Had an easy run from Derby to Broome and found a spot at Broome Caravan Park for $48/night. This would end up being the most expensive park on our trip, although we did not know that at the time!! We had visited Broome once before, in 1998, for Luke & Kiyomi's wedding. The place has certainly grown since that visit though the centre of town still retains a lot of its original character. When we took a drive to Cable Beach to watch the sunset we had great difficulty finding a parking spot, very different from our previous visit.

The atmosphere was still relaxed and next day when we drove up the beach and saw the camels, there were lots of families having picnics and enjoying the beautiful beach. We went to the Cable Beach Resort and sat on the terrace having a drink and taking in the ambience of the place.

We wanted to go and visit Cape Leveque so had booked a campspot at Cygnet Bay Pearlfarm where there was no access for caravans. We had borrowed a tent from Luke & Joy which they had used successfully on their trip 8months previously and had our swag and basic camping gear which we figured would be enough for two nights.

The drive was uneventful, this included about 100k's of clay/sand that over the years, has become like a drain with some serious corrugations in places that slowed us down a bit. We finally reached our destination and after some searching, found our campsite. It was a nice secluded spot, this place is in the process of developing the tourist side of their business and guests need 4wd as the roads are pretty much loose sand. All the campsites are quite private and have power and water. There are also safari tents, cabins and a bunkhouse but none of these had been available when we tried to book.....it was tent or nothing - surely we could survive for just two nights!!!!

After setting up our camp we went for a wander around the area, it has a lovely outlook near the beach and we were tempted to go for a swim but it was getting late so we decided to get a fire going and relax before dinner. We turned in early for the night, everything was peaceful and calm - until about midnight, then the wind started!! Not merely a gentle breeze, full on wind which huffed and puffed until eventually one side of the tent collapsed and we were running around in the dark trying to get it back into place. John moved the car in front of the tent to try and create a wind break and we tied the tent TO the car in an attempt to stabilise things. Consequently we spent the remainder of the night praying for morning to come without being blown back to Broome. Neither of us got much sleep and even in the morning the wind did not let up.... We put the tent down so that it would be ok while we went out for the day and had a look around the peninsula. Sadly, the wind kept up all that day so we probably didn't appreciate the beauty of the place as much as we could have.

Still windy the next night as well. We went to the restaurant and had a lovely dinner and this time we made sure that the tent was securely tied down and things stayed in place for us. Thank goodness - we couldn't have coped with another night like the previous one!!. Next morning we were heading back to Broome, we had left the van at the caravan park to keep it on power so we knew that it would be fine for another day. We had hoped to take a tour of the pearl farm before we left but unfortunately it was cancelled at the last minute, a portent of things to come as we soon discovered !!

We had AN ADVENTURE!!!!!!

We set off back towards Broome at around 9.15am and were travelling nicely. Left the bitumen and had proceeded about 10k's onto the dirt road when we were confronted by vehicles turning around and coming back towards us. What the????? Next moment we were approached by a RFS guy who informed us that due to a fire up ahead, we would have to go back about 30k's and wait until they reopened the road which could be quite a while as they were going to backburn!!!! Bearing in mind that the wind was still blowing as before, who were we to argue.......

So off we tootled, along with a dozen or so others, to our designated location. We were not overly concerned and assumed that we would be on our way again in a few hours, meanwhile we put the awning out on the car, got out our table & chairs and proceeded to have our lunch. As we were finishing up, we were approached by a woman who said that some VIPs needed to get back to Broome and they were being taken back via an unpublicised route which rejoined the highway about 120ks from Broome and anyone who wanted to tag along was welcome, 4wd required. The catch was that there was about 130ks of dirt 'track' which would most likely take about 2.5hours all going well!

John quickly signed up, an opportunity not to be missed, so we hurriedly packed our gear and took up our position as the 5th and final vehicle in the convoy. We duly set off and soon enough saw why the track is not well known..... two wheel ruts over mostly sand and overhung with trees and bushes which slapped up the sides of the car at every turn. The VIPs were obviously in a big hurry (turns out it was the Director of Main Roads and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Transport Minister for WA - on an inspection tour of the area) as they set a cracking pace!!! John was not game to take his eyes off the road for a second, we were in the middle of nowhere and didn't want to lose sight of the other vehicles.

Two and a half hours later we emerged at the highway. During the journey one of the extension mirrors was ripped off and I'm sure that all the fillings in our teeth were loosened!!! Luckily none of the vehicles encountered any major problems, everyone made it through unscathed and went on their respective ways.

I took over the driving once we got onto the highway, John was exhausted but still buzzing from the adventure and we finally made it back to the van about 5pm where we collapsed into our chairs with a well deserved cold beer. As it happened, the road remained closed all night - had we not gone with the convoy we would have been camping on the side of the road for the night....not a pleasant thought especially after our camping experiences of the previous two nights !!!