On the road

The beauty of jet lag is that 1. It lasts for a long time (13 hour difference to Perth), 2. You wake up at 5:00 am rearing to go.  At low tide you can supposedly see dinosaur tracks in the stone at Gantheaum Point.  Low tide was set for 7:00am, so we were able to get there easily. At 7:00am it was 33 Celsius with blazing sun.  It was hot, but it was beautiful.  The red dirt, the blue ocean and the heat.  Although we wandered the grounds for 30 minutes we were unable to locate anything looking like dinosaur tracks.  Still the view was worth it.  And the feeling of getting back into the car with the AC was worth it too.  At this point, we are thinking, "What have we gotten ourselves into?" We're heading inland to Karijini and we hear that the coast is "a lot" cooler than inland.  Oh boy.

What is the first thing you want to do when you are in a beautiful spot on the Indian Ocean, miles away from civilization?  You guessed it, go to Target.  Yes, they have a Target in Broome.  We had to pick up supplies for the trip.  Bec's parents had recommended a fly net, and we found some for $2 at a cheap store next to Target.  We didn't think that we would really need this...but since they recommended it, and it was only $2 we thought we'd get them.  Otherwise, we picked up some cooking stuff, a cooler, some towels and other basic necessities that we would need on our trip.  I should mention that the cooler...obviously Broome has learned the basic concepts of supply and demand...was $65!  We also bought ice for our cooler. $7.

Now we have a 5 and a half hour drive to Pardoo ahead of us and the sun sets at 6:00pm.  We have been told by almost everyone, that we SHOULD NOT DRIVE IN THE DARK.  Skippy (a kangaroo) likes to come out when it's cooler and likes to bounce out onto the road.  Ok, let's get going.  The speed limit out there is 110kph (~70mph).  We get on the road, set the cruise and go straight.  It would be relaxing if the road weren't barely big enough to fit two cars, we weren't driving on the left, and if you didn't have to pass road trains (more on road trains in the next installment).

Rest Stop.  Seriously, see the trashcan?

Our front grill.  Seriously, where are we? Jurassic Park?

Peacock at the gas station

Monbill had gotten some good advice prior to our trip.  If there is a gas station, fill up.  Even if you are a quarter tank down, fill up.  Great Advice.

Just before the pitch black of night, we roll into Pardoo Roadhouse.  Where we get a room.  For the night.  A roadhouse is like a trailer park , on the road.  The "motel room" we slept in was a 7'x7' room, with a bed, and AC, a TV with one channel, and a fridge.  The bathroom was in a separate trailer.  Pardoo Roadhouse has a restaurant, so I had some dinner, Heike had a snack and a beer and we were off to bed.  Another long day tomorrow, Supermarket in Port Hedland and off to Karijini.

Just before going to sleep I was able to talk to they guys staying next to us in the "motel rooms."  They are all miners (Iron ore) who come from all over Australia to work for 2 weeks then get 2 weeks off.  Must be a rough life.  The next morning they left at 4:45am.