Our last two days in Broome were spent preparing for the long trip home as well as catching up on some last minute sight seeing activities. On mum's last night, we packed some drinks and afternoon tea, deflated the tyres, and drove onto Cable Beach with countless others north of the Cable Beach Club to watch the sunset, camels and general people watching whilst sipping on a G&T. The girls raced around playing and drawing in the sand - it always makes them so happy. Paul and I made the most of mum's company by asking her to mind the kids while we headed into town to Sun Pictures Outdoor Cinema - the world's "oldest picture garden" - to see the new X-Men movie. Sitting in deck chairs for several hours isn't normally that comfortable so we came pre-armed with some cushions for extra comfort.

We left Broome early on Thursday June 12th and drove an uneventful 380km to Eighty Mile Beach. The road in towards the coast was a little bumpy but nothing serious, and the caravan park was a big surprise for being in the middle of nowhere - cafe, mini-mart, grassy camp sites and plenty of people. The draw-cards are fishing (not our thing) and shell collecting on the amazing beach. While the tides aren't as high as Broome's (which can get to 9 metres), we arrived right on low tide and we walked out for around 500 metres before seeing sign of small waves. Loads of great shells on the beach too - cone shells, kaurie, scallop to name a few. There was a full moon to boot.

We could easily have stayed in this very pleasant spot for several days, but south beckoned (and the wind was picking up) so we headed off again early next morning.The initial 'plan' was to stay in Dampier, home of the infamous 'Red Dog' statue, and plenty of mining stuff, however someone told us that the caravan park was right near the iron ore filling port that operated 24/7 so we checked out the Lonely Planet on my Kindle for some other options. Point Samson, touted as the best accommodation in a non-industrial area, was our next overnight destination. The caravan park had everything we needed, but wasn't particularly spectacular, and we enjoyed a walk down to the small cove where a fishing boat sat up on a rock and watched the moon rise over the Indian Ocean - big and yellow she was too, and the wind was picking up even more.Early the next morning, we drove around the brand spanking new roads, bridges and bypasses around Karratha (read Rio Tinto land) and into Dampier. Named after a so-called pirate, this fellow was hanging around the west coast of Australia complaining about the flies a good 100 years before James Cook. The small mining town has huge salt mines and big rigs everywhere, and looks like a lot of money has gone into infrastructure as the bypass we took looked brand new. Dampier also happens to be home to a little Aussie legend called "Red Dog', a red kelpie who travelled up and down the west coast on trucks, mining rigs, buses and cars during the 1970's and a very popular movie was made about him based on a book by Louis de Bearniers. (This for the non-Aussie's among readers). Onto Exmouth we went, arriving mid-afternoon.