Broome, here we go again, Sunday 1.11

Broome, 17 57 S, 122 14 E, 0000 km (nulled out the distance!)

I drove the trusty Wicked camper into the parking lot at Broome airport on Thursday evening to collect Ros coming from Perth, decided to park somewhere else, turned the key to start, and no response apart from a faint click. After 4,500 km without any problems it would go no further. We took a taxi back to the Backpackers' and spent Friday morning waiting for help, Ros taking picture of me and camper. When help finally came and started her up, diagnosis was dead battery - "Take her in without stopping again!" Which we duly did and exchanged her for a little Suzuki 4WD jeep which Ros has been driving happily ever since, both of us living life "Broometime", relaxing in the tropical heat

Nice little place Broome, population 15,000 and up to twice as many tourists in the busy Australian winter from June to September, but now it's quiet (and very hot and sticky) as the build-up to the wet continues. We've done most of the sites - the dinosaur footprints, the crocodile farm, Chinatown, the history of pearling here, the cemetries of the Japanese and Chinese pearl divers - we even took a long scenic flight northwestwards yesterday to the "Horizontal waterfalls" (with a 10-12 m tidal difference, giant surges gush through narrow inlets) , seeing the endless beaches and mangroves of the (largely deserted) desert islands of the Buccaneer archipelago and swimming from paradise spot Cape Leveque - a spectacular and very bumpy flight in a tiny Cessna 210, piloted by Jeremy, who didn't look old enough to be out of high school...... Tonight we're going to the famous Sun outdoor cinema to sit in deckchairs under the stars and watch Meryl Streep in "Julie and Julia", then tomorrow off on the over 3,000 km next leg southwards to Perth - Watch this spot!