Broome

Port Hedland – Broome:  13 July [621 km]

Today we head for Broome – in the knowledge that we had a long day of driving in front of us.  We had not even left Port Hedland when we had to stop for one of the very long iron ore trains to cross the highway. 

We made good time driving north and stopped at Pardoo Roadhouse for morning tea;  we got to Sandfire Roadhouse for an early lunch and noted that we were halfway to Broome.  The next 300 km passed relatively quickly as we watched the outside temperature rise to 36 degrees! 

We were interested in the extensive coverage of flowering wattle running for hundreds of kilometres;  as well, we saw a number of other flowering shrubs – a number of which we photographed.  Here is the brilliant Candlestick Senna and a red Grevillea.

We turned onto the Broome Highway at Roebuck Plains and then had to manage lots of road works as we neared Broome.  We cruised into Broome soon after 3.00 pm – after what had been a pretty straightforward trip from Port Hedland.  It was quite exciting to finally be in Broome after having read so much about Broome and this part of Australia over many years.

We booked into our cabin and then enjoyed a refreshing swim in the caravan park pool.  As the evening crashed into place, we started to prepare our bags for our tour of the Kimberleys.  (Question:  Why is there no twilight in the tropics?)

Broome:  14 July

Even though we felt pretty good after our long road trip yesterday, we still relished a day relaxing and preparing for our Kimberley trip.  Our first activity today was to go to church at the Broome Anglican Church.  There were lots of people of all ages and the service was very low key but sound.  There was a team of folk from St Matthew’s Shenton Park who had been in the parish for a week running a Kid’s Club.  What a coincidence!  We caught up with some of them after the service and had a good chat.  After that, we drove into Chinatown and wandered round the precinct.  Our first purchase was a mango smoothie for each of us:  they almost needed eating they were so solid but they were good tucker.  We drove out to Cable Beach to check the lie of the land:  the beach was absolutely cluttered with beach umbrellas (an essential in the 32 degree sun).  The sea looked superb and there was even the occasional wave to catch.