Eighty Mile Beach - Jason's two bob's worth...

I just wanted to throw my two bob’s worth in on 80 mile beach.

The jury is out for me. From a park perspective they don’t cater for kids, no pool or playground and a similar price to parks that do. The showers are hot which is a bonus and they have home-made bread rolls and cakes in the store which is also cool.

The beach didn’t do much for me. The tide amazingly goes out for miles, I would say at least 1klm at a minimum. When it is in it comes right up to the dunes so you can’t camp anywhere along the beach, not a bonus in my eyes. When the tide is out it reminds me of Redland Bay mud flats, only a greyish white colour sand, when it is in, the first 200m is just a milky grey colour water and you can’t see anything at all, again not that attractive. The beach is littered with shells, which is OK if you like walking the beach and collecting them, but that doesn’t press my buttons - although the boys and Mum loved it. Certainly not something you could do for days on end.

When the tide is at 3 quarter, it is a beautiful beach, the only time you see soft sand without shells you can walk on without thongs, but the tide moves so quickly that it doesn’t last for very long and you are in mud flat type surroundings.

The fishing is meant to be spectacular, but I didn’t have any luck, nor did anyone else that was there. I tried everything but fresh bait and got nothing. I am sure that when they are on the chew it would be great fishing, but not for me this time.

In summary, if you like collecting shells, come here, take your chances with the fish but like everywhere, right time right place, don’t expect much for the kids but the cheesecake is great.

It’s nothing like the sand island beaches we love in QLD, but certainly worth a look. Don’t make it more that 1-2 nights though, I feel that the coral coast will be much more to our QLD liking. Broome beaches were definitely nicer.

Negative Jase out…..

Eighty Mile Beach - Day 2

We woke to more wind and cold weather. It didn't do much for my mood (yes I have been in a mood and I admit it!) It must of been cold this morning because Jason had his beanie on for the first time on our trip.

Jason was keen to go fishing so we drove up the beach. Todays high tide was the highest for the month so I was a little nervous about how high the tide would come up. Jason assured me I was being silly. 20 minutes before high tide and we were quickly running out of beach. Even Jason must of got a bit nervous because he moved his car parallel to the beach just in case! In the end we had about 2 car widths of sand and didn't catch anything!

If you like fishing and collecting shells you would love it here, although you can't swim so that's a bugger.  


Nat

Eighty Mile Beach - Day 1

We had a big day of driving today, we drove 360kms. We haven't done that distance in quite a while.

Eighty Mile Beach Caravan Park is truly in the middle of nowhere! We couldn't get a powered site but that was okay as we are only staying 2 nights.

Z Mann was in fine form again today (probably because he was out late watching the State of Origin last night!)  Once we set up we went for a walk and an old lady gave the boys a shell necklace each and shells shaped like a fish and a dog. The boys thought that was great!  You can't sell the shells you collect here but you can give them away, which is a shame because she created some amazing animals with the shells. 

We wondered onto the beach just before sunset and were amazed to see how far the tide goes out. The tide variances here are huge. It must of been 1 km before the waves started. And the shells were everywhere. I have never seen anything like it!

It got very cold once the sun disappeared so we had dinner and tried to get the boys to bed early.  With much greif I might add!  Today has been I think, the worst day so far with the boys. The boys have really tested me to the max and I was ready to pack up and go home. But then I thought, where would I rather be, here or at home and working?  I won't ever get to have another 6 months off again.  I think I need to take that attitude from now on!

Nat 

Broome - our second visit

Today we arrived back in Broome from Quondong for 2 days. We did this because it is Zander's Birthday and origin 3 is on tomorrow and we didn’t want to miss it……

This time around they put us on the worst possible site in the park, on a corner on the main exit. So much for loyalty coming back… Instantly I am cranky and begin to reverse the trailer in and everybody is into me trying to get out…now I am a little more cranky…..

Once I am in I want to get set up fast so we can take Z out for lunch and I fail to pull out the swing arm at the back of the trailer and bend something under there, what - I cannot see, but it is now a bit of a struggle to close, so you guessed it - more cranky.

Nat senses this and she tries to get going too and forgets to take the strap out of the roller, bending it as well….now I am just over it…

We get it done, readjust the poles and square up the tent, not too much harm done but after 50 odd times of putting it up since we got it you would think we’d know better.

Off to lunch at Maccas for Zander, he loves the playground and the ice cream so we looked after him and he had a great time. He is abusing his new DS game and playing with his dinosaurs flat out. It’s amazing how little you need to spend to put a smile on your children’s faces. Gold.

Wednesday came around and I tried to get the TV working so I could watch the origin – no good, it didn’t want to play the game, so I guess I have to go to the pub….

We took the boys down to the beach front park area and they played for an hour or two with some kids they befriended across the way from us on our first stint at Cable Beach, and that was good. We certainly have met some good people along the way, like-minded with kids the same age as ours. It is definitely not just a grey nomad thing, although they do outnumber everyone else.

Off to Divers Tavern with Zander for the Origin. I wasn’t sure he would last the whole game but in our favour, kick off was 6pm over here, so I thought we would be all good. I explained to him there is no way he can leave and that he has to stay the whole game because Mum won’t come and get us & Mav is asleep, plus I won’t be leaving under any circumstances….so he agreed and off we went.

We couldn’t have been further from Suncorp Stadium but this pub was packed wall to wall with a strong NSW flavour, my Maroons jersey was in the minority. We perched ourselves beside a couple of roofies from Gosford who started with the jokes but they really had nothing when you deliver the stats back at them. Chips and gravy, a couple of schooners with my boy (OJ’s for Z) and it was kick off….

8 minutes in he said it was too loud and wanted to leave and started to blow up so I had a quiet word to him and promised him an ice cream on the way home if he stayed and he was on board…..again a small amount for a smile…..

By the end of the first half he was standing on his stool yelling and screaming at the “Bluesers” and the double thumbs up/clapping for anything QLD did well. He soon got the idea, when the people in blue weren’t screaming that was his queue to, it was priceless and something I/we will never forget. The first full game he has watched attentively and it couldn’t have been any more intense, hopefully enough for him to want to wear a maroon jersey one day. He did ask to go to the toilet at 20 all just before Cronk’s field goal, but I said he had to hand on for a few minutes….Oh, and the ice cream shop wasn’t open on the way home, but I knew that and promised him one tomorrow. All good he said because the maroons won Daddy….

A good couple of days in Broome, but the reality is we have spent around 2 weeks in this region and we have had enough. Off to 80 mile beach tomorrow, everyone raves about it so let’s see how we go.

Jase…….

Happy Birthday Zander

Happy 5th Birthday Zander!

Nudies!

Quondong Point

We had been told by people we met along the way that we should go to Quondong Point. We had also been told that because it is a free camp it gets very busy. We arrived just before lunch and it seemed liked all the grey nomads had taken the best spots. But in true Jason style we went down the roughest track and found a great place to camp right on the edge of the beach (I am just secretly hoping we will get back out of here when we leave!)

We spent the afternoon driving up the beach and found a great spot for the kids to swim. Jason tried his hand at fishing and caught a yellow fin. He was stoked and so were the boys! By the time we got back to camp it was dinner time and we cooked up the fish. Another magical sunset here!

After another very windy night we got up to another beautiful sunny day, but very windy. Jason says WA means windy always and so far it has been very true.

After breakfast Jason and I decided we needed to do some exercise so I went for a walk and Jase went for a run. We spent all morning on the beach just in front of our camp site, trying to stay out of the wind! The boys were collecting hermit crabs and spent hours watching them. After lunch the wind died down so we headed back up the beach to the same spot we were yesterday. Jase caught another long tong, a long skinny green coloured fish with very sharp teeth! We threw it back because we didn't think it was good eating.  These things are everywhere around here. 

It was starting to get late so we headed back to camp for an early dinner. Pasta tonight - Mav's favourite.

Back to civilisation tomorrow and to celebrate the big Z Mann turning 5!

Nat