Leaving Perth on the 11 November we caught an internal flight up to Broome which is right at the top of the West Coast and pretty much the gateway to Northern Oz. We landed late afternoon and were not surprised when they opened the cabin doors and the humidity hit us! It was hot but we managed to make our way to the Wicked Camper Office. Now when we say office it was pretty much a boat yard, Ben and I had prepared ourselves for the more rustic nature of our home for the next month but we hadn't consider an ants nest or that we would be sat on the engine of the van for the next 17 days..... On the plus side we actually had a pretty tame van no rude sayings or drawings on the van - once you see the photo you will understand what we mean.

We checked into a campsite with a pool which in Broome at this time of year, with no aircon is a must!! That night we ventured down to Cable beach and it is a vast expanse of beach that once connected Oz to Indonesia, we watched a few weddings take place and attempted to cool down with a paddle in the beautiful Indian Ocean but it was like getting into a bath.

Having spent a very hot night in the Wicked it was not hard to see why they call this time of year 'silly season' the only relief from the heat was in the pool and even then it wasn't that cold. We hit the beach in the morning before it got too hot and had our first real dip in the Indian Ocean and then spent the afternoon exploring china town and the pearling area. Later that afternoon we made our way to Gantheaume Point a cliff top where at low tide you can climb down to view 120 million year old dinosaur footprints.

Leaving Broome and the heat behind us we made our way South to a homestead called Barn Hill about an hour and half outside of Broome which was recommended by family member. As we turned off the main highway we began a 9k drive along a very red dusty dirt road, going through a number of cattle gates, neither of us were not sure what to expect. We pulled into the main camping area it became pretty clear that we were above the beach on the cliffs and had the most fantastic view of the sea and finally some relief from the heat with a cool sea breeze. That afternoon we did a four hour hike along the beach, with its white sand, turquoise blue ocean and red cliffs it was pretty spectacular. We returned to the campsite in time for sunset and a few beers!

The campsite is described as rustic as the shower and toilets are all outside by day not a problem by night you are showering with frogs and any number of large bugs! That said we would recommend this campsite to anyone, the staff were really friendly and it's a beautiful spot.

Next stop on the journey south was Eighty Mile Beach, the plan was to just pull in and spend a few hours on the beach before getting on the road again. But on arrival we noticed that the beach was a turtle rookery and neither of us wanted to miss the opportunity to view Loggerhead turtles laying their eggs. We met some really lovely Aussies at the campsite, who that morning had been fishing on the beach and offered us some freshly caught Blue Salmon. Ben was very jealous when i cooked it up for dinner that night, it was a perfect piece of fish and so fresh.... We set our alarm for 12.30pm and managed to drag ourselves out of the van and down onto the beach and it was long before we were rewarded with the sight of a loggerhead turtle covering over her eggs and then making her way back to the sea. It's a pretty special experience and given that each female produces 100 eggs each and only one in a thousand turtles will make it back to the beach to lay their eggs in the future, and depending on the temperature of the sand hot for male turtles and cold for females you realise just how precious our world is!