Day 39

Day 39 – 80 Mile Beach

Maureen wading

Shark Caught

We got very energetic this morning, well I did eventually. I had a bit of a sleep in then a lazy breakfast. Maureen as usual was up and about early and we decided to go for a walk along the beach. During the night we could hear the waves on the beach so we wanted to see the change. As we were going down there, it was noted that there were a lot of women in the camp out doing stuff. When we got to the beach we could see where the men were. The tide was in and right up the beach and all along the beach as far as you could see, people were fishing. Every 50m there was a fisher person, some with their partners, others with mates. There was not a lot being caught but we did see 2 small sharks caught and 2 bluefin I think they called them, Bluefin what I don’t know, they looked like a fat Taylor and about 30 cm long.

Fisherman up and down the beach

Coast Watch

I was able to get along the beach in the tyre tracks left by all the 4 WD, there are dozens of them all along the beach. We went about a kilometre to the north then went back and went about a kilometre south. The Beast was having a ball until you hit a  soft patch and down she goes. Thank goodness she only weighs a few dozen kilos and is easily extracted. The shells here are glorious. The beach is literally covered in them, a beach combers delight. We even found a dried out sea snake on the high tide mark. We were gone for about 2 hours and the tide had turned, so much so that I was able to come back some of the way in

Waves on the ebach

Pied Oyster Catchers

the wet sand area. When we went down to the beach, we saw a fisherman with an odd looking rod holder and had spoken to him before setting off, when we were going south, Maureen ran into a lady collecting shells and it turned out we know them from Mandurah through the School P & C – Leanne Crowley. As we were going, we made some comment about this guy with the odd rod holder and she described them to us – it was her husband! They are on their way home and expect to sell up and just travel around.

Fisherman left - tide going out

We have decided to stop here for 5 nights so we won’t leave until Tuesday at the earliest and then go into Barn Hill for 3 nights before moving on to Broome. I don’t think we will make it to the East Coast this time round, but no matter, what we have seen has been wonderful. The only problem we see from being late is that a few are saying it is getting hotter, but we will see.

We are in our camp site having lunch and waiting to see if the internet will come up and listening to our neighbours classic country and western music. It is the geriatric version of doof doof music, but you can hear the words, it is loud enough to hear clearly 2 or 3 sites away. It is quite amusing, they are German, and speak German all the time except when you say hello and they all yell “ g’day mate” together, mind you if I here “achy breaky heart” one more time…. Mind you I do enjoy all the John Denver and Kenny Rogers is not too bad.

Whilst we were having lunch, some entertainment rolled up in the form of this huge Jayco Stirling

Sunset

Watching sunset

van, it must be 24 foot at last without the draw bar! It backed into the bay opposite us, that was not the entertainment, the set up was amazing. The boot on the front of the van is opened and it is all neat and tidy, tolls in clips, hoses in bags, perfect, not crammed with all bits and sundry as in ours. First thing to be done is the levelling, out comes the jack – electric. Up, down, just right! Then priorities, you get a bit dirty with all this setting up stuff so, up comes the fold down tap stand with loop on it. The loop is for a small plastic bowl which has its own storage holder in the boot, plus hand towel that hangs off the tap stand as well. So wash the hands, then get the winder for he legs and set them up. Meanwhile, mum has been busy and has a series of floor mats that she clips together and puts it down so that it

Sunset

Contemplating life

leads from the door to the front tap arrangement! Quick wask of the hands and back to the van to open the roof vents. Dad has meanwhile adjusted the wind down legs and puts the winder back in its holder and takes another tool out of its clips – a long bit of metal rod, he uses it to patrol the grassed area and hits all the stones off. It is then used to roll out the annex. That up, the rod is clipped back and then the water filter is taken of its storage shelf and clipped on to the front of the van and water is on. The floor for the annex area is that plastic material, but it took a while to get just right so that it was under the edge of the van by 6 inches, not 7 or 5, it took a bit of juggling, but in the end they were happy. All this done, it was chairs out and sit down time.

We just got back from the beach and watching the sunset and the internet has just come back up so we are doing the blogs.