Broome, Birthdays and a Breakdown!

(or the alternative title: “Yeah, I  think we’re going to need a tow truck”)...

After reaching the end of the Gibb River rd, we did a quick run through Derby for a much needed coffee and to show the kids the infamous Boab prison tree.

Derby Boab Prison Tree.

From Derby, it was onto Broome.  There was probably a bit more to see in Derby but to be honest, the thought of getting to Broome was too much to wait for... and I can tell you it was a very excited ‘Jackson 5’ as we sped down the Great Northern hwy. Leaving behind the dust of the Gibb River for the fun and luxury of beautiful Broome, even an ominous engine warning light coming on, on the dash of the Patrol couldn’t spoil the excitement of what lay ahead. (No that’s not the ‘breakdown’ part by the way.  This was only a short lived thing, as a bit of dirt in the fuel filter was soon fixed on the roadside by yours truly.)

We’ve been lucky to have been to Broome a couple of times before, and it never disappoints. This time we decided to stay a few days at the Cable Beach Caravan Park (highly recommended) whilst soaking up the sun and lazing around their magnificent pool complete with water fall.

 

Plenty to do at Broome (a lot of it we’ve seen before), but still, we managed to while away our time with a few things: the kids enjoyed a game of mini golf, a visit to the town market, a bit of shopping, talking to fellow travellers and of course a drive along Cable beach.  Unfortunately, no swimming in the beach this time round though, as the coast has been plagued with big fat ‘tomato jellyfish’... by the thousands.  We were told they’re not particularly poisonous but can give a bit of an itch, something that we were willing to take their word for.

Cable Beach... beats the Monash Fwy.

Oh and we probably spent far too many late afternoons at the Sunset bar, enjoying a cocktail or two and watching the sun go down. The kids would run off and play on the lawn in front leaving us to mind the table and drinks.  Tough job but someone has to do it.

Mini him and Mini her.

Very artistic.

We also decided to head up to Cape Leveque for 3 nights.  It’s a ‘short’ 280 km trip north of Broome, which starts off as a really badly corrugated, sandy, bull dust ridden road, but then turns into bitumen half way up (coincidentally where Aboriginal land starts).  We stayed at Kooljaman Resort and set up camp, again losing a few kilos from sweating in the humid heat. 

Cape Le-f-que.

Getting there early, we then headed down to their beautiful beach.  We all enjoyed swimming in the beach for hours.  It was hard not to when the water was so clear and the temperature was lovely and warm.  When the tide was out the kids loved finding all the sea creatures in amongst the rocks.

Whilst staying at Cape Leveque we got asked if we’re were interested in posing for a few photos for an advertising brochure.  It was for a local Aboriginal to advertise his tour called ‘Bundy’s Fish Poisoning Tour’. Basically it’s a tour about bush tucker and surviving off the land and sea.  We followed Bundy around while he showed us plants to find bush tucker from while the photographer snapped away.  Bit of fun and very interesting learning about how many plants you can actually eat from. We learnt that along the boardwalk from the camp to the beach, there were at least 6 different plants you could eat. Something you wouldn’t normally know about just walking along!

After our last night we made for an early start to beat the heat.  We’d packed most of our gear the night before and so we were off just after 7am with the promise to the kids of making it back to Broome for a Macca’s breakfast.  Now there must be something about Cape Leveque for us that just doesn’t mix well mechanically.  11 years ago when we’d visited Cape Leveque, our old Patrol decided on the way up that it needed to realign it’s timing belt!... and long story short, we spent about 3 hours in the blazing heat with the help of a couple of locals getting her going again.  (Just ask Karen’s dad about the fun we had... he was there with us too). 

This time however we’d started off well, and we were making head way along the first part of the road which was bitumen.  In fact we were reminiscing about how 11 years ago we’d broken down (in pretty much the same spot give or take a few km’s as it turns out) etc, when all of a sudden “hmmm what’s that strange noise?  Is that your DS’s making that noise kids? Nope? Hope it goes away. Oh no not again”. We must have jinxed ourselves! So long story short again, it was the front right wheel bearing/hub. If you’ve ever broken down before (in the heat... fully loaded... with 3 kids...) you’ll know that horrible feeling of the world ending and the holiday coming to an end. “What are we going to do? No mobile phone coverage.”  So the decision was made to ‘limp’ back to the Cape so we could make the call: 13 11 11. “Hello RACV”.

So word of advice at this point.  If you haven’t already (and judging by the amount of people we’ve met and told our story to, there’s a lot out there who haven’t) get the ‘full’ cover package from the RACV (or the equivalent in your state) not the basic cover... trust me, it pays for itself... many times over.  We got the Patrol and camper towed all the way back to Broome; paid for accommodation and hire car whilst the car was being fixed and it didn’t cost us anything (just a hefty mechanics bill mind you). In hind sight we should have said we were staying at the Cable Beach Club Resort rather than the caravan park, but hey, you live and learn.

So back to the breakdown (both mechanically and mentally). We waited 3 hours for the tow truck to arrive up to Cape Leveque and then had another 3 hour long slow drive all packed into the tow truck back to Broome.  The kids had a ball sitting in a little compartment area behind the seats though while we chewed the fat with the ‘towie’ as we made our way back down the dusty, sandy corrugated track.  I swear if there were 3,859,267 corrugations along that road... we hit every damn one of them.  Just like our trek across the Tanami, it was a relief to reach the bitumen... by a factor of a bazillion.

Finally back at Broome CP with the camper set up, and Patrol off to the mechanics we breathed a slight sigh of relief. What started at 7am that day ended at 6pm.  People ask us how we like Cape Leveque... well after two visits and two break downs we have our own name for it now... Cape Le-f*%@-que.  The place is cursed for us.  (May be we need to return the shrunken voodoo head we took from there last time!? I dunno) 

While waiting for the Patrol to get fixed (which apparently required gold plated parts to be sent from Perth) we again whittled away our time (courtesy of the RACV) back at the pool and soaking up the sun.  As we kept saying “There are worse places to be stuck at”.

More pool work.

We also had Ben and Ashley’s birthday as well.  They were wrapped to celebrate their birthdays in Broome and both had fantastic days.  (Ben’s on the 12^th and Ash’ on the 16^th).

After the present opening, we had a Macca’s breakfast to start off Benny’s day and more swimming in the pool.  After lunch we had his echidna shaped cake, which we had to light and sing happy b’day to in the tent because of the breeze.  By the time we’d done that we’d all worked up a sweat and the cake was looking pretty melted too!

Hold that pose while I take a photo.

The birthday boy.

To finish off his day Ben chose to go to the Sun pictures outdoor cinema to see Hotel Transylvania.  That’s a great experience; sitting on deck chairs with a choc top, with fruit bats flying over head (which was very appropriate given the movie), watching the geckos crawl over the screen... all under the flight path for the airport.  So every so often, the movie would get drowned out whilst the latest container of tourists makes their way to paradise. 

Gold Class Broome style.

For Ash’s b’day it was more ‘pool work’ in the morning.  Ash’s choice for her cake was Charlie the Caterpillar and fortunately we could light this one outside. 

The birthday girl... with new hairdo.

She also chose for us all to go on a camel ride in the afternoon along Cable Beach which is another awesome experience.  (She’s very generous like that with mum and dad’s money).

The camel train. Laurence of Arabia and daughter.

After that we headed up to the Sunset Bar (AGAIN!) overlooking Cable Beach for a drink and dinner.  The kids thought it was hilarious when the brazen seagulls kept swooping down trying to grab the chips. We also went to the outdoor cinemas again that night for more bat/gecko/plane spotting... oh and to see Madagascar 3.

More sunset cocktails.

So after many calls to the mechanic (day after day), the green light was given and the Patrol was ready to go again.  After dropping the hire car off it was good to get back into ‘silver’ (as the kids have now named the Patrol) so that we could once again get organised for the next part of our holiday... to the Pilbara.