Driving, Driving, finally Broome

After leaving Coral bay, it’s been pretty much drive, drive, get gas, spend the night, drive. It’s a long way to Broome, about another 1000 kilometer past Coral Bay and pretty much nothing out there. The few towns we go through are mining towns and BIG operations. There are some very large iron ore mines farther inland but all the ore is trucked to the ports of Port Hedland and Karratha and loaded onto tankers and sent to China. Salt is also mined out here and now there are natural gas plants. It’s very industrial, dusty with red dirt and haze everywhere. Between towns there are roadhouses, just fuel stops, mini mart and usually a campground. There are about 200-300k apart but it’s best to top off at each one. And we will probably spend the night at one before we’re done as there are no towns for camping.

Friday, we moved away from the coast and started feeling the heat of the desert. We’re moving north toward the very hot area and cyclone season just started. The wind pick ed up and I would guess the temp was in the high 90s. We found a small camp in a coastal port of Dampier/Karratha and it was a little cooler. Massive road construction projects are going on everywhere so the highway is very congested at the ports too.

Today, Sat., more endless driving across endless plains of nothing. The road trains were quite frequent through all the mining towns but once clear of the last port area, we almost have the road to ourselves. Bordering on stinking hot today, dry and windy. Our choice for camping is a roadhouse, in the blast furnace desert or try a place called 80 mile beach park on the water. We opted for the water, were a bit hesitant at the 9k of dirt washboard road, but arrived to a pretty neat campground with over 130 spaces. Just over the sand dune is the Indian Ocean, 80 miles of beach, nesting turtles and nice and quiet.

From 80 mile beach, the last 350 miles to Broome. Only 1 roadhouse for gas, no towns, plenty of nothing. Most of the ground along the highway has been burned, just black dirt and trees. Finally, we made it into Broome, and it’s STINKING HOT, HOT, HOT here and the heat is just getting started. This is the land of the “wet” and there will be monsoonal rain towards December. It’s tropical and the ocean is an incredible turquoise and pretty warm. The town is small but has the necessities. Its was a pearling town but now is not more than just a small resort,beach town on the coast. It’s also the gateway to the Kimberly, a vast desert region of the north with great scenic national parks that come alive with the rains. But we’re not going there.

After we leave Broome, it will be just another 4 days of driving to get back down to Perth, not the same route we came up though, more inland through more outback. We will try a stop in Karijini park to see some of the falls and pools and do some roadhouse camping. Can’t wait. But, with power there is air conditioning!