Eighty Mile Beach

We have been here at Eight Mile Beach for the last eight nights, the first couple of days the weather was lovely but since last Wednesday night we have had fair bit of wind, looking forward to when that abates.

Jason, Anita & Olivia spent two nights here with us on their way back to Newman it was very sad to see them drive off on Thursday morning after being with them on and off for the last three weeks. It was lovely getting to know little Livvie she communicates so well now, she certainly lets you know what she wants!

When we were in Broome we caught up with Maree & Brian who are also travelling the West Coast with their friends, they have now pulled in here at Eighty Mile and I am sure we will catch up at a few more places as we travel south. We are now trying to slow ourselves down as we do not want to get down in the cooler weather too soon, we have been finding the nights since leaving Broome have been much cooler.

Not much to write about at the moment the only highlight here is the little market on Wednesday & Sunday afternoons takes all of 6 minutes to see all the stalls. With this wind even the die hard fishermen have not been venturing out, lucky for us we have fish in our freezer that we caught when we were out on the fishing charter. Mobile phone cover is intermittent sometimes we have it in the van other times we need to walk towards the sand dunes to pick it up. Internet is another problem we need to go out near the entrance to the park to pick up our wi fi but Maree is able to use her I Pad in the van with an antenna without a problem.

Eighty Mile Beach

Fishing Eighty Mile Beach

Last Sunset before we left Eighty Mile Beach

Broome....cont

For the last few days we have had plenty of sunshine and the daytime temp has been 30-33 degrees, does get a little hot in the sun at times always nice to find the shady side of the street or a air conditioned shopping centre.
Baz and I feel a little tidier as he has had a haircut and I enjoyed a lovely relaxing morning on Friday at the hairdressers getting a cut and colour, while Baz shot off to the coffee shop for his fix of cake andcoffee as I wasn't there to ask the question   "do you really need that ?".

Saturday started out very relaxing enjoying a lovely breakfast at the Kool Spot Cafe in town, then it was a stroll around the pearl shops, but the only pearls that I really liked were well out of my price range a pity I have such expensive taste. A phone call from Jason probably saved the bank account as he was on his way to the caravan park with Olivia and wanted us to go to the pool with them, so shopping forgotten it was back to the van. Saturday afternoon found us on Cable Beach with the tide going out we were able to drive down the 4x4 access onto the beach through a rocky outcrop to where the Camel rides depart which is also where the nudist sun lovers hang out, hang out more ways than one not a pretty sight. We had booked the late afternoon Camel ride then upon our return Jason and Anita were booked on the sunset ride and we were to look after Olivia, but she had other ideas and after a loud protest was lifted up onto Anita's lap. As we were not sure if she would last the hour poor old Gran ended up walking the whole hour with the Camel's in case she wanted to get off, one way of getting my exercise, very hot and sweaty when I got back.

The alarm clock went off at 5am on Sunday as we were booked on a fishing charter and were being picked up at Grant's place at 7am so it was a very early breakfast, no time to lay in bed and watch Sunrise. We travelled about 40klm off shore out in the Indian Ocean and even if we had come back without any fish we could say we had a very memorable day, as we saw Turtles, Sea Snakes, Dolphins and Whales. These gentle giants glide through the water effortlessly, a couple surfaced quiet near the boat breaking the surface in a breathtaking breach. The fishing started out quiet exciting with a couple of lines over the stern of the boat as we trawled for  Mackerel and it was not long before we had a dozen on board with everyone landing one except me, I had just got mine to the surface when a very large shark took it! I was a little too slow getting it on board. The bottom fishing was a little disappointing as quiet a few fish were caught but most were returned to the sea as they were undersized or not any  good for eating. So much gear was taken by sharks during the day, you would hook a fish start bringing it to the surface to only end up with a slack line as the fish, hook and sinker would be gone. When the sharks appeared we would have to pull in our lines and move off to another fishing spot only to have the same happen again, you certainly would not wanted to fall over board when you saw the size of the sharks that were circling the boat at times and they were lighting fast taking the fish.

Luckily we had booked the extra night and are not leaving until Tuesday (tomorrow), as we were pretty slow this morning after our big day out on the water. We finally had time to catch up with Maree and Brian today who arrived on Saturday and will be staying in Broome for a week before they go down to Eighty Mile Beach where they will catch up with us again for a few days, before heading further south.

Poor Camel, wore him out for Neat & Jase

Neat & Jase with Olivia

Camels at Sunset, Cable Beach

Baz with his Mackerel

Mackerel 

Had to return this one to the sea!

Shared with the shark, only half a fish left ok for bait

Rods set up ready to fish

Eighty Mile Beach - Broome

The drive from Newman to Port Hedland took around 6hrs and the only civilisation along the way was one Roadhouse and some mine workers dongers, over here in WA it is certainly a long way between towns. This time when we passed through Port Hedland the mud had turned to dust, but there was still evidence with water laying alongside the road from the rains that they received nearly two weeks ago. Once again we had a stop over for the night at De Grae River before heading onto Eighty Mile Beach.

We cut our speed back to 40klms to negotiate the dusty corrugated road into Eighty Mile Beach luckily it was only a 10klm stretch but it only takes a few meters for your vehicles to be covered in the red dust. Pulling into the Caravan Park reception Baz was advised by a driver from the vehicle that was following us, that we had lost our sullage hose out of the tube on the back of the van. It would have been nice if he had retrieved it for us as Baz had to then back track with van, and then find somewhere he was able to turn to head back to the park again. Eighty Mile Beach lived up to all that we had heard about it, Baz even said it was worth the red dust, beautiful aqua blue water, lovely white course sand and dozens of people fishing off the beach. Jason, Anita & Olivia arrived later that afternoon and certainly enjoyed their fix of sand & water after the rocks and red dust of Newman. We sat on the beach until the sun had set and witnessed another stunning sunset over the Indian Ocean.

Tuesday it was on the road early as we wanted to be in Broome by lunch time, this would then give us time to set up, have lunch and clean ourselves up to be on the foreshore at Cable Beach to meet Grant, his family and his friends from Broome to remember his son Adam, who tragically died 12 months ago pursuing his dream of flying.

Road into Eighty Mile Beach

Eighty Mile Beaach

Mulloway or Jewfish caught off the beach

Reflections

Jason & Oliva

Sunset Eighty Mile Beach

Newman cont.....

Anita had great plans for a Dora cake for Olivia, but after the third unsuccessful attempt of trying to get the cake out of the tin, it was time to think of plan B! After some discussion on how best to use the cake that had already been cooked we came up with the idea of a Caterpillar Cake, Gran was assigned the grass while Anita constructed the Caterpillar. Many hours later we had the finished product much to Livvies delight, as all she wanted for her birthday was cake. Anita wishes she had spent more time with her grandmother when she was younger, as she has not inherited her abilities. I was given the important task of nursing the cake as we drove to the park, Anita did not want to put the cake on the table with the other party food so it was left sitting on top of the Waco in the back of the Pajero. Baz had the sudden need for a toilet so off he goes back to the house, forgetting that the cake that took hours & hours to make was perched in the back, on his return I was unable to look and too scared to tell Anita, but he was lucky, very lucky as the cake had not moved.

Newman social life is very busy as the next day we went out to the Capricorn Road House about 10klm out of Newman as Isla a little friend of Livvies was turning 1, we spent an enjoyable couple of hours sitting outside the Tavern while the children played in the playground.

Thursday it was time for big people stuff, we packed a picnic lunch and headed off in Jason’s vehicle to Weeli Wollie, Baz was not taking the Pajero on the 40klms of dirt road and numerous water crossings, seven in total. Weeli Wollie Spring and Creek are very popular with the families from Newman for day trips and camping as it provides a day of four wheel driving for the big boys and when you arrive the kids are able to swim in the pools. Lucky we did not get stuck in any of the water crossings as we were the only ones out there, we had only passed a couple of vehicles that were heading out as we were going in. We asked Jase “did you tell anyone where we were going?”  He answered “yes, YOU.”  It was a very enjoyable day the weather was lovely but not hot enough for us to be tempted in a swim, Olivia thought it was OK and had a lovely time in the water.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we leave Newman and head towards Eighty Mile Beach, where we will wait for Jason, Anita & Olivia to arrive on Wednesday, they will stop there for a night then we will all head for Broome on Thursday.

Olivia with her pressie from Gran & Grandad

Birthday girl with mum & dad

 Baz at Weeli Wolli

Jase & Olivia at Weeli Wolli

Newman

Wednesday we left a very humid Broome 86% humidity, and set off towards Port Hedland. We did not know how far we would be able to go as the road at Port Hedland was closed, due to very heavy rain more than 300ml during the night. We called into a rest stop about 80klm from Broome where we came across Roger & Dot from Tassie, they were going to spend the night there with about half a dozen other travellers and wait until the water had subsided. As we wanted to get into Newman to see the family we headed off travelling  540klm stopping at a rest area for the night on the north side Port Hedland, good thing we pulled in there as not much further down the highway there was quiet significant water across the road.

Thursday it was into Port Hedland where the service stations all resembled swimming pools, we pulled out of one without filling up, as very dubious of whether there was water in their diesel. The hwy was reduced to only one lane at the Fortesque railway overpass, as the road had been washed away. We were lucky that we were not held up there for very long, as later in the day were heard that there was anything up to 11/2 hours delay due to the roadworks. We were directed through the washed out section which was approx 1mtre wide and 30 - 50 cm deep, so Bazz slipped it into low 4wd when he saw the ute in front drop down in the wash out. Once we were through that section all was good, then it was onto the Great Northern Hwy that takes you into Newman. As the traffic had been held up we were passed by numerous road trains without loads heading into Newman all trying to make up for lost time, it is a very busy Hwy with all the mining traffic. Stopped at Bea Bea Creek for lunch, then decided to spend the night and go in Karijini National Park first thing in the morning. Surprising enough we were not too worried by the passing road trains during the night.

Had planned to spend the next night at Karijini but as we were in there nice and early we had time to walk down into Dales Gorge to Fortescue Falls and the Fern Pool, checked out the Three Ways Lookout and the Circular Pool. Once again we were treated with spectacular, rugged scenery with the banded iron formations in the rocks and with the rock pools and a waterfall. The weather was a lot cooler than we had been experiencing, so we were not tempted to go for a swim in the cold water in the gorge pools.
Seeing as we were only 162 klms from Newman we were now getting a little excited to see Jase, Neat and Livvie  so instead stopping the night we were pulling up outside their house a couple of hours later.

Everything here in Newman is covered in RED DUST, I made the comment to Baz that is looks like the whole town needs a good Karcher! This afternoon we enjoyed a very informative mine tour to the BHP Billiton Iron Ore Mt Whaleback Mine. Mt Whaleback is the largest Single Open-Cut mine in the word, currently 5.5km long and 1.5 km wide. The average train leaving the mine is 3.75 kms long taking Iron Ore from Newman to the port facilities in Port Hedland a distance of 426klms. We had to wear hard hats, goggles and safety vests long sleeves, long trousers and solid shoes to travel in a bus to the top of a lookout over looking the open cut and no where near any danger, but I suppose we had to look the part. Baz was also reminded today why he does not like bus tours, as there were some very elderly people on our tour that could certainly use some Fem Fresh ! then one burst into song singing Pack Up Your Trouble's In Your Old Kit Bag while all the other were complaining about the cold.

It will be Olivia's 2nd birthday on Tuesday, so we are looking forward to celebrating this with her. She loves the caravan she tells us it is her caravan and screams when being removed by Neat.

Port Hedland Fortesque Rail Overpass

Bea Bea Creek

Fortesque Falls Karijini Nat.Park

Dales Gorge Karijini Nat. Park

Fern Pool Dales Gorge

Circle Pool Dales Gorge

Dales Gorge

View from Three Ways Lookout

Open Cut Mine Newman

Massive Mine Truck

Olivia helping to cook for her party!

Broome

We left Derby last Sunday and had an uneventful drive west to Broome arriving at the Broom Caravan Park in time for lunch. Once we had set up and had our lunch we went for a drive into town, as it was a Sunday the main st was very quiet, not a lot happens on a Sunday. Next for our first glimpse of the famous Cable Beach with it's beautiful white sand and aqua blue water. The beach was scattered with colourful umbrellas, people sun baking & swimmers. A notice at the walkway leading to the beach advised that the water temperature was 23 degrees, just nice to plunge into without feeling that chill factor. After the sights of Cable Beach we followed the road out to the lighthouse to the scenic cliffs at Gantheaume Point and then along to the Port.
Monday morning it was into a jewelry store next to the information centre to hear a talk from Marty on the history of the pearling industry in Broome & the Kimberley Coast.  It was a very informative 1.5hr presentation starting with the history of pearls, how they form in oysters, and how cultured pearls are generally cultivated, harvested and processed for the market. We then had a lovely long lunch with Grant, a friend from Tassie who is currently here in Broome for a few months. Grant has been organising a memorial plaque and getting approval for it's placement as a remembrance of his son Adam, who was killed in a light plane crash on Cable Beach 12 months ago, family and friends will be here in Broome for the anniversary on the 11th July. We had just left Grant when we run into Riki and John whom we had met in Darwin and had spent some time with along the way, so then it was into the nearest pub for a nice cold beer and catch up. Finally we were back at the van to pack our chairs and drinks, as we had arranged to meet Grant & Claire at Roebuck Bay to view the natural phenomenon of the Staircase to the Moon. This occurs when the full moon rises over the exposed mudflats of Roebuck Bay at low tide, creating the optical illusion of a staircase leading up to the moon. Town Beach and the Staircase to the Moon is much like the Mindle Beach Sunset Market in Darwin, with it many food stalls, craft stalls & music. It was a truly magical time watching the very large moon rising over the horizon with hundreds of people gathered to share the experience.
Very humid today, the forecast is for rain later in the day which put a dampener on our plans to ride the Camels along Cable Beach and then have a BBQ with Grant and Claire on the beach & watch the sunset. There is beach access for vehicles to the north side of Cable Beach which is also the Nudist area, will have to leave this experience to when we return in a couple of weeks with Jason, Anita and Olivia.

Cable Beach

Gantheaume
Point

swimming pool Broome Caravan Park

Stairway to the Moon

Derby

Thursday morning we left Fitzroy Crossing for the 2hr trip to Derby, we stopped for a short break at the Boab rest area that had a very impressive Boab tree. The tree had a very large opening near the base that Bazz was even able to climb into, I did not mistake him for a gnome!
Derby has a population of little over 3,000, with about half being of Aboriginal descent. It is the closest town to the Gibb River Rd and is a popular stop over for off road travellers that have either just completed or about to partake in their adventure along the unpaved 4wd road. Derby is also the ideal location to experience the Horizontal Water Falls in Talbot Bay and The Archipelago as it is only 35 minutes by plane.
Since we have been here we have taken in a couple of the popular sites, the first being the Jetty/Wharf which is a very popular place to view the stunning sunsets over King Sound also for fishing. About 7klm from the town is the Prison Boab tree, it is a huge tree believed to be around 1,500 yrs old and has a girth of 14.7 metres. It was used as staging point for prisoners being walked into Derby in the early days.
Today we had an early start as we were being picked up the caravan park at 8.15am and taken to the local airport for our next bucket list adventure to the Horizontal Falls. Bazz is doing a wonderful job as he has been outside his comfort zone a number of times this trip! It was a 14 seat prop jet seaplane that we boarded for the flight that took us over immense tidal flats & islands of The Archipeago before a very smooth landing on the calm waters of Talbot Bay. Upon arrival at the luxury houseboat pontoon we boarded a the boat with three 300 horse power motors that took us numerous times through the falls. These falls occur because of the extreme tide movements and the large volume of water that builds up because it cannot move quick enough through the small openings. After this exhilarating experience it was back to the pontoon for a swim in the shark cage for one of us, but I must agree with Bazz that you had a better view of the sharks & a very large groper from the pontoon than down in the cage. The groper has very good sight now, as we were speaking with someone from yesterdays trip and a women was bending down and her prescription sunglasses fell in the water and were quickly snaveled up by George the groper. The rest of the day was spent touring around surrounding bays and creeks with a lovely lunch of BBQ Barramundi, and more  boat rides through the falls, so that you had the experience of outgoing, slack and incoming tides. All too soon it was time to board the seaplane again, must say there is not a lot of room in these little planes! Airborne once again the return flight was a different route taking in more of the beautiful islands of the Buccaneer Achipelago. If the tour was not so expensive we would do it all over again! Great day, can recommended this one it was really worth the money.

Boab tree

Derby Jetty

Sunset Derby Jetty

Prison Boab Tree

14 seat prop jet seaplane

Tidal flats

Tidal flats

Aerial view Horizontal Falls  

Pontoon

Horizontal Falls

Cyclone Creek

Buccaneer Archipelago

Barramundi Farm

Derby Jetty