D & J in OZ: week 19 - Broome and Port Hedland

Our camp at the Roebuck Plains Roadhouse out of Broome. Camps in Broome really expensive.

We had to stay 3 days in Broome while we had our 2nd broken windscreen fitted. Thank goodness for windscreen insurance. The Roadhouse was a great place to watch the AB's beat OZ in the 1st Test and they had a swimming pool.

Plenty of these corellas here to wake us up.

Some interesting shops and statues in Broome celebrating Broome's history in pearling and remembering the Japanese bombing in 1942.

The Broome wharf with a ship of live cattle about to leave.

Entrance to Roebuck Bay

The cattle ship on its way.

From this point we could see whales surfacing out to sea.

Cable Bay where some folk were swimming. Still croc. country around here.

A day trip north from Broome on what Australia calls a metal road.

Not much metal, plenty of dust, and millions of corrugations!

A pretty hot and rocky coast when we got there!

We could not work out if this was an instruction or a name.

On the road heading for Port Hedland

A boring flat road with not much to see.

A night spent at Pardoo Roadhouse. They had a great swimming pool!

The road to Port Hedland.

Sometimes a long stop between drinks!

Flat again!

But some rivers now had water.

Into Port Hedland. This town was a hive of activity. A total mining town based round the numerous iron mines in the District. Iron ore shipped out of the busy wharf to mainly China. A small wharf area but 8 - 9 huge ships loading at a time with 15 - 20 waiting out at sea. Industry on a massive, massive scale.

A night with some friends and we learnt all the facts about mining and the giant company BHP.

Really really interesting.

Salt also produced and shipped out from here.