Week 12 | Pearls of Wisdom

SNAPSHOT

In our caravan of courage I find it amusing how we all have our own little bucket lists in our heads....places we have always wanted to go, things to experience and that list keeps changing as we meet other travellers full of experience and advice......Right from day dot, Liv looked on the map and going by our rough guideline of "five weeks in each state" she put a pin on Broome and declared that if possible, she would love to ride the camels on Cable Beach for her 12th birthday....we mumbled the old parent adage "we'll see" which means "no" more often than "maybe".....but bless her cotton socks, she kept us on track and this week we found ourselves in beautiful Broome celebrating our eldest baby turning 12 years old.....

As a footnote please don't be too critical of my blog this week - Leigh has been battling a virus, complete with a minefield of cold sores and I fought a battle of epic proportions with a two day migraine both unexpected and violent!! I hope you don't find our tales lacklustre this week 😂😂

WHERE ON EARTH ARE WE?

Roebuck Roadhouse | Broome

We hurtled toward Broome feeling like we were running late only to find we were a day early! What to do? As we pondered that question the Roebuck Roadhouse came into view and in a split moment we decided to pull in - figured that at 10:30am with Broome only 30km away, it would give us an extra day to see the sights! Attached to a Roadhouse obviously, you wouldn't expect too much however what lay behind the pumps surprised even us!! Green grass, palm trees, a tropical swimming pool and clean amenities....all for only $35 per night - okay, the sites were super small but it was half the price of the park in Broome - definitely worth the stop if you are penny watching!!

After heading into Broome to do groceries and birthday present purchasing and a spot of op shopping (yup we are super sick of wearing the same clothes!) we drove around to get our bearings and very much liked what we saw!

Broome | Cable Beach Caravan Park

WikiCamps got it right and our good luck with large shady powered sites reign on!!! A smile clearly does goes a long long way! We were booked in and set up and headed off to find Matso's Brewery (priorities clearly in order!) - thanks to Leigh's excellent beerhound nose we were settled with a Matso's Mango Beer and and Matso's Chilli beer in their gorgeous beer garden in no time!!!!

Broome has a feeling of "elite" about it but in no way do you need to spend a fortune (although you easily could!) to enjoy this vibrant and happy seaside resort style town.....Leigh and Liv perused the museum for only $6, beers at Matso's budget friendly and delicious, at Cable Beach you can hire sun loungers and an umbrella for $20 along with kids sand toys for $4 per bag. We had a fantastic afternoon at the patrolled beach before heading to the Cable Beach Camel rides on the other side of the rocks ......please note the previous day, we had found out first hand that this is also the nudist beach much to the mirth of a very wide eyed Maggie peering (nose pressed) out the window and a horrified Liv who declared "some things can NEVER be unseen Mum!!!) 😂 Nevertheless, the gods were smiling and Liv's birthday actually turned out to be quite windy and cool.....two things I believe don't mix well with nudists and beaches phew!! So a nudist free camel ride it was!

Ahhhh the camel ride!! Hilarious and fun, the photos explain it all! PLUS I received a free pair of pearl earrings and three drink vouchers at the end - winner winner chicken dinner 😉

We had the absolute pleasure of meeting up with Dave and Gaye, the delightful grandparents of Liv's friend Poppy - it was like having a little piece of home while of holidays - They have been holidaying in Broome for over 17 years and their inside knowledge was awesome! Thanks for the personal tour Dave, what you don't know about Broome is not worth knowing - had a ball! And Gaye, thanks for spoiling us ❤️ we look forward to catching up later in the year x

Also to the Schiltz family, we had been hoping to catch up with you along the way and Broome was the perfect place - my girls loved meeting your girls, cheers for the laughs and hope Cape Leveaque was fabulous 😘

Karijini National Park here we come!

Eighty Mile Beach | Caravan Park

In the nicest possible way there is something very 1950's about this park - after 9km of corrugated dirt road we pulled in to this park, located right on Eighty Mile Beach and what a beautiful place - we only had the choice of an unpowered site which was perfectly fine to us but the park overall is, although old, immaculate and a pleasure to visit. The beach itself goes for as far as the eye can see and we collected some beautiful shells for Maggie's collection - apparently she is making a dream catcher with all the shells collected around Australia - oh goodie! Craft! 😭

Two Camels Rest Area | Great Northern Highway

Uh oh, I woke up with an unexpected migraine of epic proportions, and I'd run out of drugs.....facing a massive drive, there was nothing for it but to bring out the sick bags and don my sunglasses.....it was single handedly THE worst travel day I've had so far - 500km later and I was still in hell so we called it quids and pulled in......apparently Leigh tells me it was a great rest area, spacious shady, clean! Good to know 😂 I only saw my pillow.......on our way out, poor Leigh accidently broke the toilet cassette while emptying - oops!!

Tom Price (Karijini National Park)

Our decision to embark on KNP was mostly due to the fact we decided not to do the Bungles - don't get me wrong, we would have loved to but fate was not on our side at that time so we kept going knowing there were some other great options along the way to Perth - Bungles we will be back!

With a head filled with cotton wool we made a slow start over to Tom Price without a booking and managed to snaffle a powered site for two nights, another great park - it was good to recharge while Leigh set off to walk Hammersley Gorge ( a must see apparently - photos look great!) - girls and I read our books in the sun, showered and spring cleaned - very therapeudic!

Another cloudless day dawned and we packed our lunch, bathers and hiking gear and headed into thee National Park specifically to walk Fortescue Falls....a 400 metre (stepped) walk down and we were rewarded with the most gorgeous little waterfall and swimming hole.....Dales Gorge was equally as spectacular and we are so glad we took the inland route to experience all Karijini has to offer 😊

BEST PART vs WORST PART

🐣Liv

Best part: My 12th birthday! Everything was awesome and I felt lucky I got to spend it in Broome.... ❤️

Worst Part: Maggie whining on my birthday.

🐴 Maggie

Best Part: Camel rides!!! It was fun going but not getting down 😱

Worst part: Having to sit next to Liv ALL day EVERY day.....(anyone sensing a common theme here 😂😂)

🏌️Leigh

Best part: Broome was fantastic, sunset on Cable Beach, Camel rides and Matso Brewery - Dave's Personalised tour of Broome......Karijini was brilliant to explore and wished we had way more hours in the day - next time!!!

Worst part: Breaking the toilet and not having more time in the Broome area!

🌺 Rana

Best part: Broome for sure, however Tom Price and Karijini were fantastic!

Worst part: Migraine.The End.

LESSONS LEARNT:

📝 Whatever the size of your medicine box, double it and fill it - being sick in the middle of nowhere not pleasant.

📝 Recognise when one parent needs a break - some "me" time is important to re energize......I'm still waiting for mine 😂

📝 Wish we had found Amazon Kindle books earlier - has saved our sanity this week!

NEXT DESTINATION:

Mmmm good question? Probably Exmouth, Coral Bay, Kalbarri and Dongara.....this could change 😜

The road thus travelled for Week 12!

Leigh found his personalized beer at Matso's 😂

No visit to Broome is complete without stepping inside Paspaley Pearls.....nope I didn't buy anything but I did get to touch a set worth $6000.....one day ......maybe 😆