Not the sign you want to see when you're
quarantined in a van park in 38-degree heat.
Supplies in the supermarkets were dwindling.
No toilet paper, restrictions on certain meats,
no pasta, sugar was disappearing — it was
starting to look grim. She was obviously upset by the situation and
she tried very hard to convince us to come to
Derby as planned. It was with heavy hearts
that we refused her request.
Add to that the fact two supply trucks broke
down on their way to Kununurra and you can
imagine what things were like. They were far
from dire but it got us thinking about whether
we should get ourselves to a major town and
bunker down there. Upon arriving in Broome, we made our way to
the Cable Beach RAC park and checked in.
We were surprised to find the place almost
completely empty, save for about four
caravans and one couple from Holland in their
camper. We expected to see more grey
nomads here in for the long haul.
LEAVING FOR BROOME
We made the decision to get to Broome as
quickly as possible. At least there we would
have access to slightly better infrastructure
and, if the situation changed, we were still in
the area we had planned to be anyway. We
confirmed with the caravan park that we were
able to arrive early, so we headed west.
We had to cancel our accommodation in
Derby. The manager of the caravan park had
been flooded with calls from travellers
cancelling their bookings for the dry season.
Now, Broome is a pretty good place to self-
isolate but, in reality, it’s not as great as you may
think. The weather this time of year is ridiculously
hot and humid: 38 degrees every day.
This would be fine except for the fact the WA
government had instructed caravan parks to
close off their pools and limit access to the
other amenities. All the restaurants are closed,
as are most of the tourist attractions.