Flying Deckchairs and Broome

Spent the day (again) on the campsite at Fitzroy River Lodge Caravan Park. Is really a lovely place with great facilities so can’t really complain that we are “stuck” here. The mechanic “might” come this arvo or maybe tomorrow morn so can’t go anywhere incase he shows up. Not such a bad thing to have an enforced rest day. Kids were finally able to get some quality ripsticking/scooter time, and pool was lovely.

The next morning the cry rang out..”the mechanic’s here” at 8.30am. We weren’t sure he was even going to show as he “may” have had a tow job to Broome and that would’ve meant a no show for us today, so we were very excited. Samuel especially, as we promised we would spend his 8^th birthday in Broome. 3hrs later mechanic had fixed split in our radiator and we are on our way....

I rang the C/van Park in Broome to tell them we wouldn’t be in til later today because of our car trouble. I was feeling nervous they would give our site away as they are as scarce as hen’s teeth this time of year (school hols). A month ago I tried to book in our week’s “holiday” within our trip only to be told everywhere was fully booked and we had to show up and take our chances. There are overflow parks with few facilities that you can go into first, you then have to queue up at the crack of dawn with everyone else to squeeze in when sites in the parks become available. We took a punt a week ago and made a few more calls and eventually found one site!

We have tallied up that Mark has driven about 9,318km and me about 18kms! (someone has to be navigator, on snack duty, need I go on...)

We had just overtaken our first road train when a voice came over the CB......something about a cover on a roof that had blown open...could she mean us? Yep! The pod on the roof of the car had blown open resulting in a “flying deckchair” we have now named Danny. I had to run back the 100m or so where it had landed square in the middle of the road. A few cars had to swerve to miss it and one lady slowed her car down and was driving alongside me as I was jogging along, I think she was trying to block the traffic with her car so I wouldn’t get hit! Quite amusing looking back.

FINALLY we have made it to Broome and in my research in the car I have seen that the only kid’s movie on at the historical outdoor Sun Pictures for this week is on tonight (in about an hour). We dump the van on our site, grab some food and head in to see Ice Age 4. Good movie, great atmosphere and the fact we are in a flight path adds to it all, as several times planes fly low overhead throughout the show.