Day 48: Barn Hill Statioin to Eighty Mile Beach


We left Barn hill at a bit after 8.30 am, after an enjoyable stay at this amazing station stay. It really was well set up for families and as it is currently WA School Holidays, they had plenty of families visiting for the holidays.

It's 260 km of flat coastal plains with only one possible stop for fuel between Roebuck Plains Roadhouse (where we filled up 2 days ago ) and Port Hedland. There is no fuel available at Eighty Mile Beach, so we stopped at Sandfire Roadhouse, about 50 km North of here. It has few redeeming features, other than fuel pumps and a long line of people waiting to fill up from both directions. We thought about having a cup of coffee but that was quickly dismissed after a look inside.
 
With only 53 km to go to get to Eighty Mile Beach, we continued on. It seems to be standard along this coast that, as soon as you leave the highway, you must traverse 9 km of corrugated red dirt to reach you destination. Eighty Mile Beach caravan park was no exception, but there were no gates.

It was worth the effort. a very nice well looked after park, right alongside the beach with only a short walk over the dunes to get there. Instructions on checkin were clear. The beach is for fishing, not swimming, shell collecting is popular, but beware live poisonous cone shells are to be avoided.

After getting established and having lunch, we went to have a look at the beach, which not surprisingly seems to go on forever in both North and South directions.



The path to the beach continued to discourage swimming.


Looking back from the beach dune towards the caravan park



Looking North


Looking South

There are a few early fisherman out there, but it is middle of the day and mid tide. I will come back and have a go closer to the timing of the high tide later this afternoon.

In the meantime, I have a wander around the caravan park, which is much larger than we realised. It is well laid out, with plenty of shade, reasonable sized sites and roadways wide enough to make getting into them not too challenging.


There was a bit of a wildlife encounter along the way. A wallaby and a bird seemed to have a bit of a love hate relationship.


A bit of eyeballing going on



Some action


And all ends well

A bit of relaxation follows my walk, then a trip up to the office to show Carole they have a minimart for basic items, sell pre cooked meals, and I was told at checkin their ice cream is a standout. When we arrive at the office/store, there are patrons outside eating ice cream, but we weren't quite prepared for the queue inside at the ice cream counter. Naturally we joined the queue and had a single mango sorbet each in a cone, for an outrageous $3.50 each. Apparently doubles cost $5. No wonder the grey nomads were lining up. They even had Hokey Pokey ice cream, so no doubt there will be another visit tomorrow.

As high tide approaches we venture down to the beach to join the fishing hopefuls, of which there are many. Bait is a bit ordinary, but I have some prawns I bought at Barn Hill so let's see what happens.


No one appears to be catching anything, but I join the hopefuls, Carole collects shells


There are plenty of hopefuls


Seagulls are ever alert to raid bait buckets whilst fisherman are at the shore


I did catch one fish, which wasn't even attractive as bait


As the high tide passes, the hopefuls are still keen

I gave up, as bait was not up to scratch and turning to pulp. Even my small catch which I was sure would be good bait attracted no interest.

Maybe tomorrow will be better. 

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