Stuck in the sand

Well today was certainly a stressful one! Woke up and left for Broome first thing and arrived at 8am. First stop was to the Visitor Centre to ask them for some advice on the free campsites just north of the town. It said on our map, that 4WDs were recommended to drive along the road to get access to the camp, but the lady confirmed that our van would be fine to make it up there. Well, she lied…

Chris having a swim

But firstly we went to Cable Beach to have a swim, but there were too many jellyfish in there for me to go in, but Chris went in regardless and luckily didn't get stung. The road was awful and very badly corrugated and I had to sit in the back as all the cupboard doors kept flying open and throwing all our food and clothes out, but we made it to the campsite.

Big jellyfish!

The directions then said to make your way to the picnic spot where you could camp for free, so we drove on a little further, turned a corner and saw some very deep soft sand. Chris stopped as quickly as he could, did a U-turn and then got stuck. We spent about 15 minutes trying to get ourselves before Chris went and got some help.

Digging out the sand

By this time we were well and truly buried and I got underneath and started digging right down until I could find a hard surface for the back wheels to drive over, then, Chris came back with our 2 helpful travellers with a huge 4WD pickup and kindly towed us out. By this time we had had enough of Broome and thought our best bet was to just drive away and stay at another campsite outside of town. Unfortunately though at the end of the stupid corrugated road another driver flagged us down and told us that our door on the outside of the van where our gas bottle lived was hanging off!

broken down :(

Bugger. The bumps had sheared the lock off and it was nowhere to be seen, but luckily the gas bottle itself was still hanging in there. Great. Back to Broome to try and get the problem fixed as there was no way we could continue. But as it was 5pm on a Sunday so, nowhere was open, and with no free campsites accessible to us for a 60km radius we just had to bite the bullet and stay at the cheapest pay one for $33. On the plus side though, it had a swimming pool and with 30 minutes to spare before it closed once we arrived, I quickly showered to get all the sand off me and jumped straight in to cool off and de-stress.

Broome, Australia