Leg 3:

Flew into exmouth and picked up the car from the airport and headed into town. Checked into the same backpackers I stayed in last time and headed out for a surf.

My original plans were to only spend a night in Broome and then head north but when I got there I found out that it was the opening weekend of the whale shark season so there was a whale shark festival on over the next three days.

I went to the dive shop next door and they said there was no whale shark dives going out on friday so I figured I would see what Friday held and play it by year from there.

Went to the pub for dinner and ended up running into Mark - the BHP Project Manager for Jimblebar who was there on holiday.

Sat down with him for a few beers and ended up making plans to head around the headland and go surfing/snorkling in the morning (The rest of his family had flown back to perth that morning and he wasnt flying back until the next afternoon).

Mark and I drove up to the surf break and there wasnt alot going on (Its was a fairly windy weekend) so we headed further around to some more shelterd bays. Mark pointed out the best spots as we drove along and ended up pulling into a beach that is good a drift snorkle spot (The current takes you along the beach so you dont have to kick, you just float along).

Was pretty amazing little reef (Ningallo Reef) saw some amazingly coloured fish, a turtle and a shovel nosed ray.

Dropped Mark back at his house and then went back to the hostel for a shower. Started talking to two girls who were staying in my room and they told me about a dive place that was going out on Saturday and that you could bargain with the price, so I went down there and booked in a dive for $300 (Normally $380) for Saturday morning.

Went up for a surf and then headed back for dinner and drinks at the hostel.

Saturday morning went out snorkelling with the Whale sharks. We saw 4 or 5 WHale sharks each, was an amazing experience (Was cooler in the phillippines because the sharks were bigger and they didnt enforce the distance requirements so you could swim right on top of them and not just to the side).

The two girls from the Hostel (Emelie & Michelle), another girl from the whale shark tour (HIllary) and I went for a wander through the Exmouth festival (Not alot there) and then headed out to the surf beach to watch the sunset and have a few beers.

Sunday morning Emelie, Michelle, HIllary, a girl in HIllary's hostel and I all jumped in the car and I took them on a tour around the west side of the penninsula. We saw a few turtles and some rays etc. Dropped HIllary and her friend (Cant remember her name) back at their hostel and then drove Emelie and Michelle down to Coral Bay.

Had lunch at a bakery in Coral Bay, which is a really beautiful little bay although its fairly over populated and a bit touristy.

Said goodbye to Emelie & Michelle and headed north, planning to get to Dampier.

Didnt quite make it to Dampier so I pulled off at a rest stop about 150km south of Dampier and spent the night there. Headed off first thing in the morning and had breakfast in Dampier. Stopped at the Red Dog statue on the way into town. On the road into/out of town there is these cool little statues in the salt pans beside the road (There was the lockness monster, a salt shaker, a shark victim with shark fins and one of the titanic).

Pulled into Port Hedland (Finicuane Island) and had a look at the BHP loadout facility. It is just enormous.

Headed north after Lunch in Port Hedland and planned to get as close to broome as possible.

Pulled off the highway about 400km South of Broome and the car died.

Tried to start the car and the battery died so I pulled off the road and swapped to my spare battery. There was absolutley no charge so I swapped back in the original battery and flagged down a stranger to get a jump start, jumper cables didnt work so we unhooked his boat and he towed me along trying to jump start the car that way. The car had compression but it was starting so we stopped and had a closer look at the battery... Long story short the mechanic had installed the immobiliser using a dodgy connection so when I had pulled off the road the imobiliser had pulled out and stopped the car. Stripped off the wire and wrapped it around the connection, and after a few sincere thanks to the guy that helped me out I headed north again.

Got about 300 km south of Broome and pulled into a rest area where I spent the night.

Got into Broome around 10am and went for a cruise around Cable Beach and Gantheame Point. Was walking around the rocks at Gantheame point and walked around the corner and there was Miranda Kerr shooting a commercial for DJs.

Went into town and met the Couchsurfer I was to stay with, Jazz, Jazz and I had a drink at the pub then she went off to Netball training while I drove over to Cable Beach to watch the sunset.

Wednesday morning I sat around in the Hammock reading until I had to head to the airport to fly back to work. I left the car with Jazz in her Carpark.