Eighty Mile Beach, a few hundred kilometres below Broome is a lovely oasis to relax and soak up the atmosphere of the north. We were looking forward to having a swim in the turquoise waters of this long stretch of beach, but were informed (with a chuckle) that the water is only about 20cm deep for about a km as it is tidal, and that there are sharks roaming in the shallows!

So, what else does everyone do here?? Fish and collect shells! Apparently in the high season, June/July, people are lined up at arm's length along the beach, fishing for big threadfin salmon. Alas, the weather has not been our friend of late, so the fish were not biting, the shells not as good, and its been stormy and overcast with rain threatening for most of the five days we have spent here.

Apart from these minor woes, Alf still managed to catch two fish big enough for the frying pan and I have found lovely shells of all shapes and sizes while scouring the beach with everyone else (it's very addictive). The caravan park here has a lovely atmosphere and the people are very friendly - they even have a little market twice a week with live music and also offer different meals for purchase from the office/shop on different days - Hamburger night tonight for $6.00!

Yesterday the Parks & Wildlife rangers and scientists came to the park to release about 25 five month old Flatback Turtles back into their own habitat. They had collected the hatchlings from this beach in January and reared them until they were big enough to have a solar powered satellite tracker attached to their shell. They hope to monitor where they go over the next 3 months as there is not a lot of knowledge about their whereabouts as juveniles. They are so cute with their little antenna on their backs. They took them out 4km offshore and then came back and showed us footage of their release. Really interesting!

We have both been looking forward to the next chapter of our trip across the centre of Australia from Marble Bar to Alice Springs, however, they have had so much rain in the Pilbara region over the last week that the roads are flooded and impassable. We are now looking for an alternative route.