With more than four years since we were last in Broome, the closer we drew to the place, the more our plans for shorter travel days went out the window. With a mixture of plans that went awry due to circumstances beyond our control, along with a growing desire to see the red earth, and turquoise waters that are Broome, we condensed four days of travel into two. It was mid afternoon when we arrived, and getting near sunset by the time we did a quick a set up of the van, and headed down to Cable Beach for the first swim of many at Cable Beach for this trip.

It only took us a few days to change our travel plans. Our plan had been to return home down the Red Centre via Alice Springs, rather than to back track from Darwin covering the same old ground. However, Broome, being a bit like a drug to us, thirteen days just wasn’t going to give us the fix we craved. So back-tracking it is, with another three weeks in Broome on our return from Darwin.

We gave up caravanning because our pooch, Mr Tilly (Tilz) was just so anxious being away from home. Neither he, nor us were enjoying our trips. We had resigned ourselves to short overseas trips leaving him with someone else. However, we missed our road trips, and he was just as anxious being away from us as he was being away from his own home with us. So we tried again with the help of some Prozac from the vet for Tilz. We gave him one Prozac, and he watched the world go by in the caravan park, very chilled out. Wonderful! We cut the next pill in half, and he was still very laid back. We forgot to give him more on that trip, but it only seemed to take the two doses and it was as if he suddenly realised, ‘hey, chilling out and watching the world go by is kinda cool’. And so our trek back into the world of road tripping commenced once again.

He is a different dog now. He travels well in the car, he stays on our allocated caravan site even without a lead, and he rarely barks when anyone walks by. If he’s trying to sleep he occasionally gives a grumbling sort of bark if there’s any noisy people near by, but it’s not a bark that they’d hear. It’s just his little way of saying, ‘hey can I have a bit of peace here please, I’m trying to get some sleep’.

It’s the same when we’re at a the beach. We take a lead with us, but it only goes on him if we see a dog that we don’t trust coming near. When we sit on the beach reading a book he just sits or lays down beside us, watching with interest all the other dogs playing and frolicking at the beach, and watching all the people. He shows no sign of anxiety, just watches the world go by with curious interest. And no Prozac, it only took 1 1/2 pills….. I have to pinch myself sometimes to believe he’s the same dog.

It’s a pleasure to be back in Broome! It’s a pleasure to back to road-tripping! And I never thought I’d be able to say this, but it’s a pleasure to be travelling with our Mr Tilly! An absolute pleasure!

A few extra photos:

These ones are the popular beach, Gantheume Point, a beach that you can drive your car onto and unload your chairs without having to lug them down the steps further up Cable Beach at the more popular swimming beach. It’s important to note whether or not your parking against a rising, or ebbing tide. In the photo below the tide was on the way out, so it was safe to park right down almost at the water’s edge. If any of you are observant enough to notice the dent in the front fender, that happened when we took our car to get new tyres fitted two days before leaving. The tyre place had a stack of tyres that fell onto our car. There wasn’t time to get it repaired before we left home, so their insurance will take care of it upon our return.

And these next photos are the much less populated Reddell Beach. This beach is off a dirt track, and has a step flight of steps thatlead down to the red sandy beach. It’s a good beach for exploring some wonderful rock formations, or to throw in a line and try one’s luck at catching a big fish (no luck for us that day though).

This next one is of the cliffs at Reddell beach as the sun is starting to go down in the sky. As the suns rays lower they hit the red cliffs making them look almost iredescent.

De Grey river to Broome 525 kms

Fuel – 55 litres @$2.62, total $145

Accommodation 13 days at varying daily rates (a weird system that Broome caravan park now uses) $755 for 13 nights. As an aside – we won’t be staying at Broome caravan park when we come back this way again. It’s gone down hill from when we last stayed here. We’re not that fussy, but quite honestly sometimes I feel dirtier after having a shower here than I did before I showered. It’s improved since we arrived, after many complaints, but it’s going to take a lot of gumption and elbow grease to remove the grime that’s built up after being neglected for way too long. The Kimberley is a dusty place, so it’s difficult to keep on top of things. This park used to manage just fine, as do other caravan parks here in Broome. It was taken over by Summerstar some time ago, and I gather that’s when the problems started. Summerstar allocate the amount of time needed for cleaning an ablution block, and I gather that’s a time allocated according to capital city cleanliness without regard for outback conditions. I doubt we’ll be renewing our membership with Summerstar.