The Pilbara - 80 Mile Beach

Tuesday 13th June
80 Mile Beach WA

Some good news from yesterday in that John and Jules had decided to continue on. What an Anzac that bloke is. They were leaving Karratha straight after Johns 9:00 a.m. Chiro appointment and heading up to meet us. As a result, we didn’t have to move until 11:30ish so it was a lazy day once again. This suited Amanda who didn’t even hear me leave for the shopping centre at 9:00 a.m. despite the diesel starting up only 2 metres from her ears.

Other good news, the Socceroos did in fact beat the Japs 3/1 in the world cup. 3 Goals in the last 8 minutes of the match after the Japanese scored their only goals in the first few minutes of the match. Three points stands them well in their next encounter with Brazil. Now that will be a giant killing effort if they knock them off. A earlier stated, I headed off down to the shopping centre at 9 bells to get a thankyou gift for Alf and dolly. Paul had woken me and said goodbye on his way to work (5.45 a.m.). Feels like I’d only just got to sleep. The plan for the day was pack up and vacate at about 11.30, the time J & J were expected to hit Hedland. All went to plan except the 3/4 of an hour we waited for them out on the highway. All was well in the end and our old team was reunited and heading north by 12.50 p.m.

Because of Johns back and the uncertainty of accommodation in Broome, we decided to travel only 250 or so km to 80 mile beach. Nothing noteworthy on the highway and the 10 km in to 80 mile was a no challenge dirt road. The caravan park is a revelation with groves of palms and sheokes planted between the campsites. The beach is sheltered by a large dune but once over that, the extremes of the beach are fantastic. The tides again drops some 7 metres here so the low tide leaves sandy flats more than a kilometre away from the high tide mark. Then expanses of pure white sand stretch away north and south as far as the eye can see. Gippsland’s 90 mile beach pales in comparison.

J & J have checked into a unit type thing (well equipped atco hut) while were at the other end of the park. It’s obviously a haven for the southern winter as there are a lot of winter permanents here and various senates convene at sunset. Anyone selling cask wine would be doing a roaring trade in this neck of the woods!!!

We caught the sunset over the beach which was short but well worth it. No clouds about so nothing to reflect the colours for a prolonged period of time. Dinner was the infamous left-overs from the Eagle Rock Pool curry night. After a few weeks in the freezer, it was superb. The nights are very chilly again despite the sunny days. It’s 8.45 p.m. as I type and the temperature is plummeting fast.

I’ll be on the phone tomorrow early to see if I can obtain accommodation in Broome and our movements for the day will be determined by that.

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