We stayed on for a few nights after the wedding, tidying up the photos to make sure there were some good keepers, and just relaxing. 19 days after leaving home in Busselton, it was time to leave the newly-weds to have some time on their on, and start out on our return trip. Wow, we packed a lot into that 19 days.

The trip from Katherine to Broome was uneventful so I’ve grouped the three travel days into one post.

Day 1, we set out at around 7am, planning to stop a little past the NT/WA border for our first night. First off was a toilet stop and leg stretch at Sullivans Creek Rest Area . Next, the quarantine/border stop where the van was checked to ensure no fresh produce was being carried into WA.  It was around lunch time, and with the temperature in the mid 30s, it was clearly to hot to consider stopping any time soon in a free site for the afternoon.

We pushed on further than we had anticipated, reaching Leycestor’s Rest area by mid afternoon. It was still hot and took three moves of the van to be satisfied that we were parked so as to get maximum shade. The three moves proved too much after having driven 804kms in one day. Paul was looking exasperated. We had been thinking maybe we could knock the trip to Broome off in two days rather than the planned three, but decided that wasn’t such a good idea.

Another early start the next morning with a toilet stop at Ngumban Cliff Rest area en-route to our overnight destination in Fitzroy Crossing. I liked this rest area. Wide open spaces with interesting variations to the landscape, and a nice little track to walk Tills down. Note to myself – next time it’ll be worth considering this place for an overnight stop.

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Less than 100 kms further and we pulled into Fitzroy Lodge around noon. With a powered, drive through site we had the luxury of air-conditioning for the afternoon and evening, and at the whopping cost of $57 a night for the site, I can tell you, we were none to conservative with it’s use. I used the time to catch up on some blog posts as with the internet so sketchy at the farm I hadn’t tried to use technology apart from the odd text message or email.

The next day we only had 393kms left of this 1583 km section of our trip. Another early start with only one pit stop on the way. We pulled into Willare Bridge Roadhouse/caravan park. We didn’t need fuel, but as we used their toilets we purchased a pie for an early lunch, and followed up with an ice-cream. A quick look around the facilities impressed, and we would possibly consider staying here overnight sometime in the future. I rather fancy doing a trip one year with all of our overnight stops at roadhouses, and another using mainly farm stays. Currently we mix them up a bit, but rarely use the roadhouse caravan parks – I don’t know why!

We arrived in Broome around mid-day. Lucky us, we were allocated the same big, grassy, site we had used as we passed through previously, right beside the pool, and shaded by beautiful palms.

We take turns at swimming laps, or just cooling off in the pool, and Tills enjoys watching us from our site. This is the best pool I’ve seen anywhere. It’s big, with three islands of palms set into it. A waterfall cascades over huge boulders on one of the palm islands. It’s maintained at a pleasant temperature. I don’t know if it’s actually heated, or if it’s just pleasantly warm from the sun. It has to be pleasant for me to get in – I’m a wuss with cold water!

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I mentioned our site was big and grassy. It’s also beside the gas barbecues which are hardly used at this time of year, so we feel as if we have them to ourselves.

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Tills enjoys relaxing on the grass watching the world go by. Two very happy campers, and one happy dog relaxing on Broome time for the next nine nights. How very civilised!

D