We had a fair drive today to get to Broome and so we packed up and left 80 Mile Beach at around 8AM….

We had to make a stop at Sandfire Roadhouse – the last fuel before Roebuck Plains Roadhouse near Broome… the roadhouse had an eclectic feel about it with unique gardens and memorabilia….

After filling up with fuel we headed onward up the highway…. driving through some very desolate and inhospitable countryside… treeless and flat much like the Nullarbor..

There were long straight stretches of seemingly endless road with mirages shimmering on the horizon and the earth scorched with the heat….

A 24hr rest stop at Goldwire was where we had planned to break our journey and so we pulled in there to make lunch in the vans…

Just 100m before pulling in, a large oncoming truck kicked up a stone that hit the Titan’s windscreen and chipped it much to Gordie’s chagrin…. Branch offered comfort and some tape on the windscreen – hoping it would not develop into a spreading crack…

At lunch, Klaus confided in us about a “Branch” moment… Dave had been in such a hurry to be out of 80 Mile Caravan Park, he had left his all-important drill he uses to put his caravan legs up and down on the pole at the back of his site.

Fortunately, Klaus saw in and picked it up – he tried to alert Dave but the Wells did not have their radio on at that point….so Klaus decided to see what happened at Broome when Dave came to put his van legs down…

After eating lunch, we left Goldwire and continued north… coming upon some crazy joggers out in the middle of nowhere in the blazing 38-degree heat…. They waved cheerily as we passed….

As we travelled further north the countryside became a little greener and large herds of cattle could be seen in paddocks – livestock belonging to the big cattle stations that are in the area…

A controlled burn was creating some smoke… and providing prey for the circling kites….

We arrived in Broome and started setting up… Branch was at the ready to see what happened when Dave realised he could not find his drill….

As soon as Dave got to the stage of setting up the van legs he remembered where he had left the drill… and was devastated … Klaus offered to lend him his (non-existent) drill – Dave gratefully accepted…. And the next thing you know Branch appeared with Dave’s drill …

…much to Dave’s relief and the first time he was really pleased to see Branch… he could have kissed the little blue troll!!

We all went into town to get some supplies – Trev and I located a great butcher – who had the biggest range of sausages we had ever seen – and they were big in size too – Matt would have loved this butcher!!

After unpacking the groceries, we headed down to Cable Beach for a quick look – the beach had lost a lot of sand since the last time we were there… a lot of rocks exposed… but the beach was still beautiful…

We settled in for the night and made plans for the next 4 days we are in Broome….