Day 100-102 Cape Leveque to Karratha via Broome & Port Hedland

After a windy night at Cape Leveque Djarindjin Campground we woke up with sunrise and realized that the whole tent was wet on the outside. So there was no point in getting up early as we had to wait for the sun to rise and dry the tent before putting it together. Luckily nothing planned for the day as most sights at Cape Leveque were anyway closed at the moment...

Back in Broome it was just an afternoon to do some laundry, get walking shoes repaired, stock up on water and food before enjoying another sunset at Cable Beach in Broome.

Early start for a long drive to Port Hedland. There is nothing to see on this long drive except for roadhouses, so we stopped at the Sandfire Roadhouse to get some petrol stretch the legs before driving on.

In Port Hedland the available campground had on one site ocean (no swimming - crocs..) and on the other side another waterway, but nothing else to do for the day except cooking & remote work time again.

Next morning, we thought there might be lookouts or at least some kind of sights to discover in Port Hedland, but in the end the lookouts show you only how the stuff from the mines (iron ore, but also salt and other stuff is piled up at the harbour and around town) is loaded from long trains onto huge ships heading of to China. Stuart did not mind the lack of sights but enjoyed the excellent passionfruit cheesecake and the playground with different swings. As the mining industry is a big thing in town, the food, cafe, street and playground conditions are excellent (and prices for accommodation etc. pretty high)...

ships to transport mine stuff (iron ore?)' />

So with nothing more to see in Port Hedland we left it quite early for our next destination Karratha. On the way there we decided to already do some sight-seeing on the way, giving us some free days in Karratha for organizing our ongoing trip (school holidays in December here in Australia, so one has to plan/book quite well ahead for this time). First stop is the historic ghost town Cossack starting at the Cossack Wharf: just the steps to the water left to see. So we went on to the Reader Head Lookout: nice views on the ocean, but with low tide at that time no swimming at Settlers Beach. On the way back to the historic ghost town we stopped at the European and Asian Cemetery as well as the Chinese Market Gardens, where we found leftovers of a dead, furry animal. On the way, I discovered also the first wildflowers: Sturt Desert Pea (yes, on the photo is broken glass, as there was everywhere in and around Cossack - seems to be a popular place for drinking and leaving smashed glass behind...). The way from Port Hedland to Karratha (Warlu Way) but also inland to Tom Price and all the way further to Perth and beyond has wildflowers appearing in different areas from July to November (not all the time), so Stuart was from now on in for the hunt to discover new wildflowers...

Back in the historic ghost town Cossack we went by the old Courthouse, where the flags were still half-mast (Commonwealth and Queen Elisabeth death just a few days ago), the Galbraith Store, the School House with the old tram and the Tien Tsin Lookout.

Near Cossack is the small town of Point Samson with one big advantage: beach! Although part of the sand dunes is reserved for breeding sea gulls, the rest of the beach is accessible for a nice walk to watch mud crabs and water snails walking around or a nap at the beach. There is also a shower and changing rooms/toilets available as well as a well-maintained playground, so a nice spot to spend some relaxing hours.

On the way from Point Samson to Karratha Stuart discovered from quite a distance the Wickham sign with some big mining machines on display. So we had to have a stop for Stuart to discover how tiny he is in comparison to the mining machines, before heading into Karratha.