Hello all!

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog but we haven't really had much to report on in the last few days. It seems as though we have either been on the beach or lazing by the pool... such a hard life!!!!

Since we last spoke we'd just arrived in Broome after a horrendous journey and we were unable to check into our room so we spent the morning having a look around the town and updating our blog. After lunch we finally got into our rooms and headed straight to the hostel pool which was lovely! The rest of the day was spent here relaxing, de-stressing after the journey & trying to get used to the sudden increase in temperature. Our last 2 days in Katherine had been 40C and it was 37C when we arrived in Broome - hot!

On our second day in Broome we again spent the morning by the pool before catching the free shuttle bus that the hostel put onto Cable Beach. This beach is listed as one of Australias top beaches and it definitely lived up to its reputation! The sand was lovely and golden/white, the seas were light blue & warm and the sun was shinning! To make things even better the waves had enough power for you to bodysurf for a few meters so many hours were spent there. Unfortunately however the waves weren't big enough for body/surfboards. One of our room mates had also told us that there are spectacular sunsets over the beach, but the problem we found was that the last bus back into town was an hour before sunset so we decided to head back to the hostel today but to check it out tomorrow when we knew the way back.

The following day mirrored the previous with us by the pool in the morning & then the beach by the afternoon, although we did wait for the sunset and what a sunset it was! It seemed to take ages for the sun to actually drop but when it did it shone across the sea giving off fantastic reds, oranges & yellows. And after waiting for so long it seemed to happen so quick. After this we decided whether to catch a taxi back or to walk. The sign said it was only 4kms so we both thought we'd be good and use the money for a meal out later in the week. This however ended up being a bad decision as we've now realised that all Oz distance signs always seem to knock a few km's off the actual distance!!! After walking for something like 1hr 20mins we finally made it back to the hostel looking like we'd just walked across the Sahara Dessert!!! The guys in our room were by the front door and burst out laughing when they saw us!!! After some dinner we collapsed in our room and slept like babies!

The following day was our last full day in Broome but unfortunately I wasn't feeling very good at all so most of the day was spent either in the pool trying to cool down or in the shade trying arrange the last leg of our trip down to Perth. To make things worse there was a power cut that hit around 7 and didn't come back on till 10pm so we didn't get any dinner. I also had a very high temperature so with no fan, air con or even a breeze we got ridiculously hot even just laying on our beds! Not a very comfortable night!!!

All in all though Broome was a very nice little town that had an amazing beach. We were hoping to go on a 3-4day tour of the Kimberley Ranges from here but the trips were either really expensive or had shut down for the year as its the start of the wet season for that area and everything gets flooded!!!! As a result we were up early he following morning to catch the bus down to Exmouth which is by the Ningaloo Reef National Park. This however consisted of another long bus journey which took us 22hrs - although no one snored or smelt so we could be grateful for that!

Hope everyone is well

Gavin and Helen