Julie's Travel Journal: Port Hedland to Broome

Day 11 7th May

Port Hedland to Broome

Odometer 19035 T 27

Today we had a long day of driving with little in the way of sight seeing planned. Back on the road again by 8.30 we went up to the Koombana Lookout (an area slightly raised above the beach) where a memorial plaque to the SS Koombana which disappeared during a cyclone, 20th March 1912. I presume the water tower is accessible during business hours and you can climb it for better views but it was not accessible when we were there. Our next stop was a brief stop at Pretty Pool before our long trek north.

Pretty Pool, Port Hedland

On our way out of town I took a snap of the salt being processed

We continued onto Eighty Mile Beach, which was reached by driving 9km down a dirt road (bulldust) for beautiful views of the Indian Ocean.

Eighty Mile Beach a popular fishing spot

Mark on eighty Mile Beach

We reached Sandfire Roadhouse at 12.40 so stopped for lunch (Egg sandwich, 4 wing dings, 1 kransky, 600ml flavoured milk & a 600ml soft drink $31). The roadhouse has numerous tame peahens and peacocks wandering around.

Soon after leaving Sandfire we spotted a 2 ½’ goanna on the road. Once again no photos.
I had managed to convince Mark to make the trek out to the ocean twice. Our second sojourn to see the ocean was at Barn Hill. The 9kms unsealed road was corrugated, with deep bulldust and lots of speed humps.

Road to Barn Hill Station

We reached the camp ground and when we realised we needed to clamber over sand hills to see the ocean we turned around and drove straight back out again. My knee was still painful and very swollen so no clambering on sand for me.

We finally arrived at our B & B in Broome around 5-5.30ish. Our host Frank was loud and I found him a little abrasive. Our room was small with only a small amount of room to walk around the large bed, but our ensuite was enourmous. We went down to the night markets which are only held when the staircase to the moon is visible. We parked in a nearby paddock and walked to where we could view the Staircase to the Moon. There wasn't much to the markets and the lighting was poor. Unfortunately our view of the Staircase was not fantastic due to low lying cloud. Never the less Mark did manage to get some great photos.