Well, by now, you would have heard of cyclone Zelia, currently category 4, probably 5 by this time tomorrow.

Now imagine yourself in a tin can in a hot, humid caravan park in Karratha, where you are here for 2 nights, this was Monday when it was still a tropical low, just North West of Broome, we had planned a couple of nights in a national park before continuing north, but this would have put us crossing paths with Zelia right as it was then predicted to cross the coast as a category 3, along with it’s associated flooding and road closures.

So after much deliberation, constantly watching the BOM app updates, and discussing pros and cons, we decided  to barrell on north through Port Hedland and onto Broome. We were hoping to bypass the worst of it, and also not getting stuck in Karratha has to be a good thing.

As it turns out, we were right to do so. We hit some thunderstorms just out of Port Hedland, which made us slow to a crawl so that we could see where we were going. But the lightning was amazing and Jo did an incredible job while I was trying to sit patiently on the passengers’ side.

It was right then that Little Bus decided to start behaving strangely. First, it told us “check automatic lighting,” then it told us to “check cruise control”(which had just turned itself off. 😕)

We also lost the ability to navigate on the media screen, adjust our volume, or even turn it off!

My first thought was that we had a leaky windscreen, and some rain had gotten in. We had it replaced, maybe 6 months ago, and wondered if their sealing was faulty, in such a severe thunderstorm, that we had just driven through. But she was running OK, so we continued on and called into Sandfire for a toilet break. ( Yes, the weather was bad, but not that bad, OK?)

I noticed that we had water trickling down the sides of the centre console, looking underneath the entire dashboard was covered in condensation, so not a leaky windscreen.

Just the humidity, coupled with having the cold aircon on, meant that everything was now wet and dripping including the electronics. That is a little bit of a worry.

After a little bit we started her up and went on, without the air-conditioning on, just the fan on hoping things would dry out a bit.

100km later we decided we had had enough and pulled into the 24-hour Stanley Rest Area. Surprisingly we had phone coverage, so took that as an omen to stop for the night.

Off grid in 36 degree heat, with nothing other than the fans, it was a hot sticky night, intermixed with brief heavy rain and the occasional lightning. Didn’t get that much sleep, but at least the birds kept us entertained, including some bustards

Next day we were essentially due east of the cyclone, but it was still some 200km off the coast and heading for Port Hedland. The weather had improved, so we fired up Little Bus and trundled on into Broome.

So here we are, three days earlier than planned, but well out of the cyclones reach, just the normal tropical humidity and heat to contend with. 6 days staying in the Broome Caravan Park, with lots of birds, tons of skippy coming in at night (last count 30 plus) and virtually no one else here. Added bonus is that this place has the best pool we have seen so far