Night 57 - 80 Mile Beach

We wake this morning to a beautiful clear sky. Here we are camping at 80 Mile Beach, notice the name of the van in the background.....The Loveshak!!



High tide was at 2pm so we drive down onto the beach and search for a relatively quiet spot to have a fish. The kids and I collect a bucket load of shells because Im going to make a wind chime.







He used a whole mullet as bait as he was aiming to catch a shark but had no luck. He was the only one that was using a blown up latex glove to try and blow the line out further, Im sure he got a few strange looks! After about an hour the breeze turned onshore and he gave up.

There was also some strange alien-like creatures we found on the beach as well!!





We arrive back at the park at about 4pm to the sound of karaoke. Some old guy had his Yamaha keyboard out and all the oldies are joining him for a bit of karaoke. I really should have videoed it, absolutely hilarious! They were rocking!

We enjoyed another night of movies and wine....onto Port Hedland to catch up with friends tomorrow.

Night 56 - 80 Mile Beach

Driving to 80 mile beach and its still windy, drizzling and a bit cold.

We take the turn off to 80 mile beach and we have another 12 km's or so of more corrugated road but its in better condition than Port Smith. The area has been flattened by a huge cyclone in Dec last year, we later learnt that nearly the whole caravan park was destroyed. The photos in the reception area are unbelievable.



The whole park is full of retirees, husbands and their wives who just love to go fishing. I'd say most of them stay here for a long time.

We set up and are all inside the van having lunch when we smell something burning, its our freezer. Its blown up (we think because it was bouncing around on the corrugated road) and we are left with that horrible burning electrical smell for hours. We had only planned on staying here one night but now we have to stay two nights and eat the entire contents of our broken freezer.

The clouds part in the arvo and we drive down onto the beach for a look around. Its really beautiful and littered with shells. I can see why its such a popular stop, just miles and miles of beautiful white sand, shells and turquoise water.







Tomorrow Craig is going for a long overdue fish (with about 50 other fisherman along the shore!!)

Night 55 - Port Smith

The wind and rain started at about 3am, Craig got up to bring everything inside and make sure everything was secure. By the time we got up at 7ish it was so muddy and wet outside, no chance of going to the beach today. It rained all day! It was actually one of the longest and most boring days of my life and I watched the clock all day! There isn’t much 5 people can do inside a caravan on a rainy day. We cooked a bit, did some schoolwork, read, played games and watched a dvd. We don’t even have phone and internet reception. Originally we were going to book and pay for 3 nights and Im so glad we only paid for two. In the morning the kids played with a local kangaroo, they fed him apples which he wasnt too interested in. He appeared at our front door and I actually thought he was going to hop inside.





Bailey took these shots....





Looking forward to packing up tomorrow, hopefully we can see some sunshine again.

Night 54 - Port Smith

So we left Broome and drove south to Port Smith. An old guy we met somewhere along the way told us it was a great secret spot with nice beaches and fishing. Sounds very appealing.

We turn off the highway onto 23km’s of corrugated dirt road. Our van really isn’t made for this so we take it pretty slowly. It takes us 45 mins to drive the 23km’s! Once we get there the sign on the reception door says they are closed from 12-3pm and to just go and find a spot.

Once we are set up we drive down to the lagoon. Its really beautiful and no one else is there. We have a swim and sit and relax on the shore for a while. A lady driving a quad bike turns up with her two small kids (one of them named Barra) on the front. She strikes up a conversation and warns us about the sand flies at night. She actually lived at the park so coming from a local we know they must be pretty bad. She also told us the road to take to the beach for tomorrow, take the road behind the caravan park and turn left at the old white car bonnet. Don’t go straight ahead or we will end up at an Aboriginal community!

We created our own hermit crab races with the hermit crabs we found. Craig's crab won!







The sand flies appear at about 4pm and are relentless. We all sit in the caravan with doors and windows shut tight and eat dinner. The wind picks up at about 8.30pm and the sand flies disappear so we sit outside for a bit before heading to bed.

Night 53 - Broome

Allan and Louise had been promising a great day today- the ‘Float-in’!!

They have some friends who live in a beautiful spot just to the north of Cable Beach, a suburb called Coconut Wells. They own a big block of land that they have turned into a B&B called ‘Coco-Eco’ that overlooks this beautiful sandy creek that fills up 3 times a year. The house is worth every cent of the $3mil price tag and you also look out over the ocean as well!!

For the ‘float-in’, you take your chosen floating item, ours being some car tyre inner tubes and Bailey’s surfboard, and walk the 30mins to the creek entrance. Then we tied our craft together and waited for the strongest flow of tide up the creek then join in. There were about 20 people involved and most had the same idea.........tie yourself to the float that had an eski in it!!

There was a heap of fish in the creek which was that milky blue colour so you could not see what they were and how big!! It took about 45mins for us to get up the creek and the boys loved it. Lisa stayed at the house with Ellie because she is still a bit small for that kind of action....plus I may have had to use my beer hand to fish her out of the water!!







We then had a great lunch there (everyone had to supply a plate of food) and a swim in the pool. While enjoying the sensational party (its been a while), we watched some whales doing big jumps out of the water.

We left at about 3 in the arvo and decided we may as well head little further north for a look. The road is the one that heads up to Cape Leveache and was corrugated as for about 30k`s so we turned off to a spot called Quondong. It must have been a national park type of camping area because we found lots of caravans dotting the beach tracks here and there. We stopped behind the beach and walked down about 500m the the waters edge (low tide) and watched a couple of dudes try to fish with a drag net....too many rocks at low tide. It would be a great spot at high tide which most of the places around these parts are.

We got back into broome at about 6pm and took the car for a wash....it needed it....could’ve left the windows down for the occupants too!!

Last night in Broome, its been awesome.

No we havent gone missing, we have not had any phone or internet reception for the last few days.....updates soon...

Night 52- Broome

Another action packed day in beautiful Broome staying with Allan and Louise at their house.

The boys and I had another early start with a trip to Broome harbour for a walk on the mudflats. With the spring tides at the moment (10 metres high!), the low tide is exposing some flying boats that were sunk by the Japanese during WW2. The problem is that they are about 2km's out on the mudflats.....woo hoo!!

When we arrived at about 6.00am, I was thinking there wouldn`t be too many people interested in this, how wrong was I. There were loads of people heading out. I whacked the backpack on full of water and cameras and we were off. The boys had a ball jumping in the thick mud. It was awesome seeing the planes as they are still in a reasonable condition. We got to see only 2 planes as Bailey wanted to go back when his reef boot had a blowout but we could have walked another 1km further out to more planes.









We got back before the tide swallowed us back up then went back to the house for brekky with the girls.

All of us headed down to Cable Beach for a swim around lunch then it was decided that we had such a great dinner on the beach, watching the sun set the night before that we would do it again.

And it was another great evening with a bottle of bubbly, some beers, great food and a game of beach cricket while the sun set over the water.

Night 51 - Broome

Today was just one of those magical days!

We woke up this morning bright and early thanks to the birds and the early rising sun. Time for a swim while the tide is high. The beach was amazing and the water temperature was just perfect.





Here is Ellie Jaz in her new swimmers, so cute she chose them!



After lunch we visited the Japanese cemetery which was pretty amazing. These are the graves of over 900 Japanese pearlers that have died mainly due to the bends or drowning. The earliest grave dates back to 1896.





Next up on the days agenda was a camel ride on Cable Beach, what a highlight! The boys and I decided to give it a go and it was fantastic. Bailey and Kai rode a camel named Horris who was the alpha male of the group and absolutely would not let anyone else lead, if anyone else tried to overtake he would bite and kick them. He was about 30 years old and had some attitude! I rode on the 2nd camel Zara who was about 20 and always wants to be upfront, if she is not in place 1, 2 or 3 she refuses to walk! While we were walking the tour guide tells us all about the camels, where they live, what they eat and everything else you would want to know about a camel! It was really a great experience.

Us meeting our ride...



Team Gibson up the front...







After the camel ride it was time for dinner so we went to the local Cable Beach fish and chip shop. Craig had a fish burger, the kids had fish and chips and I had the best vegie burger Ive had in a long time (sorry mum!). Topped off with a bottle of bubbles it was sensational! We sat for a while and watched the sun set into the ocean...





No we are not horribly sun burnt, we are orange from the sunset!!



This was the camel ride after ours, the sunset ride. Looks pretty spectacular...



The gorgeous sunset....





The kids were absolutely wrecked by the end of the day so it was straight home to bed.

Night 50 - Broome

Wow 50 nights away!!!

We drove the 180k's or so to Broome just itching to see the ocean again. We arrived in Broome and first stop was the information centre to stock up on pamphlets and brochures. We had some lunch then drove around town. Its gorgeous, we both absolutely love it.

We are staying with friends so after meeting them and setting up we drove a few km's down to Cable Beach....Ahhh its everything I thought it would be. A long white sandy beach and clean crystal clear water. The smell was amazing too...clean crisp and salty, how Ive missed the beach. Its hot but the breeze is just beautiful.







We walked down onto the rocks and searched for real dinosaur footprints 120 million years old. They are embedded in sandstone at the base of the cliff and can only be seen at low tide. This is what we found...







There were at least 50 other people searching too and occasionally someone would call out that they had found one. They boys had an absolute ball running around and searching for more foorptints. Now this is learning on the road that few kids get to experience.

They also found a huge clam and some coral.



There seems to be so much to do here, we had planned on staying 3 nights but might have to change that to 4...Tomorrow we have camel rides, a long overdue swim at the beach, shopping, a visit to the japanese cemetry, fish and chips and bubbly at sunset on Cable Beach....life is excellent!