You could see forever
Well, Hi! I hope this finds you all thriving. What an amazing place this is! Why? I’m not really sure. We have been discussing this very question all this week, and really have no truly definitive answer for you. If you come here to fish, you will catch fish. If you come here to relax, you can relax. If you come here to catch some rays, you will get some sun. In essence it is very very laid back and as far as we can tell, pretty unique.
For those who don’t know, Eighty Mile Beach some 330 odd ks south of Broome is a fishing mecca. The only thing here is the caravan park. Until last year the park was lush and tropical sporting large shady trees and lots of nice green lawn. Sadly, early this year a large and destructive cyclone knocked the proverbial stuffing out of the park. Many of the trees were either uprooted or ringbarked by the winds and many of the buildings were either severely damaged or completely destroyed. As we haven’t been here before , it is hard to place a comparison on the before and after. Now, the place is pretty bare although the trees that did survive the onslaught are gradually reclothing themselves in lush new foliage and the lawns are slowly returning to some of their former glory. Things weren’t helped much by flooding rains in July this year. Oddly enough, this is one place where we are told by all the locals, rain hardly ever falls, and yet it has rained yet again while we are here! One of the predominant features of the place is a roughly 10k red dirt road into the park and of course all the park roads are also that wonderful deep red soil, some would say bulldust. After the last couple of days’ rainfall of course all the roads have turned from dust to mud – deep red into everything mud!
Despite the red bulldust, we just ‘love’ the place. There is absolutely nothing here – so not everyone’s cup of tea. The park sports a pretty good shop that stocks a surprisingly good array of fresh produce and of course all the fishing bits. Sadly the people who run the place appear to have ‘stood behind the door’ when the personalities were handed out, but hey, it’s not really that big a deal – not everyone can be personality plus. One really surprising little gem is that the shop sells the most beautiful rolls fresh baked every morning – they are huge and one between us is perfect for lunch. There is a little market held each Wed and Sun afternoons. The long-term park residents (that is most of them) put on little stalls of the stuff they make, fairly typical things like jewellery, knitted items and such. Wednesday evening is Burger night, and although we didn’t partake, we have been assured by all that they are wonderful. Sunday night they have a pizza night – once again didn’t try one so cannot tell you what they were like. Many of the long term people here are musos and generally wonderful music resounds around the campsite late afternoons and early evenings.
The whole place revolves around the tides and fishing. The tides here are huge. One lady put on her pedometer to walk out to the water at low tide the other morning and it clocked 2 ks – just to get to the water’s edge. At high tide, the water is at our doorstep, so to speak. Blokes just love it here! Up in the morning to sort out the fishing gear, talk about fishing, set up the rigs, talk about fishing, have a cuppa, talk about fishing, ...........I’m sure you get the picture. Many of the ladies here also like to fish, but I think the big bonus for the women here is that the men are gone for at least a couple of hours each day and the women are left to their own devices. That means we can pursue whichever of our favourite pursuits takes our fancy, all in blissful peace and quiet. Looking at the markets I guess many ladies make things, like the jewellery and such. Me, I did some reading, explored computer generated art and wrote my first children’s book. I had a wonderful time! The bloke also had fun. Although he didn’t manage to score a big White as they call the big Threadfin Salmon that are popularly caught of this beach, he did catch plenty of Blue Nose Salmon – very delicate fish and quite nice eating. Mind you after eating fish for 6 nights in a row, I was ready for something else last night. No, no, no, ....keep your mind above please!
Oh, you may have realised that I didn’t mention swimming as an option here, that’s because only the very foolhardy would jump into these waters. Many, many sharks are caught here on a daily basis, and some of them are very big fellas indeed. The fisher folk have lots of trouble with big things taking their lines and very large rays playing havoc with their lines and gear. One of the bonuses of the big tides tho’ is the shells. I have never seen so many shells before. As the ocean recedes you can just wander at your leisure collecting whatever you wish. As my granddaughter Chloe just loves shells I have made sure I have some pretty ones for her.
I have been out in the late afternoon meandering along the ocean floor while the sun sinks below the horizon – a more surreal experience I find hard to imagine. Where else can you actually walk on the ocean floor without actually being in or under the water. To think that only a few hours ago and then again in a few hours time, where you are walking will be deep ocean and just teeming with all sorts of fish is incredible. The first afternoon I went out to do the ocean walk I was completely alone as the sun sank into a bed of soft grey clouds. As the sun dropped in the west, all manner of reflections moved across the widening expanse of wet sand. Clouds set strange shadows and unbelievably in the far distance whales surged from the water frolicking on their way south. I experienced a sense of complete and utter peace as I slowly wandered along the beach, occasionally selecting a choice shell for Chloe. I selected a soft sand dune on which to sit and watch the sunset – as the colours softly at first developed, I could see all the soft and pastel colours of the pearls for which this part of the country is famous. From the soft pearlescent colours slowly the savage and wild colours of the north developed until the entire sky was aflame. Every day if you look carefully nature will provide you with a miracle – this was one of them and I felt very blessed.
This place is one where many grey nomads come ‘for the season’ arriving in April and leaving in September (or similar). As we have arrived here, many of the ‘locals’ are leaving for their southern homes. We can certainly see the attraction here. The weather is now quite warm, but basically pretty balmy. Compared to down south, just beeyootiful! I suspect that many of the regulars here are old hippys re-experiencing their youth. I’m sure they have all been off living responsible family lives for the last 30 years or so and have now kicked off their yolks of respectable normality and are once again living what is almost a commune style life. No, I’m not suggesting that they have wild sex romps or anything of that kind, but rather a lovely ‘thumb your nose at the Jones’ lifestyle that to me at least, seems really appealing. There is no keeping up here, quite the contrary, I sense that it is a competition to chill out. Hmmmm, I think I could get used to that. In fact, we have agreed that when time and life permits, we will be back here again for a much longer stay. Perhaps not at the peak of the season but rather at around this time of the year again as the camp empties out.
We had a lovely surprise when we arrived here. As the day wound down we heard some Country and Western music wafting up from one of the tracks nearby. Doug commented that it sounded familiar, and sure enough, when I went to investigate, Yvonne and Hank, our new mates from Darwin were camped just around the corner. It has been great to catch up with them. Doug has had a fishing buddy (a really experienced one who has passed on quite a bit of knowledge) and we have had some lovely times together reminiscing about our stay in Darwin. Yvonne set up a stall at the Sunday market, partly to sell her beautiful jewellery, and partly to cut hair. The jewellery sold well and they came from far and wide to have hair- cuts. It was amazing.
A kind new friend and fellow blogger, Rob, recently suggested that I try my hand at childrens’ books. I had not thought of it before and at first dismissed the idea. However, while we were here, I became concerned about the plight of a rather battered Pheasant Coucal that lives here at the park and found myself writing a little story about her. I am quite pleased with the outcome and am considering having it published. We’ll see.
To my absolute delight, the Bloke has started reading. In the entire 8 (almost) years that we have been together, I have never really seen him read anything just for pleasure. Finally, he has finished one book, admittedly biographical, and now is deeply immersed in a novel – brilliant!
Well folks, that is pretty much it, from Eighty Mile. We leave here tomorrow heading into Port Hedland for a couple of days. While there we are going to try and catch up with my ex husband and his wife – I know it sounds weird and perhaps it is, but really, we are all oldies now and surely old grievances should be dead and buried. I called him from Broome to warn him of our imminent arrival and he sounded quite bemused and not a little scared! I’ll let you know how it goes.
There is only one caravan park here so no competition, however if you are considering coming to this unusual little paradise, these are the particulars:-
Gravel/dirt road – quite good, around 10ks. – no dogs – amenities are OK (quite good really) – store is well provisioned – staff are less than friendly – grassed sites, getting better all the time, red dirt roads. Lifestyle – wonderful – but you need to stay at least 3 days to get the feel of the place.
Make Love Not War – Steph.
Dust storm heading out of Hedland.
From the Caravan site
Fairy Lights at Night
Stockpiled Iron Ore awaiting shipping.
Salt, salt, salt!
