We made the dash from Middle Lagoon to Port Smith after a brief fuel and food stop in Broome. Port Smith is at the northeastern end of Eighty Mile Beach and because we were only planning to stay there one night, we had pre-booked an on-site cabin. The next day we drove onto the beach near Eighty Mile Beach caravan park, where lots of shells were collected.... read more

We arrived at Vacation Village to discover that all the sites were very cosy (to put it nicely) and our tent site was right up against the fence next to Port road. So we had to contend with lots of traffic noise, including that of heavy trucks driving to and from the wharf at all hours of the night. The park also required a coded push button entry to the toilets, which was a bit of a nuisance - there were lots and lots of complaints from fellow campers, especially the older ones who had trouble reading the numbers. Having said all that, we got used to the noise pretty quickly and the park had a nice pool, which the kids frequented a couple of times. Believe it or not, Broome gave us our first taste ... read more

On 27 June, we headed into the Bungle Bungle (Purnululu National Park) for another 3 nights. We spent a leisurely day doing the northern walks (Mini Palms walk, Echidna Chasm, lookout) and another day around Picaninny Creek (lookout, Cathedral Gorge, Domes walk). Thomas was quite proud that we went 3 nights without a shower. The campsite at Kurrajong was great with barbeques and concrete fireplace rings with firewood supplied (you can't take in your own to prevent unwanted weeds/pests from entering the park). Apparently firewood is one of the park's biggest overheads but it would be a shame if fires were banned as is the case in Karijini National Park.... read more

After much planning we finally hit the road on Monday 23 June 2008, leaving our beloved home and mutt behind. The car is packed (and fully loaded), the tank is full and the children on board. Wish us luck as we show the kids (and us) some more of Oz. We are heading off in a general anti-clockwise direction, travelling across the top of Western Australia, down the west coast, across the bottom of WA and into South Australia. We'll head through Victoria in summer and, depending on how we're doing for time, into Tasmania. Then up the east coast (New South Wales, Queensland) around Autumn. From there we hope to go up to Cape York if there's time and the road is open after the Wet, and then back home to Darwin. We hope to ... read more