Things have gotten interesting and I’ve experienced a bit of a revelation the past several days. I knew that the west coast of Australia was big, having driven around much of the rest of the country and having looked at maps of this side of the continent countless times, but I really didn’t fully grasp just how frickin’ enormous it really is until now. The scale of vastness here make Utah and Nevada seem crowded and cramped. Really.

I started northward in Margaret River and arrived in Broome today, 3,471 kilometers later, racking up 2,152 miles so far, and I still have 1,161 miles ahead of me before I reach Darwin, from where I’ll begin the southeast Asian part of the journey.

Most folks who know me know that I love to drive. That’s probably a really big understatement. The stories are many – and many of them are crazy – but there’ something about the open road and visiting places I’ve never been that completely enthralls me. Well, on the west coast of Oz, you drive and drive and then drive lots more. Then you gas up and keep on  truckin’. Settlements, and gas stations or roadhouses, as they’re known here, are extremely spread out and few and far between. You fill up whenever you see one so that you don’t end up like the roadside skeletons dotting the way who ran out of gas or water or couldn’t quite get out of the way of a fast-moving vehicle.

What’s even more interesting is that in order to hit the extremely infrequent beach towns, you have to drive a hundred to two hundred miles off of The Great Northern Highway, making the journey that much longer.

If the scenery is interesting, or better yet, compelling, I’m good with doing that. Here, so far however, it has been bleak, vast and incredibly hot and inhospitable. The air feels like a blowtorch all day long. No doubt that’s why so few people have settled here compared to the east and southern coasts, which have mountains, forests and cooling precipitation.

Western Australia has been a resource extracting asset for the country for centuries, and a number of the largest natural resource and mining companies on Earth are Aussie. In a sense, it’s a good thing that the natural resource-rich areas here are in places that you’d never want to live. The unspoiled parts of Australia, and they are countless elsewhere, including Tasmania, would be very difficult to rip apart and tear up in order to extract and sell Oz’s resources to the world.

Someone driving a very big rig needs new tires….

So there you have it – a long and circuitous journey with some beautiful and very remote beach towns tucked away like hidden jewels on the Indian Ocean and hundreds and hundreds of miles in between all of them.

Broome, where I arrived today, is in what’s known as The Kimberly Region – way up north and filled with national parks. What I’ve found is that the natural wonders  here are pretty much canyons and caverns. They go down, not up, and my strong preference when thinking of scenery is mountains and the sea, preferably both together.

OK –  I’m off to take some photos. Be back in a bit.

Early evening on the beach:

These folks were having their own private party, complete with lights:

Then it got interesting.

Give up? Here’s a closer look.

Camels on Cable Beach at sunset are a long-standing tradition here in Broome that was started by a chap after converting to Islam and crossing the Outback by camel. Whoa….

Anyway, I’m off to The Kimberly en route to Darwin. Supposed to be filled with adventure and amazing scenery. We’ll see about that…