Eighty Mile Beach WA 31/08/12 to 01/09/12

We arrived in Eighty Mile Beach having driven the last 10k’s over a corrugated dirt road. We crawled in doing 20 kmph as not sure how the van would go.  Except for a few cushions on the floor and things topsy turvy in cupboards everything seemed to be okay. That was until we were ready to leave and, on packing up the van, I noticed that the mat on the floor of the van felt damp. Upon further investigation the cupboard where the hot water system goes had a lot of water in it.  What’s going on, all of our trouble seems to be water related. What does that mean?  We have put a towel in the cupboard and will have to deal with the problem when we get to our next stop at Karajini National Park. We are on our longest drive so far at the moment, 600k’s, and it’s Father’s Day today and Dougie is spending it driving the car.  Not the best for him but we are going to do Father’s Day when we get to Karajini.

Anyway back to Eighty Mile Beach. As we came over the ridge to enter the caravan park we got our first glimpse of the ocean.  Bluest of blue water against the red dirt road. Amazing!  This is going to be a good stop.  We had heard that you don’t swim in the ocean but I was finding that hard to believe. Nobody was in there though, which must mean something.  Apparently there are sharks and sea snakes and the water is not of that good a quality, lots of bad bacteria. It’s a great fishing spot and that’s what brings the crowds. All of the oldies from down south set up for the winter and fish to their heart's content.

We drove on the beach the 2 days we were there, and with the tide going out about 1k you’d think it would have been easy.  But the sand was very soft and even if you were walking you would sink heaps.  So we stuck to the high sand and had some fun 4w driving. It was a shell collector’s heaven.  We collected shells both days. I couldn’t help myself, I just couldn’t stop.  So many shells. Consequently we are now carrying the equivalent of an extra child's weight in shells in the van.  All of the shells are very different to home so I just had to have them all.  Even on my walk in the mornings on the beach I was collecting shells. I wasn’t walking very fast as I didn’t want to miss the best shell.

The 10k of corrugated dirt road into the caravan park

This is what we were rewarded with at the end of the dirt road. Unfortunately we couldn't swim there.

The caravan park

The moon going down over Eighty Mile Beach

The sun coming up

Cool patterns in the sand as the tide was going out

One of the reasons why we didn't swim in the water

This is as far as we got in

Cleaning the catch. Notice the shark; another reason why we didn't swim there.

Collection of amazing shells that we found on the beach

No these aren't real - they are actually shells

 Chief mechanic and assistant adjusting tyre pressure before driving on the beach

Driving on the beach 

Doug showing us how far you can sink in the sand just walking - even with his petite body

Dam building as the tide goes out

Jacob and I shell collecting

Jacob and Doug chasing some birds

Boys building a trench as the tide comes in.

Five minutes later the trench is gone

Sunset