I was going to call this her first adventure, but then I thought that her birth, 4 weeks ago now, was quite the adventure, and this one probably pales in comparison in her little mind. Still, for us, the thought of a good long drive out of town, dirt roads, nappy changes by the side of the road and all that was both appealing in a been-stuck-in-the-house-for-too-long kind of way, and a little daunting.
Appealing and daunting - two ingredients of a great adventure.
It was, to be honest, a little more glamorous than we expect little bird's future adventures will be, but how could we resist wet season sales on resort accommodation? And we aren't quite ready for camping - yet. And so we set out. Little bird decided to ease us into things by sleeping the whole way there. The land, once brown and burnt, is now lush and green. Water and birds everywhere, big pools across the highway in places, but nothing that would stop rugged outdoorsy outback folk like us. Black-winged stilts, a beautiful little black and white wading bird, cleared the highway ahead of us and closed in behind.
We stayed two nights at Eco Beach, a stunning resort just down the coast a bit from Broome. Wet season is definitely low season and they're only open a few nights each fortnight currently, so for half the usual price we got a villa on a sand dune with unbelievable views up and down the beach. Yes, we feel very, very spoiled. We were especially grateful for the view given that for most of the weekend it was either too hot and humid or too wet and rainy for us to want to go outside, so we mostly just sat and looked, read, played scrabble, ate and drank, changed nappies, cuddled the little one.
On our second day some showers came through and cooled things off a little, and between showers we made it out for a beach wander. Of course, it rained as we turned back for home, but the rain was fresh and little bird didn't mind it at all. Not a sigh or a sob from her until the moment we stepped back into our room.
That night we were the only guests in the resort and felt even more privileged. The staff, who had treated us wonderfully throughout our stay, brought us menus and then served us dinner in our room. It actually cooled off in the evening, and with little bird asleep in her nest, we sat on the deck looking out to sea and soaking in the moment.
The drive home was great, with more water on the roads and some heavy showers. And we had our first ever roadside nappy change, complete with rain! All went well - a beautiful little venture for our family that has left us itching for more.
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PS - no, you're right, I can't do this whole post without at least one photo of this face! Here she is bird watching. We spotted some variegated fairy-wrens in these bushes. Her first sight of her namesake!
