The kilometres seemed to take forever to get through on our way to Barn-Hill and by the time we reached the turn-off I was sure we had used twice as much fuel as normal due to the constant head wind we had battled. At least Kylz had to wake up for a bit as she was once again required to open a couple of gates on the road in! Getting to Barn-Hill towards the end of the busy season saw us given our pick of sites. Now usually this is what you wish for at a caravan park as you always think someone has got a better site than you do. However it has happened to us a couple of times and always gives us a bigger head ache trying to pick one out then it does whinging about the one you get given!?

Now while the wind was still persisting, we were soon enough set up and off down to check out the beautiful beach that is really the star attraction for all travellers who stop over at Barn-Hill. The view from up on the cliffs where the park is located is really magic and with a sturdy walking platform to the beach getting down to it is no real drama. The tide heights start to drop off as you move south down the coast, although the difference between the highs and lows at Barn-Hill make the beach seem like two different places. The high tide brings the water right up to the shore line and leaves very little rock exposed and also makes for some very comfortable swimming in a few of the sheltered corners out of the wind. We had couple of really good swims in the light surf whipped up by the strong breeze and being an early morning high tide suited us down to the ground.

The afternoon low tide revealed what seemed like miles of rock pools and small water holes left by the retreating waters of the Indian Ocean. The girls and Kylz spent heaps of time each arvo poking around the rock pools and collecting shells and watching crabs and small fish dart for cover in the small pools. With so much sandy beach exposed we also had plenty of fun just running around on the acres of wet sand. Chelsea and Charli really enjoyed galloping their "pretend" horses on the beach, "Rocket" and "Buttercup". Seeing how much fun the girls were having and hearing Charli yelling out "Giddy-up Buttercup" than tearing off down the beach full pelt got me thinking. I don't know who was laughing harder, the girls or Kylz when I took off along the beach on my own "pretend" horse "Farty", who had some small problems with the wind as well!? With a few days at Barn-Hill there was plenty of swimming (the wind ruined a bit of it for us) and running of "pretend" horses.

Barn-Hill is still a working station and has good but very basic amenities and facilities. Power is available but comes via the homestead gen-set and has limits eg: no toasters, electric kettles or hair-dryers. The toilet blocks are very basic but well looked after and there is water to each site that has power. Non-powered camping is available on the cliff with some awesome views on offer, but with the wind we chose a very sheltered spot for our stay. Saying all that though the place does have a small kiosk which sells bread eggs and milk and some other various stuff, which will tide anyone over between trips back to Broome. The girls soon sussed out that they also do ice-cream cones for only $2! The girls whacked on some real good behaviour here as they were a real good bargaining tool for Kylz and I. There is also a well looked after lawn bowls green that would see some action during the year. The park also runs a Sunday roast night. Plenty of the Grey Brigade call this place home for extended stays each year and with boats and some very elaborate set-ups around the place they looked very comfortable. The few we spoke to reckon the fishing had been very good all year, in between the wind, and the only down side was they all said you need a boat to reach the good spots.

We met some fellow Queensland travellers here, John and Marlene, who were also following the WA coast line. All doing much the same things, we would bump into each other on the beach in the arvo and pull up for few yarns about our travels. (while Farty and the other horses had a rest!?) With our plans being very similar to theirs we were sure we would see them at our next stop, the well known Grey Nomad haunt of Eighty-Mile Beach.

Fortunately for us by the time we were leaving for Eighty-Mile the wind was this time roaring down the coast and we actually had to use the brakes to pull ourselves up at the turn-off! After bumping ourselves along into Eighty-Mile we were quite surprised by what we found. The park has it all! We set up on our site and went for a walk around. We were told that until the week we arrived they had not had less than 200 sites booked all year since opening in April for the season. That seems even more amazing considering the place was literally flattened by a cyclone late in 2009. I will say this now, so others can argue, Eighty-Mile may be an awesome fishing beach but it has not much to offer otherwise. Low tide sees a fair walk to the water and then after another 100m it is still only 1m deep! A pool would see the whole family with nothing but smiles.

That said, if you are any sort of a fisherman you will have a ball at Eighty-Mile! I geared up and Kylz and I fished for two of the three days we had at Eighty-Mile. Getting to the beach a couple of hours before the high was my plan and once we got there, only a short walk from our camp, it was apparent I was not the only one with that plan! So almost shoulder to shoulder for a couple of miles of beach we stood with the crowd and waited for it to be our turn!? Looking at the number of lines reaching out into the shallow, murky water we wondered why we did not just run a net! Now Threadfin Salmon are the fish of choice over here and they are pretty plentiful, along with the odd WA Jew fish. While all we ended up with was a handful of black tip sharks for our efforts we did not leave empty handed. Our neighbour fishing about 100m up from us landed a "White", the local WA name for the fish we all call a Threadfin Salmon, and as it was the best part of a metre long he had plenty to share! Thanks mate.

Eighty-Mile being a very large park with plenty of long term residents, April - November they are open, it has some added extras to other parks. They run a community markets, twice a week in peak times with some unique stalls. One crowd were running raffles and stalls for the RFDS and I spose they were doing alright with nearly $5000 rounded up for the year! We also joined in for burger night at the office. "Bring your own chair and plate and enjoy" we were told, and so we did! And after my double choc ice cream cone for dessert, which amazed Charli, we were all glad we did.

Now here we saw some of the best set-ups we have seen while travelling. If your plan is to reach one place and set up for a few months there are obviously things that you will need to make your stay that bit more comfortable. We saw plenty of big and small camps with gear stored and carried in many different ways, but the one thing you need to be in the mix at Eighty-Mile, is a four wheel motorbike! The things are everywhere! Quad bikes with rods and boxes and eskies strapped to every inch of them, and then load on Grandpa and Grandma and it was off down the beach. Some as far as 22km away from camp! With a shop that stocks a huge array of food items and other gear from fishing to camping and some caravan bits it really does offer a home away from home. One old bloke told me he had been going to Eighty-Mile for 14yrs! He reckons it is better than getting a flu shot!?

After a few days of pretty good weather and with the wind once again in our favour we were ready to head south once again. Our plan saw us covering a bit of country with a shopping only stop-over in Port Headland. So feeling a bit of regret at not landing a "White" we once again bumped our way back out to the highway and turned the "Bostocks on Tour" roadshow south once again.