If last week was marine week, this week has definitely been reptile week! However, despite a few scaly scares we've slipped into the relaxed way of life locals call "Broome time" far too easily!

Our bus trip to Broome went well and seemed to pass quicker than we thought it would. We did have a fairly anxious last few hours on the road though. When we were about five hours out of Broome we came across the Greyhound bus coming the other way pulled over at the side of the road with a flat tyre. They didn't have a spare (!!) so we had to give them ours before completing the remaining part of our journey with our fingers crossed that we didn't suffer the same fate (there would be no other Greyhound bus to help us!) We got to Broome late in the evening and after some exceptional chatting up from Chelle, the bus driver offered to give us a lift in his car to our Caravan Park as it was only a few hundred yards from his house! Great service Greyhound!

On Sunday we scoped out Broome town centre and after some shopping and early tea, headed to Broome's micro brewery Matso's for some live music and some pretty interesting beers (mango, chilli and alcoholic ginger beer to name a few). We then went to a pub called the "Beer and Satay Hut" for the highlight of Broome's sporting calendar - crazy crab racing! A raffle system is used to determine who gets a crab in each race then prize money is awarded for 1st and 2nd places. We got crabs (!) in three out of the five races but unfortunately picked badly as none of our crabs came in any where near 1st or 2nd! It was really good fun and the compere, with his oversized crab hat, was a comedy genius!

The next day we took the bus over to the much hyped Cable Beach - 22km of sandy beach. We weren't disappointed - the sea was an amazing colour and temperature (the hottest sea Chelle and I have ever experienced at 29 degrees). Although at around midday the lifeguards pulled everyone out of the water as someone had been stung by a jellyfish! The sea was closed for the rest of the day. Chelle and I rewarded our hard days sunbathing in 37 degree heats with a beer at the Sunset Bar whilst, aptly, watching our first spectacular Broome sunset.

On Tuesday we headed into town again in the morning then spent the afternoon on Town Beach - a much smaller beach on the other side of the Broome peninsular to cable beach but right by our caravan park. Showers in the evening got interesting when I entered the mens shower block to find a huge snake up on the wall! Chelle then saw another one on the way back from the ladies shower block. We went to bed that night fearing some sort of snakes on plane style scenario in our caravan!

Wednesday had a bit of an animal theme to it. We again took the bus over towards Cable Beach in the morning, but this time our first stop once there was the Broome Crocodile Park. Malcolm Douglas (a lesser-known Steve Irwin type) opened the park in 1983 due to the need to relocate crocs from the wild after they were terrorizing various Outback communities (eating dogs, horses etc). We learnt that the crocs cannot simply be relocated in the wild because they are known to return to their previous territory - as a result, they have to either be shot, or placed in a conservation park. The park has hundreds of crocs - saltwater crocodiles ('salties') some of which were over 5m long, the slightly smaller freshwater crocodiles ('freshies'), as well as alligators, that have been brought over from the US. After a self-guided walk around the park, where we winced at the meer sight of the eyes peering at us from out of the water, we then joined a guided tour and the fun began! Our guide was great. He told us all about the crocs - their anatomy, the differences between the various types and their breeding and feeding habits. We learnt that crocs are extremely territorial and the only thing they are scared of is that another bigger croc is around the corner. This was proven without doubt when a cyclone hit Broome in 2000, knocking down all of the metal fences that act as barriers around the crocs' pens. Not one croc moved from their pen! As well as throwing some of the crocs chicken heads to eat, our guide 'played' with some of the larger salties by throwing a plastic ball attached to a rope into their pens and into the water where the crocs were hidden beyond view. Right on cue, after a few attempts to rouse the croc, it would suddenly leap from the water to attack the 'intruder'. It was terrifying and we soon learnt that we were better off standing a few steps back from the metal fence separating us from the croc! At the end of the tour we were introduced to a three month old saltie and given the opportunity to hold him! He was only about 30cms long, but could grow to around 6 metres (and weigh up to a tonne) in 30-40 years. Of course, we both held him!

After the Crocodile Park, we headed over to Cable Beach to do some well-deserved relaxing, before the evening's activity... a sunset camel ride across the beach! Broome is well-known for this - every picture that we've seen of Cable Beach whilst in Australia has shown the sillouette of camels on the beach against the backdrop of a stunning sunset - so of course we had to get a picture of us doing this! The tour kicked off at 4.15pm and we were quickly assigned our camel - Amos - and asked to climb up! This, and the dismount, were the most scary parts of the trip as the camel isn't very graceful at getting up or down, so you're thrown around a bit! The ride lasted an hour - we headed down to the shore and walked along the beach, before turning around and heading back as the sun set beside us. All the while, the tour guides were running along beside us with our cameras taking lots of shots of us, so we've ended up with some great photos! After climbing down from Amos, we got to feed him a treat for bearing our weight for so long - a couple of carrots - yum!

By Thursday, the heat had got to us both a little bit. After a wander to town and a look around Chinatown, including Johnny Chi Lane, we chilled out in our air-conditioned caravan for the afternoon. That evening, the Staircase to the Moon was happening over Roebuck Bay, where we were staying. This is where reflections of the full moon rising over the mud flats create what looks like stairs leading up to the moon. It occurs a few nights a month when the tides are very low and we were lucky enough to be in Broome when it was occuring two nights in a row. Our camera wasn't quite able to capture what we saw - it was pretty amazing to see the bright red moon rising up over the horizon.

On Friday, our last full day in Broome, we caught the bus over to Cable Beach again for a last day of lazing in the sun. Whilst there we found out that the appeal that we made against the fine that we were issued back in Victoria for sleeping in a public place was successful! Yay, we are able to leave the country not as fugitives!! On Friday evening, we again watched the Staircase to the Moon.

This morning we had a fry-up before leaving our caravan - a real treat! We are currently on route to the airport - we fly to Perth today, then onto Singapore from there tomorrow. Asia awaits....