All over the map

It's too early for the roadhouse to be open and anyway the adblue bowser is blocked by a road train, so with only a dribble of adblue in the tank we hit the road. An hour later we park roadside at a set of one way bridges where crocodiles are known to lurk and Droney is off on a mission.    “Shit, I’ve lost it!” Ben mutters, droney’s gone offline and is somewhere over crocodile infested waters. I can literally hear Ben thinking about venturing into the long grass beside the river to search for the drone. But instead he calculates the last known position, peers into the sky, makes a few moves on the joysticks and w e hear Droney off to the south. With visual confirmation Ben directs him back to the van, another lucky save, but no crocodile sightings.   The adblue light comes on, we stopped earlier to buy a gallon container of the stuff but there were no funnels to actually get it in the tank, but now we just need to find a way to get it in. So with some kiwi ...

The Roadhouse at the Broome turnoff is a cool refuge from the heat, everyone is hot and hungry so we pile through the door into a diner straight out of America, its walls decorated with numberplates, cheap souvenir merch, there's sports on the tv and beer swillers holding up the bar. It even smells of American food. Most of these big roadhouses have a separate area for the trucks to fill up as the road trains here are incredibly long. We pull up next to one of the biggest ones we’ve seen and he’s topping up his adblue on the right and has two diesel tanks filling on the left. My jaw drops as I see just how much fuel is going in, $1500 later - check the photo. We bust down the road and almost miss the poorly signposted Crocodile Farm. We enter through the jaws of the crocodile where we hold baby crocodiles and watch the fully grown ones eat their lunch. The noise of the jaws as they snap the meat being lobbed at them is more terrifying than the stanky smell of their pond. As the...

Paved and curbed roads, gravel lots filled with families and minimal grass is how I can describe the campground at Exmouth. The sky is clear and its 36 degrees so the two pools are a bonus. It's about 2kms to town so we pull out the scooters and hoon off to chill at Froth the local craft brewery. The strangest thing about Exmouth is the two small IGA supermarkets which sit on opposite sides to the small pedestrian street which is town, sometimes you need to shop at both just to get what you need. There's a cool vibe here and we enjoy chilling out. Back at camp we check out pool number 1 which has large red rocks on the edge and they're perfect for jumping off which Alila does until a man tells us off. Soon enough there's a pair of young boys doing exactly the same but this time there's an angry mother not pleased he's telling off her boys so then there's angry words being thrown from lounger to poolside just as Ben arrives, poor guy thinks he's walked i...

We have high hopes for Coral Bay but it’s all going to be down to the beach as that is all there really is. We’re lucky to get a spot for one night and arrive after lunch to set up, Ben reckons he’s got down to 2min now.  We grab masks and our 1 snorkel and hit the beach. It's strange but some of the beaches here are pongy, though to be honest the overwhelming number of flies make it seem ten times smellier than it probably is. Ben takes the girls for a swim while I check out the place recommended for snorkeling, I wave the others over and Ben and Alila head out but are soon back to report that it's too murky to see anything but we do spot some big fish that swim by. I have a quick snorkel but its way to murky for me.  Later April and I hang on the beach together while she makes mermaids like Ruby showed her. Our neighbors back at camp are celebrating an 11th birthday and Ben and Alila are over next door to help blow out the candles on the tiramisu.  Our...

The Ocean Aquarium is on our way, as we leave today, so we stop in and the carpark is already full, I dash in and get the last 4 spots on the next tour. Although this is a small aquarium consisting mostly of waist high tanks with open tops they contain very interesting creatures and our trusty guide Josh with his booming voice keeps us informed and entertained as we move from tank to tank. As the group huddles in close around each tank he reminds us to keep our hands out. The first contains two sea snakes, they’re super poisonous but rarely bite, Josh says they’re just too friendly, one is looking super friendly right now as it wavers up stretching toward the teenage girl opposite us, she backs away as its head stretches up above the lip of the tank.   There’s box fish, puffer fish, stonefish and lionfish its like a who’s who of the most dangerous creatures in the world and they all reside in the waters near here on the coast of Western Australia. The tanks are all connected by pi...