rare pink diamonds, so as you can imagine I was quite keen to do a spot of shopping here!!!!

On our first day we enjoyed a lovely cruise on the beautiful Lake Argyle. Lake Argyle is a man made lake not unlike Glenmaggie but ranges between 9 to 16 times bigger than the Sydney Harbour. Once again the cruise was very informative about the area which Andrew loves, but I really just enjoy the gentle cruising and the beautiful scenery. The kids enjoy all the little extras they do on these cruises like feeding the fish in the water, checking out all the Euros on the rocks and then jumping into the lake for a swim off the boat [much braver than me, because there are fresh water crocs in this lake] and then we all enjoyed a drink and biscuits and dip whilst watching the sunset. Unfortunetly my camera ran out of batteries shortly after we took off so i don't have much to show for this wonderful cruise.

You can probably tell by now that we like a bit of a boat trip!!!!! They certainly beat walking tours because it is so hot here and the kids, whilst they are happy to walk for a bit, the heat does get overwhelming after being out in it for a while, cruising on the water allows you to take in the surrounds in a different but much cooler fashion. So to keep the boating theme alive, the next day we hired aBBQ boat and we headed out again into Lake Kununurra with Captain Andrew Bates [or captain Stubbing as we like to call him] and packed the fishing rods for a bit of a fishing adventure. Once again it was a very pleasant way to spend the day. No fish were caught this time but fun was had by all.

In between swimming, fishing and eating we did find time for a little bit of pink diamond shopping before heading off once more.........this time to Fitzroy Crossing.

We had a delightful stay at the Fitzroy Crossing Lodge, just overnight, before a long haul to beautiful Broome where we are going to have a holiday from our holiday and stay in a self contained airconditioned cabin for a week!!!!! ...... Jude

Katherine was a neccassary stopover as there is no good road to Broome from Darwin and Katherine almost felt like home as we got to know it . It was refreshing to go somewhere that we knew the layout. That is because when traveling like this ,every place is new and an adventure which is great but there is also a daunting aspect to that. Setting up camp in an unknown town can be a bit intimidating.

Studying the towns and places of interest from here to Broome on the Great Northern Hwy there is not a lot to stop for . We all agree that now we just want to start our Beach leg of the journey now (Western Coast) so we did some big driving days (600km +) and only stopping very little to get there. The drive over to Broome was really just more desert similar to the Stuart Hwy ,but I can't remember yet driving for over 280km straight without seeing anything more than a bit of bush and the road, (I thought many times that I could see a "hot dog" stand up ahead, ....mirage ?).We did however, see many magnificent Boab trees!!!! We did spend 3 nights in Kununnura which was the only main town on the way and known for it's Pink Diamonds (and now known to me for that too!! ) The van park was great and backed onto a lilly covered lake that leads on to the Ord River system so we hired a BBq boat and really enjoyed a couple of hours going up to Elephant Rock. There was a large jetty there and we fished off this that night. Caity must have spent hours trying by herself with great patience but gave up just on dusk when Courtney and Jenny tried as the sun set and caught 2 good Cat fish. After trying for so long I really don't think they expected it and I had to laugh at the pandemonium as they tried to land them , all happening within literally 3 mins! Courtney could not see them get hurt so she was careful to kiss and release them ,(thank god as I know who has to clean and cook them ).

We only stopped for the night at Fitzroy Crossing after Kununnura. This town has some history but you have seriously seen it all in under 5 mins. The resort we stayed in however was like a tropical haven with a bar , good restaurants and pool which we made the best use of. On these nights where we only stop to sleep we barely unpack the van ,just sleep in it. So another good drive from there and we reached Broome at about 5 pm on Thursday. Too tired to really look at the town tonight so we have parted company with our faithful van and left it in the resorts carpark and have now retreated into our Family beach unit for the night , which I might add feels like a palace with some long needed privacy. We will stay here for a week or so now, hope it's as nice as they say.......Andrew

Caitlin in the Fannie Bay Gaol. Closed down in '79

Girls feeding baby crocs at the crocosaurus cove.

Darwin Harbour cruise.

Darwin harbour cruise leaving from Cullen Cove

Mindil Beach, beautiful water, not so beautiful sand!!!!

We arrived in Darwin on Wednesday the 25th August. They said it's Australia's most modern city due to the '74 cyclone. Not many buildings are here from before Tracy. We didn't realise how much you could miss real civilisation with all the shops and restaurants and features that Darwin has to offer. To see the sea again but at the far North end was like a fresh breath (Timor sea) and Darwin harbour is a beautiful azure color and is very inviting but it's not as friendly as it looks as it has crocs and stingers and only a few small areas set aside for a swiming. There is very little sand around the Harbour and what there is is still a bit reddy ,not at all white , mostly rocks and mud with some Mangroves. Stokes Wharf and Cullen Bay are the tourist areas here and I could spend all my time just there with plenty of good eateries from casual all day cafes to top class resaurants and plenty of harbour cruises available from both areas. We tried some fishing off the Wharf and it was great but the tide was massive ( over 7 metres) and was going out way too fast to catch much.

The airforce here has a very obvious presence , most days Hornet fighters and F111 Bombers are flying overhead and let me tell you they are much louder than the commercial planes. The feeling of the '42 Bombing of Darwin is still here and there is an awareness of the defence lines of Australia.

Karen and Margaret arrived on Friday so we have enjoyed trying to fit in all the highlights of Darwin and to get a real feel for the type of city it is. It has a touch of the "country towns" about it and it is a very welcoming place with a freindly feel and I get the impression it's not big on rules or regulation which gives it an easy going type of feel. There is a greater Asian population and Indians mainly working in the eating areas ,lots of Europeans, but Aboriginies would be a minority I think.

So far we have taken a harbour cruise , the ferry to Mandorah for lunch, gone to the Tracy Museam , Fannie bay Gaol, water parks and the big beach side Wave pool, Mindil beach Markets, Crocosaurus cove (croc theme park) , good and bad restaurants ( but a different place every time).... .Andrew

It is very hot here in Darwin I have to tell you, it sits on about 33 degrees and is very humid. We try to get out to see things in the morning and then take the kids to one of the water parks in the arfternoons to keep cool, even I have been in the water a lot!!!! I really enjoyed having Karen and Mum here to visit. We got them a cabin in the caravan park and loved using their shower!!!!

This caravan park is very big, we have been used to small ones and being right next to the pool and playgrounds but this one we have to take a walk to both. This caravan park also has tht resorty feel with 3 pools and a bistro right next to the biggest pool, which Andrew loves because it means he can buy a beer whilst the kids frolic in the water.

My highlight of Darwin so far, apart from having mum and Karen here, has been the Cyclone Tracy section at the museum. I vaguely remember it happening in 74 so it was very interesting seeing and reading about what happend again. There is personal film and sound of the cyclone, it freaked Jen out, it must have been very scary to have been in it. Very little remained standing in Darwin after it, so that is why it is know at Australias most modern city.