Had a quick look at the market on Saturday morning then headed off. The next big town was Port Hedland, a good 600 kms away. And it was a long, flat, boring drive. No cows by the road to entertain us, not even any road kill and their attendant kites.

About half way to Port Hedland there was a place called Eighty Mile Beach. We had heard about this on our previous trip, and heard that it was really beautiful. The only problem was there was 10 kms of dirt road to get there. Last time, with the motor cycle on the back, we didn't dare the road. This time - with no bike and two brand new tyres on the front, we thought we would give it a go. Many people assured us the road was good and regularly graded.

So, we ventured off road for the first time, and found the road wasn't bad at all. We got to Eighty Mile Beach, and it was as beautiful as we had been told. The blue waves and white sands seemed to stretch out forever. And the caravan park was green and shady, with a lovely fresh breeze blowing in off the sea. Apparently you couldn't swim here as there were sharks, but you could certainly walk along the beach and get your feet wet, and there were shells galore to collect. There were also many people fishing. George considered this, but as no-one was catching anything, he soon gave up the idea.

It was a beautiful green oasis, and with the fresh breeze, we had a lovely cool night. However by the morning the breeze had stopped, the heat was building up, and the flies were becoming very annoying. Time to move on.

Just over 100 kms further was another stop called Pardoo Station. A couple we had met at Eighty Mile Beach said they were heading there because it looked so good in the photos on the internet. It was also off road, down 13 kms of dirt road. We were assured it was similar to that leading to Eighty Mile Beach, which had been quite good. So, cocky with confidence, we turned off onto this track.

It was nothing like the other road. It was rough, corrugated, and dusty. They had gravel and machines ready to grade it, but it hadn't been done for a while. The first one or two kms were very bad, and we should have turned back there and then. But we kept thinking it must get better. And it did, for a while, then got worse again. We finally got to the end. It looked like an industrial plant with big machines everywhere, and no sign of a beach. We spoke to the lady and she said the beach was 4 kms further on, and could only be reached by 4 WD.

We turned around and left again, through all that rough corrugated road. The highway felt so smooth. And that was the end of our off road ventures.

So we headed on to Port Hedland, exhausted, and booked into a caravan park to relax. The caravan park had small streets within it with various names. They put us on a site on Pardoo Lane.

GeorgeY's Bit

The beach in Eighty Mile Beach is made out of sea shells. A poster sign with pictures of shells stating their size range made it clear that a maximum of 10 is the allowed limit as they are a part of the eco-system. We ventured to the beach and found that the best looking shells are to be found only on the poster sign. On the beach it was mostly small shells in various states of deterioration due to mechanical weathering by sea waves. The whole place is made of flimsy broken, weathered, small crushable shells, so you can fill a road train of take home shells without the eco-system noticing as it is busy destroying the rest.

Pardoo? What was I thinking? Both me and the van are still suffering.