Days 51 - 54 (Broome to Eighty Mile Beach to Port Hedland)

The drive to Eighty Mile Beach took about three hours - a boring drive. Along the way we had morning tea at a rest area in the middle of nowhere and later filled up with fuel at the Sandfire Roadhouse. 45km after the roadhouse you turn west onto gravel toad to do the last 10km to the Eighty Mile Beach Caravan Park. The caravan park is well set up and has a small shop selling the basics plus gas refills and bait.

There were no powered sites left as it was the Sunday of a long week-end in WA - Foundation Day Monday holiday so we took non-powered sites and they said we could move to power on Monday morning. We ended up staying on the non-powered sites - these sites had water and we have both a genny and solar power so we can survive for ages on no power. The park was hit by a cyclone in 2009 so many of there trees were wiped out but they have done a good job of planting new trees and keeping the grass green.

This place is a real fishing area - heaps of people have quad bikes which they ride up and down the beach with their rods. We drove onto the beach to go fishing on the Monday - we caught a few small fish and Doug caught two big enough to eat. We didn't catch much but it sure beats being at school........

The Eighty Mile Beach is about 150 - 200 metres wide at low tide and is a mecca if you want to collect shells.

Tuesday we just relaxed in preparation to driving tO Port Hedland on Wednesday to stay with Julie & Greg.

Wednesday - we arrived in South Hedland after a 2 1/2 hour drive. It was a tight squeeze but we managed to get the vans and cars inside the yard. This afternoon we went out and visited a hardware shop (can't keep away from them) and also Kmart. After that we took the car to a car wash and washed off the multiple layers of red dust - this is the second wash for the car in 10,000km!!!

Tomorrow - the car gets its 160,000 service and I remodel our caravan table to give us some more room (hence today's visit to harware shop).  And no, it's not just me - today Doug fitted a new kitchen tap which he broke off a week or so ago....

FIGURES (at Eighty Mile Beach)

Total distance  travelled so far: 9562 kilometres.
Highest Fuel price: 198.9 - Barkley Homestead, NT
Lowest Fuel price: 147.9 - Roma, Qld
Average Fuel price: 162
Fuel Economy (Mixed towing & non-towing): 18.9L/100km
Fuel Economy towing: 21.9L/100km
Amount spent on fuel so far: $3113

I am probably not going to produce a daily blog for next few days - depending on what we do at Port Hedland. I may combine a few days??????

Karli, it was good to hear that Kurt is on the mend!!  We'll be visiting Tassie again on a future trip. Would love to see the snow again.

Eighty Mile Beach looking north

Eighty Mile Beach Caravan Park

Our sites at Eighty Mile Beach (unpowered section) - Told you we are independant!!

 

People fishing on beach

Geoff fishing

How the locals fish!!!