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DAY 104 Tuesday 3^rd November

The trip from Broome to Port Hedland is 612km and we had heard that there is very little in between. At the Broome market however, we struck up a conversation with the local leather craftsman. He was also a keen fisherman and a very friendly one at that. He recommended we stop part-way to Port Hedland at a place called Eighty Mile Beach and to check out another nearby spot called Cape Keraudren. So that's what we set out to do.

Today is Melbourne Cup day and racing fever just doesn't seem relevant to us. Mum has phoned through the names of 3 horses for a sweep though which was a lovely touch. We listened to the race call on the radio and bought the Sydney paper and ate strawberries and drank red cordial as we drove the boring stretch of road from Broome to Port Hedland. No winners.

There was just nothing on this stretch of road and we even had to stop at a roadside parking bay for our lunch in the midday heat.

Finally, we arrived at Eighty Mile Beach and discovered it had a caravan park that had been lovingly established over the last 10 tens to provide all day shade and grassy camp sites just behind the sand dunes. We were given the front row position and set up our camp around 4.30pm. We walked over the dunes to see the beach although the tide was out (all 9m of it!). What were left were thousands of shells up on the high tide mark - a collector's dream.

This evening the temperature dropped to only 24 ° and I thought I was going to need a jumper! The moon was almost full so we walked along the beach until we found turtle tracks leading up to the base of the sand dunes. The turtles were in their nesting season and it seemed we were about to see one prepare her nest and lay eggs.

The whole nesting procedure took over 1 1/2 hours and we were able to watch from a very close distance. No one else had ventured as far along the beach as we had that night so we were on our own with this nesting turtle. First, she crawled out of the ocean and chose a spot at the base of the sand dune. Then, she began using all four flippers to burrow a circular ditch of level hard packed sand. Finally, she used only her back flippers to scoop out sand to form a deep narrow ditch in which she would eventually lay her 44 eggs. Using first one back flipper and then the other, the turtle painstakingly dug a hole about 2 foot deep. And then she stopped. We weren't sure what was going to happen next so we waited, silently as she began to contract and dip her enormous shell backwards into the hole. In a matter of seconds she quickly swept the sand over her precious eggs and filled the hole. The hole filling process took a surprisingly long time but when she was satisfied that she had hidden all evidence of her nest she slowly made her way back down to the water and slipped out of sight.

DAY 105 Wednesday 4^th November

Eighty Mile Beach is popular with fishermen who come from Port Hedland for some respite from the searing heat of the Pilbera and in search of king salmon. David had already done his socialising with all who looked knowledgeable yesterday.

The tide was high at 10.30am so we set off with our fishing gear at 8.30am. For the two hours before and after the tide we caught 20 catfish to every salmon and sometimes pulled in bronze whaler sharks. Our day finished with only 2 salmon but that was enough for our dinner.

Two guys fishing besides us caught at least 10 salmon including the sought-after king salmon at 97cm (about 30lbs). He was ecstatic at his catch so he and his mate drove to the Sandfire Roadhouse 50kms away to buy 6 cases of beer. 5 for them and 1 for David. The fishos were gone for such a long time that I said to David that they'd taken off with his money and his beer. They looked a bit rough and were obviously on a "boys fishing trip". In the meantime we lay on our beautiful grass camp site and started to read our new books we had picked up at the second-hand book store in Broome. I had chosen "The Partner" by John Grisham for David who hasn't yet read one book this trip. I hoped it would interest him. By the time David's beer arrived, he had already read 100 pages!

The afternoon went quickly after we'd socialised with the fishos. A young couple, Glenn and Stacey from the Central Coast came and reacquainted themselves with us. We had met in the swimming pool at Karumba in September. They had travelled different routes to us as they were towing a caravan and stuck to the tarred roads.

DAY 106 Thursday 5^th November

We were determined to catch a decent salmon today so we bought a large block of pilchards, which we shared with Glenn, and rigged up our gang hooks. The 5 of us (the 2 fishos, Glenn, David and I) all set off to the beach together and stood in our designated positions along the shore as per yesterday. For the first 1 ½ hours, whilst the tide was coming in, we caught catfish after catfish. Occasionally, we used the catfish for bait and discovered that catfish don't eat catfish. After losing something on my line that took all my gear I gave up and sat on the beach for a while. No one was catching a thing of any worth until I decided to experiment with my bait. The shark that Glenn had kept yesterday was intended to be his lunch but when he gutted it, he found lots of baby shark inside. I used the miniature sharks as bait on the gang hooks and within seconds pulled in a salmon. From then on, we all started to catch salmon and within an hour, David and I had caught between us, 9 threadfin salmon. Admittedly, they weren't king size but we had enough fish after filleting for 4 meals. Our only problem was keeping it all fresh.

DAY 107 Friday 6^th November

We awoke this morning and thought it was time to move on. Glenn and Stacey had also packed up and were heading in the same direction although they were ready before we'd even started breakfast. We had about 250kms to Port Hedland to travel with no airconditioner but the temperature seemed cool enough at 28 °. What surprised us though was that as soon as we hit the main road again, only 8kms away, the temperature jumped up to 40 °. On the way to Port Hedland we stopped in at Cape Keraudren which was absolutely beautiful, however there was not a tree in sight and we would not have considered camping there. After a quick look around, and taking some photos, we continued on our way to Port Hedland. Glenn and Stacey had recommended staying at the South Headland caravan park on recommendation from another couple they knew. Unfortunately, we didn't check the other camp ground for ourselves and pulled in there early in the afternoon, dropped off the trailer and went to the shops for restocking. Our mobile phone came back into service and we had a message from the Adcocks. I quickly rang them back and left a message explaining where we were at and not long after they turned into the camp ground and stayed beside us for the night.

The Adcocks and us seemed to want to travel to the same places and so we are travelling in convoy through the rest of the Pilbera and inland to the Hammersley ranges.

DAY 108 Saturday 7^th November

Port Hedland doesn't hold much in the way of interesting things to do. We did however, stop to watch as a large tanker left the port this morning. We drove through the historic towns of Whim Creek and Roebourne and then turned off the Great Northern Highway to Point Samson. We were told of a $40 seafood platter for 2 from the Point Samson tavern, which is adjacent to the caravan park in which we are camping.

The tide was low when we arrived and we explored the bay and the old jetty with the Adcocks before retiring for the evening.

DAY 109 Sunday 8^th November

Rob, David and I left the camp ground this morning in the 100 series to check out the so called, best fishing spot - under the bridge. The water here is higher on one side of the bridge than the other and we fished from the low side. We could see plenty of fish but also rocks and after a frustrating hour of snags and disappointing small catches we packed up. Our next attempt at fishing was from the rocks at Honeymoon Cove where we caught small rock cod and more snags. Finally, we decided this was not the best fishing town and returned to collect Dorothy, little David and Jackson for a trip to the beautiful beach of Honeymoon Cove.

The water here was beautifully refreshing but unfortunately David cut his hand and feet whilst swimming when he brushed against rocks covered in oysters. Rob took David back to the camp ground for first aid treatment and returned with his hand bandaged.

For our dinner tonight, David and I went to the Samson's Point Tavern for the seafood platter! Yummy - what a treat! Meanwhile, Dorothy and Rob drove around the area to find a free beach camp spot called Clearverville Beach that we thought might be our next stop. When they returned however, they said there was no shade and that there were signs everywhere stating "Closed to Camping". We have bought a little book for $7 called Free Bush Camps in Northern WA and we are trying to camp in as many of these as we can. Not just to save money, but also because we like to get away from "people" and often the bush camps are the nicest spots.

DAY 110 Monday 9^th November

Since the Adcocks had discovered that Clearverville was a no-go zone for us we drove on to Karratha. We stopped for petrol and shopping at the largest shopping centre in WA other than Perth. David bought another fishing rod, this one being more suitable for beach fishing than his barra rod and I bought a pair of shorts. I selected a pair of linen shorts on special for $19.95 on a rack at the front of the shop and then found more colours inside. I changed colours but when I went to pay for them, was told that they would cost me $25. I couldn't understand why but was told that although they were the same as the others, they were new stock. I said I couldn't buy them as I only had a $20 dollar note and then another shopper passed the storekeeper the required $5! Of course, I refused but the lady told me she loved to help others. So, as I needed them and just didn't have the money to buy them, I thanked her and bought my lovely new blue linen shorts with her money.

Leaving Karratha we drove out towards Dampier to see the Woodside Petroleum NorthWest Shelf Gas Project. Along the way, we stopped at the Hammersley Iron Security Gate to obtain a permit for driving along their railway service road from Dampier to Tom Price through the Hammersley Ranges. The permit was free, the drive would be interesting, and we thought we'd set off after visiting the Woodside Petroleum Visitors Centre.

When we saw the Gas Project and had looked through the visitors centre we were really impressed and drove up to the tip of the Burrup Penninsula to view the whole operation.

On our way down out of the Burrup Penninsula we took a turn-off to see Hearson's Cove for a quick swim. When we arrived we were mesmerized by the beautiful clear blue water and decided to beach camp here for a few days. We almost had the place to ourselves with only a bus and trailer at the other end of the beach.

Rob and David got out their new fishing gear and set about catching bait fish firstly by cutting oysters off the rocks and then threading them onto small hooks on hand-lines. They caught a whole bucket load of whiting, garfish and baby bream. By the time they thought they had enough to start fishing the tide had turned and within 15 minutes there was no water left in the bay. We kept the bucket of fish for tomorrow's fishing session.

DAY 111 Tuesday 10^th November

This morning we were disappointed to see that the tide was out even further than last night. We were surprised to see a number of vehicles arrive and we watched half a dozen people walk out across the mud flats for 2km with long rods to obviously catch mud crabs. The first crabbers didn't return for many hours but when they did I went to look at their catch. They had a bucket load full of the largest crabs I've ever seen. I asked if I could buy some from them but they were reluctant but they gave me the runt of their catch for free. Although it was the runt, it was still a decent feed for two but we still had the four Adcocks to feed. The kids and David started looking for crabs along the rocks that were exposed by the low tide by using the baitfish tied to a stick. After a lot of persistence, they managed to catch one mud crab that wasn't the size of the first one but at least big enough to cook. When the tide finally came in around 1pm Dorothy, David, Rob and little Jackson started fishing. Soon, David caught something huge - his new beach rod was almost bent in half as he struggled for about 10 minutes to bring it in. Anyone who was on the beach at the time came to look as he reeled it in - but it turned out to be a large stingray. We had to cut it free for fear of being whipped with its barb. Jackson caught a catfish but nothing else seemed to be biting. Finally, I asked David to rig up my rod and on my first cast I caught a good flathead. We kept him for our dinner thinking that now we had enough for entrée for the Adcocks and ourselves - if only we could catch one large spangled emperor for our main course!

It was not to be, but we had a terrific meal with salad, bread, homemade seafood sauce and then when the kids had gone to bed we watched a beautiful starlit night and drank wine and had good conversation with Rob and Dorothy.