Jon managed to document a lot of our stops, almost up to present day, so now I’ll try to get the rest captured for posterity while we’re in one place for more than one night.

We arrived in Carnarvon from Kalbarri on Thursday, 20 Feb. The super friendly owner, Deano, had a sign setup to welcome us and gave us a tour of the grounds.

We checked out the town, got settled and then joined Deano and some other guests/friends of his for drinks. It was fun to get some local knowledge before heading in to make dinner and fall asleep watching Crocodile Dundee.

Carnarvon is the start of the “Coral Coast” and we’d read about an area with blow holes and a beach nearby called the aquarium for the good snorkeling so we decided to stop on our way out of town. The Quobba Blow Holes were super cool, but unfortunately the flies were out in force enjoying the view too. I assume it’s not always that bad which would make it a great place to hang out. Unfortunately, that was not the case for our visit so we quickly enjoyed watching the blow holes and checking out the interesting landscape before jumping back in the car with a few new fly friends.

Our next stop was Coral Bay. We’d thought about staying there, but lodging was scarce and more expensive than the not too much further Exmouth. We didn’t really understand why until we actually got there and discovered the town is basically one caravan park with all types of lodging along one street. It is incredibly gorgeous and luckily the flies hadn’t infiltrated so we enjoyed pb&js with a view and then rented snorkeling gear to drift snorkel down the beach along the Ningaloo Reef.

We made our way from Coral Bay to Exmouth for the night. Since we got in later than usual, we decided to treat ourselves to dinner and beers at one of two local breweries (!). The food and beer were delicious and a great way to cap off a great day.

The next day we repeated our snorkel adventure at a beach near Exmouth, Turquoise Bay, in the Cape Range National Park. Another day another gorgeous beach with even more interesting fish including a reef shark sighting. Wow.

Exmouth almost seemed too perfect to be true, 320 days of sun a year, super close to the Ningaloo Reef which you can snorkel straight off the shore, two local breweries, what’s the downside? Well… there isn’t much of one really, but they do get bad flies according to locals we talked to and it is normally much hotter there in summer, 40 C (100+ F) vs mid-30s C (mid-90s F) with low humidity while we we were there. Oh and it is definitely one of the most remote places I’ve ever been to so maybe I’ll keep looking for perfection. Sigh.

We also booked a snorkel trip on a boat in order to see some of the outer reef areas. Exmouth is famous for being a place where you can snorkel with whale sharks and humpback whales, but neither are in season right now. Instead, we enjoyed seeing several giant turtles and loads and loads of colorful fish, so much more plentiful in the depths. Unfortunately, my tendency to get seasick did not take a day off so I enjoyed as much as I could before heading back to wonderful dry land. One perk of it being off season is that we had the snorkel tour to ourselves so we got to dictate the duration and had no trouble getting back to shore when I needed it most! Our snorkel tour randomly included the use of seadoo scooter

which I thought was a silly gimmick but sure, why not. My skepticism was quickly silenced as the scooters were great! They made snorkeling out in choppy seas so easy, just hit a button and you could maneuver around with ease. Such fun too.

In our last afternoon in Exmouth, we decided to take Suz out for a spin to Shothole Canyon, at 13+ km drive along a 4WD track into a canyon. It was very scenic and very bumpy going over numerous dry creek beds. I can’t imagine what that place is like the one time of year when it rains.

And don’t worry, we hit the other local brewery one night while we were there and I am happy to report they are also making delicious beer.

I almost forgot to add random emus in town in the plus column for Exmouth.

Oh and Exmouth was supposed to have a giant prawn, but nothing remained except for the stand. They also have a giant whale shark, but given that it’s about the size of a real whale shark I don’t think it should count.

After having a wonderful time in Exmouth, we were loath to leave, but we wanted to get to Broome where we planned on staying put for 5 nights so we set out on the road again. We couldn’t make it to Broome in one day so we drove a long way and stopped in Port Hedland for the night. It is quite a busy town with all sorts of road trains and other enormous mining vehicles about. I was not sad to leave the next day to get out of the chaos and on to Broome.

We arrived in Broome on Tuesday, 25 Feb, and settled in for our longest stint in one place since our first stop in Coffs Harbour. We rented a one bedroom apartment for a steal and were thrilled that it included laundry facilities. Unlimited laundry after being on the road for over a month is a luxury beyond imagination so we started some immediately. We also enjoyed stocking up on groceries that require refrigeration. It’s the little things 🙂

Broome is home to the famously gorgeous Cable Beach with famously gorgeous sunsets. Our motel is short walk to the beach so we’ve enjoyed going every night to watch. Each night has been very different, always lovely.

Jon got to enjoy a round of golf with free greens fees being part of our motel booking. We also took care of other odds and ends around town, haircut, car servicing, passport applications and more. That’s all between time taking long walks on the beach, driving around to scenic spots, and lounging by or in the pool. Good stuff.

It had been a restorative time and got us ready to get back on the road. Unfortunately, ex-tropical cyclone Esther had different plans for us. We’d read all about it and the rain impacts along our planned journey, but nothing indicated the roads were too bad to get to our next stop so we set off on Sunday morning as planned.  We drove along and the areas with water over the road started growing more and more frequent until there was one that freaked me out a bit, but we got through that without problem. Then we drove up to another spot where the water covered the road for a long way, seemed pretty deep, and was moving very quickly. There are depth markers at all the potential floodways, but not always in spots that help and that was the case here. We stopped and watched as a van on the other side made the same decision to stop and then two big 4WD trucks went through. The fact that other vehicles made it through was great, but they were higher clearance and probably heavier and it looked like the water went over their tires so it didn’t really boost our confidence. We were also worried that things beyond would be worse and we were at least 100 km (60 mi) from the next town. So we decided to turn around and based on the radar showing lots more rain moving through and the road being officially closed the next day, I think we made a smart decision. We also decided to head all the way back to Broome despite having made it three hours out of town because the only other lodging option was a roadhouse with a motel in the middle of nowhere and we expected to have to stay somewhere at least two nights before trying again.

(Side note: both Jon and I frequently made fun of all the signs that just say “Floodway” along all the roads we’ve been on thinking it would easier just to tell people all the roads are potential floodways, but we learned the signs are right where the water is when it does flood so the signs are super helpful especially when the potential flooded area is not visible ahead of time. Oops, we were wrong to make fun.)

As I write this, I am sitting by the pool back at our motel, the lovely Blue Seas Resort in Broome. We enjoyed dinner out last night at the Divers Tavern as a treat for making a smart and safe decision and we’re enjoying a super lovely day today. I’ll never complain about more relaxing!! Which in fact, I now know I get one more day of as Jon just checked the available information and it appears that all the rivers are still rising so we’re going to stay put until at least Wednesday, 4 March.