Finally, yes, finally I managed to leave Exmouth (it had been looking pretty risky that I'd be stuck there for all eternity). Before heading out I joined some of the other detainees in renting a car to drive down to the beautiful Coral Bay, just over an hour South. There's not much there except for the beach and a few houses and shops but the beach was absolutely stunning - the water was so clear and shallow that if you stood knee deep in the ocean you could see fish swimming by your ankles. I even had a sting ray wandering around by my feet, but I made sure not to get to close what with the old Steve Irwin death thing never too far from my mind. RIP Stevo. Had a lovely day and enjoyed a good few ciders in the bar before making our way back and everyone agreed it made a nice change to actually do something that didn't involve wiling away hours in Exmouth. The drive back wasn't entirely uneventful as we had the pleasure of busting a tire on the way, which luckily my fellow passengers were able to fix. I helped by laughing and taking pictures.

So from Exmouth it was a 20 hour (!) bus journey up the coast to Broome. The trip went surprisingly quickly thanks to my good friend Nytol and the luck of having two seats to myself the whole way. Note to anyone attempting long journeys - sleep makes time go quickly. Just a little tip there.

I only spent a couple of days in Broome, and thanks to my excellent timing (a Sunday and a public holiday) I managed to arrive at a time when the town resembled the day of the living dead (i.e. nothing, but nothing was going on). I stayed nearby at Cable Beach which was lovely - there were real live camels on the beach, and the hostel was possibly one of the nicest I've stayed in, but was practically empty due to being completely out of season. The wet season meant that there were some fantastic rainstorms, and I enjoyed rolling around in the pool with a beer whilst being soaked by rain. Met a bundle of Kiwis and Oasis who took me under their wing and got me far drunker than I really needed to be, but I enjoyed it thoroughly anyway. I was officially the 'coolest POM' they'd ever met, apparently. They were drunk but I rather like the title, so I might make it my middle name. Laura 'coolest POM' Wilkins... it's got a certain ring to it, don't you think?

So there really wasn't much to report on Broome itself as I really didn't spend a lot of time in the town, but I had a great couple of days just lounging around in the pool and generally being a bit of a bum. The 'cities' and big towns in Australia take some getting used to, as there isn't necessarily a lot to do. The culture is less about history (Australia was only discovered about 5 minutes ago, although apparently there's some Aboriginal fellows around who might disagree) and more about relaxation, chilling out, nature, beaches, camping and all that malarkey. That's fine by me, it's great to relax, but I sometimes find I miss the history and sightseeing opportunities that you get in most European cities. Australia doesn't actually have villages, instead choosing to call a collection of 4 houses and a corner shop a 'town'. It's not a town, I promise, it's really not.

From Broome it was a flight up to Darwin - I favoured this 1 hour option over the 26 hour bus journey through rain flooded roads that was my other choice. The flight was lovely too as the plane stayed quite low, so I got a lovely view of the Kimberleys mountain range which spread beneath.

I found Darwin a really enjoyable place to visit, although I don't think I could have spent more than a few days there all in all. It was nice to head somewhere that was a little bit cooler - at a time when all of Australia was experiencing a heat-wave it was reported that Darwin was the coldest place in the country. I had to put a cardie on, it was THAT cold. Practically arctic. The hostel, Malauca on Mitchell, was really nice and had a pool and a bar, and the city was easy to move around. I'd hard some tales that it could be a bit violent at night, but I didn't see anything concerning. I enjoyed an incredibly drunken night at a bar called Vics, with a live band and $3 shots. Needless to say it got messy but was tons of fun.

Darwin is the main base for visiting the National Parks in the nearby area - Lichfield and Kakadu. I booked onto a tour to spend 3 days visiting both, and they were both beautiful. Unfortunately rain prevented us from experiencing as much as we wanted to , but we had the pleasure of visiting some lovely water falls and swimming lakes. There was an incredible trip to see wild jumping crocodiles. Well, they jump if you dangle meat above their heads. They were pretty terrifying but amazing to see. There was loads of other great wildlife too, including eagles, wallabies and these amazing ducks that mate for life - they're a protected species and if you were to shoot one of them then you'd be fined 2x $2,000 as the other one will die within a month from a broken heart. Ah.

The tour visited a beautiful Aboriginal cave art area, with ancient paintings depicting animals and stories. The scenery around this area was beautiful, really lush and green with huge rocks and hills to climb (one of which was in Crocodile Dundee dontcha' know). This was definitely my favorite part of the national park, with really fantastic views. On one of our hikes we were were met by a tropical rainstorm which soaked everyone to the bone - my brand new 'waterproof' hiking boots didn't really stand up to the test and I spent the rest of the hike expressing concerns about trench foot. Apparently it's not too much of an issue when your feet are only wet for half an hour. I felt pretty hard-core though, plus it gave me a chance to test out my super expensive (it cost me $10) and incredibly sexy (I looked like a cock) poncho. Kept me dry though. Bonus.

I enjoyed camping in the National Park - well, I say camping, but we were staying in huts. Not exactly roughing it, but we did get to enjoy all the discomforts of camping such as trekking to toilets in the middle of the night, being woken by cockatoos at 4am and being eaten to pieces by mossies. No word of a lie, I counted 35 bites on my right buttock alone. What a mosquito was doing checking out my arse I don't know, or how he bit through my trousers is another matter, but he was a dirty little runt and I would happily murder him and his family and dance merrily on their graves. That was night bugs. During the day we got flies. Hundreds of flies who loved nothing more than clambering all over me and perpetually invading my personal space. I could probably ignore them if they just wandered over my arm, neck, or hell, even my cheek. But these flies are curious little bleeders and their curiosity leads them to areas such as the mouth, ear, eye and nose, none of which are particular pleasant places to have invaded by meandering insects.

Insect rant aside, it was great to get out into the Australian wild and experience some of the country aside from small towns and beaches. Somewhere with fantastic views, exciting excursions, things to see, do, feel.

Basically, it wasn't Exmouth, and that was a really, really good thing.