Day 4 – Port Hedland to Broome (604 km)
The noise of the iron-ore trains, rednecks in their utes, and dirt-bikes (ffs!), along with the convenient night-light in the caravan right above my tent resulted in an early rise. I knew I had a long trip to Broome with rising temperatures so wanted to make an early start, but under better conditions. Breakfast was a fistful of ibuprofen, and fruit.
The rides so far had me doing only around 95 km/h – strong gusty headwinds made it difficult to keep the speed up with any confidence. So, I was hoping I’d get some tailwinds for the ride to Broome. That didn’t happen, but at least they weren’t headwinds. I managed the legal 100 for most of the trip.
It was quite mild when I left PH – only around 19. It quickly rose to around 25 where it sat for a few hours under clouds. After a few hours the clouds started to thin and the temp gradually peaked at 32 – this was how I rode for the 2nd half of the leg, where it dipped back down to about 28 in Broome itself when I arrive.
The roads were good, the scenery was fairly plain – no mountains or anything like that. Like the trip across the bottom of Australia, many would think it’s boring. However, the vegetation changed frequently, including vast areas of dry flood plain, empty river beds, etc. I kinda like it. I do think you have to travel the area with a particular frame of mind… it’s all different.
My original plans were to have me stopping overnight at a 24hr reststop. I called in for a break, not to stay. It was hot! - no wind here, but would have been OK for an overnighter. Plenty of room, although no tent pegs would have penetrated the concrete-like gravel.
I’m typing this on the morning after, having stolen some electricity from a campsite neighbor at 4am to charge the lappy. This is where I discover I’d left the unique charge/USB cable for Theo’s camera, and that it takes the large format memory cards that won’t fit my laptop. So – those few photos I took yesterday will stay there until I get back home. Needless to say, I’ll use the phone’s camera from now on. As usual, I captured some video that I’ll assemble later.
Camp was at the Roebuck Bay Caravan Park – I’d rung the day before and sweat-talked my way into a bay-side tent area – they’d kept 3 tent-sides aside for me – it pays to be nice and polite!
Having packed up in PH in the dustbowl, once I’d erect the tent in Broome I headed to the beach for a swim to wash the dust and the sweat off. A few folk were exiting the water complaining how cold it was so I entered fearing the worst. Clearly, they were Broome residents and were expecting something bath-like. It was fantastic – cool, but not cold – just the thing after my ride.
Back at the tent, I ended up chatting to a neighbour who was from Sydney – he’d been here for a month (what a life!), spoke at length about cricket and footy, and just relaxed in the shade overlooking the bay.
As dusk hit, so did the midges, so I left the park and headed for dinner to treat myself to a good pub meal (squid rings) – I suspected it might be the last decent meal for a while.
