80 MILE BEACH

Sorry there’s been a bit of a gap in the blog, had to attend to some business, but now we’re back on track.

We left Barn Hill Station early with the general aim of arriving at Eighty Mile Beach reasonably early but then we found the Stanley Rest Area and decided to free camp overnight.

The large and peaceful Stanley rest area provided a very peaceful night.

Western Australia leads the rest of the country in the provision of numbers of quality rest areas allowing 24 hour stopping. 

The rest areas are often near rivers, creeks or lakes and they are invariably very spacious with plenty of shade. The WA Main Roads Department should be congratulated for the way the stops are laid out and especially for the way they are maintained with regular rubbish removal and tidy up, even though many of the rest areas are quite remote.

The dedicated rest stop maintenance / cleanup vehicle from WA main roads dept.

The composting toilets are not universally liked although they are relatively clean and functional and many stops have more than one toilet – often there are three.
 

I should add that NSW, QLD and the NT are not far behind, but South Australia is way, way behind. Roadside stops in South Australia are very often uninhabitable with excrement and toilet paper all over the place as well as overflowing rubbish bins- something wrong somewhere!

Eighty Mile Beach is, I am told, as described. The beach apparently runs from Cape Keraudren north  to Cape Missiessy. In any event it’s more than adequate for the hundreds of people who holiday there every year and the many people who travel through.

There are many people who choose to winter there every year, often spending three or four months in residence. The many groups of friends tend to become fairly insular – some would say “cliquey” (if that’s a real word) but that sort of behaviour doesn’t worry me, I’m happy to talk to anyone (or ignore anyone as well LOL).

The eighty Mile Beach caravan Park is part of Wallal Downs, a huge grazing property providing stock for the live export market out of Broome and maybe Darwin.

The beach is able to be driven for many Km north – we only drove 9 or 10 km, collecting some nice shells and just lazing about and enjoying the sunshine and the daytime temps of about 30 every day.

80 Mile Beach has lots of bird life including many small groups of Red-Capped Plovers. 

Sundowners, 80 Mile Beach

Just like other beach side locations in WA, Eighty Mile Beach has its share of sundowners, people waiting and watching the sun fall into the ocean every afternoon. 

This lot were not as prepared as some we have come across, there were a few drinks, but not the chairs, tables and nibbles seen elsewhere.

Why this clown had to strap a petrol-powered fan to his back and zoom noisily up and down the beach where people were gathered is beyond me!

And that's what the sundowners were waiting for, sunset, 80 Mile Beach

Next Blog
Roebourne and Point Sampson

Regards
TJ

BROOME THEN BARN HILL STATION.

We have never stayed in Broome itself, preferring to stop at Roebuck Plains Roadhouse, about 23 Km out of town

I guess it’s horses for courses, but we prefer not to stay in the often overcrowded parks in Broome and drive in to Broome each day.

It seems that every visitor to Broome must go to Cable Beach at sunset ….there must be a law to that effect !!!! There must also be a legislated requirement that as many people as possible take a camel ride along the beach, also at or near to sunset.

Anxious to fit in with the apparent  local statutes and culture, we visited Cable Beach twice and watched the passing parade. People make quite a social occasion of it, bringing chairs and tables and all sorts of comestibles. We settled for a Coke and a packet of chips !

  

Here come those camels, Cable Beach. 

Locals and visitors getting very social on cable Beach.
Here come the camels again!

Sunset at Cable Beach.
 RJ waiting for a drink.

Broome also provides a couple of shopping centres. I must say it was refreshing to once again have a choice between Coles or Woolies and we re-stocked our food supplies realising that our next supermarket of any note would be in ten or eleven days’ time at Port Hedland. I was also able to get a wheel alignment for the Patrol. 

It seems that Coles and Woolies are having a small war and offering increasing discounts on fuel... happy days!!

We collected a couple of 16 cents off a litre and one or two 20 cents off per litre. When diesel is approaching  a dollar 90 cents a litre and to fill up my tanks needs 130 odd litres, 16 cents a litre is a great saving. Keep it up I say !!

Roebuck Plains Roadhouse is at the junction of the Great Northern Highway and the road into Broome and a large number of heavy vehicles call in every day. My fascination with heavy vehicles received a tremendous boost and I have many photos, here's a couple.

Toll moves a tremendous amount of food in WA, I believe a lot for supermarkets. They also hold a number of large contracts supplying food and drink to major mines. This is a triple refrigerated road train on the job.

A triple road train carrying about 14 or 15 brand new mine support vehicles. 

Roebuck Plains Roadhouse also gave me the opportunity to shoot quite a nice pic of a Red-Winged Parrot, one of a group that visited the tree we were parked under a couple of times every day to feed.

A Red Wing Parrot feeding, watched by a Little Wattle Bird

From Broome /  Roebuck Plains we headed south another 80 or so Km to Barn Hill Station, reached along a dusty, sandy and partly muddy track of around 8 Km or so. We elected to stay in an unpowered site along the cliff top. These camp grounds are fairly basic but at least they also provide drinkable water. The septic toilets are fine if a bit basic as are the showers and neither have a roof.

Perched on the edge of the cliffs affording a splendid view of the beach

Access to the beach is by a slightly precarious but very scenic goat track.

One of my enduring memories of Barn Hill Station is the impressive rock formations along the beach – if you look closely I’m sure you can see that there are many trolls present, relics of a past age, well before the realm of men (or maybe it’s just that I have read “The Hobbit” too many times lol !!)

There's Trolls here these for sure !!

More Trolls!  The watchers on the seaside standing mute (with apologies to Banjo Patterson.)

It’s also pleasant to wander the beach. There’s no access for 4WD vehicles on the north side of the beach and, in any event Barn Hill only allows beach access for vehicles to launch boats. We spent many hours just wandering.

The Beach at Barn Hill Station

Barn Hill also has its share of Sundowners, who gather on the cliffs every evening to watch the sun fall into the sea.

Sundowners, Barn Hill Station WA

After a few days of relaxation at Barn Hill we set off again, slowly south, stopping overnight at a very pleasant free camp.

NEXT STOP 80 MILE BEACH

REGARDS

TJ