Day 43

Day 43 Barn Hill

Well we have arrived in Barn Hill and as not expected we have the internet!! It never ceases to amaze

Sunrise 80 Mile

Sunrise 80 Mile

me. We are 140kms south of Broome with nothing around us and full phone coverage, in fact it flips to 4G every so often. The drive up was uneventful apart from us at last sing a black cow – just like on the signs, but the ground was red not yellow, but I will let that slide. In fact we saw a lot of cattle today, mostly Brahman or Brahman cross and some not so cross. They tend to stick to the road verges I suppose because the bush is not so thick as further off the road and there is a lot of small plants they can eat.

Sandfire Roadhouse

Sandfire Roadhouse

We went through Sandfire, just like I remembered it, just a bit greener. It really is in the middle of nowhere with flat land all around. We topped up the fuel as I was not using gas as everyone always comments on the availability of gas when I mention we have LPG as well as petrol “great if you can get it” which has me worried that they are coming South and have not seen much, I am starting to think that they just don’t notice it as it has been at most remote Roadhouses. Anyway, fuelled up at $2 a litre and headed off.

Unloaing the Beast ready for action

Our ocean views

The drive out from 80 Mile had been great as the grader was working the road and we caught up with him about 3 to 4kms from the camp site and the road was good, so 40kmh was average! The track in to Barn Hill was not so perfect. It is 10kms into Barn hill on sandy tracks, sandy as in sand on top of a solid base so there is no threat of bogging, but it was corrugated and really needed a bar dragged over it to take out the sand mounds. We just plodded in at between 20kmh and 40kmh depending on the road. Maureen was

Our Spinifex Pigeon are back

flower

riding shotgun so she was on gate duty. There are about 4 gates on the way in and electric fence all the way down. The camp site is gorgeous with one section under big trees and another section on the right that has more ocean views but no shade. We elected to go for the shade and the lovely lady who I will talk about soon put us under this huge tree facing the little park. I think she did that because they could keep an eye on us. The unshaded areas had water but no power which had we driven around

Fower on our walk

Flower

that area first we possibly would have chosen one. They have ocean views and are more spread out, but the ocean is a long way off with no access. Where we are overlooks the ocean, has power and water and the beach access is nearby.

Now the lady here is just lovely. Maureen keeps calling her Margaret. She just reminds us of our dear friend Margaret Holmes. She is about the same height as Marg, lots of similar mannerisms, similar build and just as quiet! Maureen uses the old sympathy story when we book in to get good sites near the amenities (thank goodness) and this lady, who we don’t know her name could not do enough. Lovely site, great ocean views, do you want a hand backing in, well I’ll just give you a hand directing then so you get the whole site, anything you need just come and ask, she is just fantastic.

Red clay sandhills

Beach lookout

We backed in and proceeded to set up, well I did, Maureen went off to check out the facilities and they are a bit unique in that they have no roof. You certainly don’t need to worry about exhaust fans as there is full air flow, showers under the stars. We had lunch and set off on our machines, it was a bit boggy for Maureen’s bike but we got around. We went to the other side of the camp and looked at the sites there and through to

Track to beach access

Beach access - too boggy for me

the other side where we are. They have a real mix of sites from Atco dongers to some 1 room units that had kitchen and bedroom in one with outside veranda as well as normal tent/caravan sites. We made our way to the beach viewing area and then down to where they launch boats off the beach, looks great but I cannot get onto the beach. As we made our way back it was close to sunset so we made our way back to the

View back to camp

The beach

viewing area and were soon joined by others to watch the sun go down. We talked to 2 couples, 1 from Safety Bay, the other from Rockingham!

Back at Girt we made dinner and now we are doing the blog and stunned at the internet connection. We have booked in for 2 nights, but we may stay 1 or 2 more before going to Broome, will let you know.

Natural rock piles next to the beach

Sunset