80 Mile Beach, Broome 'n" Crocks! - May 23rd...

See photo - Aiden waving ..

at truckie, he even honked his horn.

After our break in Karrajini we headed to Port Hedland for some supplies and a refuel, after visiting the local BP and Coles we stopped 60km out of town alongside the "De Grey River" (82km NE) for a free camp. Our trip took us along beautiful scenery with 4 trailer road trains flying by! With the usual kids toilet stops, no trip was complete without waving to the passing truckers (Aiden not Bell). We arrived at our site and setup away from the road then we all went for a walk down to the river, as fate would have it Aiden strayed too close to the edge and soon after we were cleaning mud off him and his shoes!, he was not happy. Pretty soon an ore train came charging down the nearby line and across the river to the delight of the boys who wanted to get closer. We settled down for an early night, around 2am we heard something around our site so up we jumped, sprang out of the van only to find some bewildered cows wanting to know who parked some large white things on their dinner! Next morning we were off to 80 mile beach bright and early.

Arriving at the 80 mile beach turn-off we were not sure whether to keep on going by the look of the sign (bikers had left some messages to say it was no good !), we took a punt and headed done the gravel road, we arrived a little after 11am and setup in record time, even did the laundry at only 2 bucks a go. The place was lovely and people very friendly, we then went down to the beach!......... Well what a beach, it stretched as long as you could see in both directions (probably why it’s called 80 mile beach!). We were in for a dip and then after getting hit by 2 fish! It was back to the car for the rods and bait, where we were informed they caught a 3mt shark  couple of days back! I then headed back to the beach to get the nippers out of the water (did wonder why none of the fisherman on the beach were getting their toes wet!)



See photo - Aiden holding Bells Fish.



Bell and I threw in a line and low and behold, who caught the only fish on the entire beach for that afternoon.....well it wasn't me that's for sure! For the rest of the arvo the boys had a blast building roads for the trucks and Riley dragged Granddad up and down the beach to check out what the other 30 fisherman were up to.........nothing!

Following morning 26th, we were off at 8am to Broome 325 km away, we stayed for 3 nights at the Cable Beach Holiday Park. Bell did the kids school work with them in the car, then spent the rest of the trip trying to get a good photo of a hawk or an eagle. We checked in a little after 12 and while the girls and boys went to the beach while Ray and I went to get the salt and red dirt off the 4x4's........ no mean feat!

 

The girls arrived at the beach just in time for the Lifeguards to close it down due to a 3.5mt crock sighting just off shore! So they spent the arvo in the shore waves collecting pippies and watching them disappear back under the sand. Also admiring the crabs sand balls that covered the beach (made every day fresh with the tide changes). Suddenly a fisherman some ways down the beach got a huge bite and it was on to see what was at the end of his rod!.......... a stingray (apparently not that easy to remove due to the Steve Irwin episode!) finally it was off and everyone settled in to watch the marching of the camels along Cable Beach!

 

Following morning it was down to Chinatown for a coffee and a look down the old Pearle’s Jetty as it was low tide. There was a temporary warning sign on the jetty, as a few weeks before a backpacker (its never anyone else!) was down on the jetty at night (1st mistake), at high tide (2nd mistake), pulling a crab pot (3rd mistake), as he pulled the pot a 3mtr crock lunged out of the water and almost took his head off!   Apparently his pants needed to come off quite soon after (probably when he got off the jetty and back to the car park). So it was a quick photo and we got out of there!

 

We then went across to the Town Beach where the boys enjoyed a play in the free water park (this beach was closed due to crock sightings), we then went back to the van for an early satay chicken lunch before heading back down to Cable Beach for a swim (body surf for the boys) and another wonderful sunset with a Weber cooked Pineapple Cake following our Ham & salad rolls. After sunset we watch all the 4wd's negotiate rocks on the beach and it was time to go as we were suddenly invaded by a squadron of mosquitoes!

The last day with Nan and Granddad was spent with a breakfast down at Zanders on .....yes.....Cable Beach (where else!) and a short trip up to the Lighthouse to see the dinosaur footprints (no trip is complete without this if you are a 4 or 5 year old) then back to the Jetty and the beach to look for some Crazy Crabs.......... 21 to be precise!, we held the inaugural Broome Jetty Back Beach Crazy Crab Regatta ( BJBBCCR ), when the flag dropped they went in all directions! 

 

After lunch Bell the boys, Nan and Granddad headed for the Crocodile park, where they saw all sorts of different Crocks, Birds and Reptiles, Riley managed to wrangle 2 x holds of a baby croc and mum even got given a croc tooth by the manager "Marshall'! It was great and would recommend.

Next morning it was up early, after we all said our goodbyes to Nan & Granddad :( (could not convince them to stay any longer) and we were off to Fitzroy Crossing!

 

As you will see from the photos Bell loved her sunsets, can never miss one, and always brings snacks for the boys to make sure they are well entertained to enjoy the magic.

Here is another somers clip ...