Greetings from the industrial paradise of Port Hedland. Every single person I talked to told me it wasn’t worth stopping here, and, well, I get it. As it turns out I’m here for a regular service on my van (nothing actually wrong, hopefully) because with industry come qualified mechanics, at least. So today’s a relaxing day of hanging around cafes and libraries, and I’ll be off to another free camp outside of town tonight.

I actually just left Broome yesterday, so those couple of days I thought I would stay turned out to be a couple of weeks. Diving over the long weekend was great—I got out 3 days in a row, and it felt great as always to give tips, do safety dives, and watch people hit PBs and generally have a really good time. Sometime the following week I then had to move, because Graham and Linda rent one of their rooms as an Airbnb, and for some reason the listing doesn’t mention a vagrant living in a giant van in the driveway. As it turned out this became a chance to mooch even harder when Anna and Sam, an incredibly nice couple from the freediving group, said I could stay at theirs.

I thought I would just be parking in the driveway but when I got there Anna said “We’ve got a whole granny flat empty in the back, just move in there”. People, let me tell you, what a life of luxury. Two rooms! An actual kitchen! AIR CONDITIONING! A shower! Seriously, air conditioning! The temperature in Broome has been hitting right around 40 degrees Celsius, which is 104 Fahrenheit, every day. Air conditioning!

Even better than the, I cannot stress this enough, AIR CONDITIONING, was the company. Anna and Sam are the kinds of people who really fill their schedules, so I didn’t see them the first couple of days and worried that I’d just be a weird stranger haunting their back yard for a week or two before disappearing. Luckily it didn’t turn out that way, and I was able to join them for a couple of dinners, a couple of breakfasts, and a couple of hangouts with their group of friends, most of whom are also freedivers. Every single person I had the chance to hang out with was really genuinely nice and friendly, and it did me a world of good to slide into their social group for a week or two. I distinctly remember, during the first dinner that I joined in on, thinking “Man you know this is really a totally standard social situation, just a group of friends having a low key dinner, but wow it feels great!”.

I think it’s been pretty clear throughout, well, several of my past posts that I was having a bit of trouble finding my footing, in the broadest possible sense. So I’m glad to be able to switch it up in this post and say my footing feels firmly found. I’d started to feel like I was turning a corner in western Queensland, but then took a bit of a step back with getting robbed. After that, through Kakadu and Katherine and the beginnings of WA, I got over the robbery and felt like I got back the momentum I’d had, until I really started feeling like myself again right before Broome. I think this really contributed to my having such a good time in Broome. Mostly it’s just that everyone was really nice, but also my feeling better and more comfortable with myself helped me jump in, make friends, and just enjoy the time. So I’m grateful for that, and excited to keep the momentum going.

Next up is Karijini, a huge national park smack in the middle of the desert. I’ll spend a few days there [Spoiler alert: I’m finishing this post from Karijini, and hoo boy, strap in for the next one because it is gorgeous here. Dylan, there are great rock pictures incoming.] and then head to Exmouth to dive my little heart out. Exmouth is apparently tiny and I’ve heard accommodation can be a real struggle, so we’ll see how that goes. Worst case I’ll just have to pony up for a caravan park, and I’m pretty confident that’ll be worth it.