We left Broome and headed south for Eighty mile beach.
The landscape was quite flat and bushy.
We stopped for the night at Barnhill station. Mum and dad had stayed there for a couple of nights, so we caught up with them.It is a cattle property with a caravan park located on the beach side. The beach was beautiful with red rocks, white sand and blue water. That afternoon we swam at the beach and collected shells. Afternoon drinks were held at the shop front, right beside the bowling green...it was a classic, with cattle strolling all over it. It would not have pleased the ladies in white :).
The showers and toilets were open air which made for interesting viewing.
The next morning we packed up and headed for shell paradise Eighty Mile beach.
After a couple of hours driving you have to drive down a dirt road for about 10ks then you hit a small rise. The rise gives you the most amazing view of Eighty Mile beach. It is the the most beautiful turquoise water I have ever seen. We found a good spot and set up for a couple of nights. The beach has about 60 million shells (yes I counted them) on it and seems to go on forever. We took the car onto the beach and drove about 10ks to start our shell search. We found some spectacular shells and the negotiation began about what shells could fit into the car/van :))) Ella was very convincing. We continued the shell hunt for a couple of days. Ella also had her first driving lesson on the beach, well it wasn't as if she could hit anything. She loved it and was grinning from ear to ear. Eighty Mile is also a popular beach for turtles to bury their eggs. The kids went on an adventure at night and spotted a couple as they made their way up the beach, they were really excited. I'm not sure the turtles will recover from the encounter.
The caravan park has some amazing whale bones. It really shows you how big these creatures are.
While we were at Eighty Mile we met up with our friends Jason, Sue and Lilly. They have been travelling for four years....a massive effort. We had met them at Kununurra and our paths had crossed a couple of times. We had a couple of drinks and agreed to try and meet at Karijini National park.
The caravan park also has a war memorial right on the beach. We picked out one of our favourite shells and wrote Matts name on it. The day we were leaving we placed the shell amongst the other war heroes. What a great place to have a memorial on one of Australia's most beautiful beaches.
The next morning we packed up and headed for Karijini National Park.