After our trip to Cape Leveque we returned to Broome to restock and relax some more by the pool (yes we fell in love with Broome). Some highlights of our return to Broome were hanging with our friends we'd made there, Fiona visiting the Horizontal Falls (there is a seperate blog entry for this), watching the AFL grand final, hanging on the beach and celebrating Zoe's Birthday.

The main reason that we returned to Broome for another 5 days was so that Zoe could celebrate her 7th birthday in the comfort of a great place. Zoe had a great birthday which included presents, pancakes for breakfast, a small party, streamers, balloons, buying a new bike and a bbq on the beach. She had an absolute blast!

We had made quite a few friends in Broome so when we returned both us and our kids were excited to hang out again. Many of them had been staying at the caravan park for a couple of months. On Zoe's Birthday we invited all the people we had met to join us on the beach for sunset drinks and a BBQ. It was a privilege to hang with these friends who all call different places home. All the kids played on the beach while the adults chatted. It was a great way to end the day.

A few pics from Zoe's beach party:

I (Fiona) got the opportunity to visit the Horizontal Falls. This is a natural phenomenon that occurs because of the large tides in the North of WA. It occurs when water from an isolated lake rushes through a small opening between 2 rocky cliffs. There is also another opening that is a bit larger.

My day began by being picked up at 5:30 am to be taken to the airport. I boarded a 12 seater sea plane and got to ride shot gun. I was a bit nervous about the flight as I'm not usually good with planes but I was pleasantly surprised how good it was. The flight to the Horizontal Falls took an hour and it was beautiful seeing the sunrise rising through the clouds. After viewing the Horizontal Falls from the air the sea plane touched down on Talbot Bay. It was very cool to land on the water and not bumpy at all.

After we hopped off the plane we gathered around to watch the staff feed to lemon sharks which we between 2 and 3 m long. We could hop into a tank to take a closer look at the sharks and because I wanted to have the whole experience I jumped in. Surprisingly, only one other person came in. It was very cool (and not scary) to see them from underwater.

We then were given a cooked breakfast before getting onto a jet boat to go through the Horizontal Falls. It was amazing and fun! After that the boat slowed down and took us into some of the gorges near by. We headed back into the plane to head home via the islands and coast line of One Arm Point, Cape Leveque and Middle Lagoon.

This was by far one of the coolest things I have done in my life and if you ever get the chance go for it!!

Photos from my trip to the Horizontal Falls:

Here is the link to the promotional YouTube clip of it if you are interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2gxFvLp0Is

After leaving Middle Lagoon we went further north to Cape Leveque. We stayed at the Kooljamon resort in a private beach shelter which was a very short walk to the swimming beach.

Just a short drive from Cape Leveque is the community of One Arm Point. Our friend Mark Wasley grew up here and so we were very interested to see the sights. We visited the hatchery/aquarium and saw some different marine life. The coastline and beaches of One Arm Point are very unique and beautiful. The tides are so big that water in the sea flows like a river, which was an amazing sight. We saw sharks in the water from the top of the cliff. We got the opportunity to meet some of Mark's friends which helped us to understand why he is the way he is!

While at Cape Leveque we also visited the Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm. This pearl farm was the first wholly Australian owned pearl farm. We enjoyed the tour there and also had a lovely lunch at their cafe.

Some photos:

After finding it very hard to leave Broome (we ended up staying 10 nights instead of 5) we headed off to Middle Lagoon. We took the opportunity to camp on the edge of the cliff to take in some spectacular views. This left us exposed to the elements and we experienced some very strong winds. I had forgotten to put the trailer brakes on and hence the trailer decided to make its way along the sand. Luckily it didn't get very far before we noticed !!!

The area was home to some remarkable beaches, the most notable was the following (the photo doesn't do it justice).

To be honest we were not really sure what to expect from Broome ... once we got here we found it a little difficult to leave, hence we stuck around for over a week.

We stayed at the Cable Beach caravan park and we were set up barely 10 meters from the pool so we spent a lot of time swimming with the girls. Here are a couple of photos of the girls taken with the GoPro in the pool:

We went for an afternoon camel ride along Cable Beach which was fantastic. Lucy found it a little boring and fell asleep in my arms! Zoe loved it so much she now wants to buy a camel. Luckily enough we don't have room for a camel in the trailer so she will have to wait a while!

More from Broome to follow ... I'm off to relax some more!

This is a nice grassy caravan park seemingly in the middle of nowhere! The beach is beautiful and covered in some very pretty shells. The girls spent hours looking for special treasures to take with them.

I spent one morning at high tide fishing and not willing to break with tradition … caught NOTHING!

We continue to meet some very nice people and at Eighty Mile Beach it was no exception. There were a group of people from Victoria camped behind us who were part of a fishing club. They did infinitely better than me in the fishing department and were nice enough to give us enough fish for 5 meals. Having just typed that, it has occurred to me that I should just quit fishing and start making friends with fishermen who can provide us with fresh, filleted fish! They even cooked it for us one night … could it get any better?

The girls made lots of friends again and even got invited to a 4 year old birthday party which they thought was brilliant.

We are off to Broome now so stay posted. If you would like to know when we have made a new post to this blog, you can put your email address in the box in the right hand column and click subscribe, then follow the instructions. You will be emailed the new blog entry when it goes live.

Some photos from Eighty Mile Beach taken with my new GoPro camera:

We are aiming to keep our driving to a maximum of 400km per leg as this seems to be the limit of what the girls (mainly Lucy) is able to handle without completely loosing it. We are also trying to stay at each place for a minimum of 3 nights as this is the limit of what Fiona and I are able to handle with setting up and packing up! Having said this, we have done two single night stops to get to where we are now, one was at the Robe River rest area where it was that dusty that the dust had dust on it and the other was in the Big 4 caravan park in Port Hedland that, while being very pleasant, cost us $75 for the night!

Fathers day occurred when were at Robe River and my beautiful girls got me a GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition camera (I get the impression that Fiona may have helped them buy it). I am one very lucky dad! Photos and videos from this remarkable little camera to follow!

We then stopped at Cape Keraudren for 3 nights. It is a beautiful spot and we are beginning to see the massive tides that occur up in this part of Australia.

We met a very nice man named Selby who was staying there for 3 months. He was great with the kids and was very keen to help me with a bit of fishing knowledge (and anyone who knows me knows I am in need of a lot!). Selby took me out to the point at low tide and we spent a couple of hours getting our lines wet. I managed to catch a few undersized bream but that was it unfortunately. There we some very large fish to be had but they seemed to be able to chomp through 50 pound line without a problem so they got away.

Each morning we took a dip at the beach which was very pleasant. One morning we were surprised to see a dugong leisurely swimming through the water barely 50 meters away which was pretty cool.

The one down side of Cape Keraudren were the sand flies (or biting midgies). We all got attacked so are a little itchy now … but we have some good drugs so everything will be OK !!!!! Needless to say, we are now actively avoiding places that are renowned for these little buggers because they have a tendency to make life a little bit miserable unfortunately.

A photo of the sunset at Cape Keraudren for your viewing pleasure: