Eighty Mile Beach and Port Smith

Thursday 23 May 2013 - Sunday 26 May 2013

As we drove along the Shay Creek road we did not see another car for roughly 130km’s.  When we turned onto the Great Northern Highway we realised quite quickly it was important to have our CB radio on the truckie channel to stay safe, as there were so many road trains and wide loads that frequented this highway. 

We arrived at Eighty Mile Beach and set up at one of the many campsites in this huge van park. 

Eighty Mile van park

 

We took a walk onto the beach and the kids were amazed at all the huge sand dollars and shells that covered  almost all areas of the sand.  We watched the sunset and chatted to our new friend Mif who was from Ulladulla.

 

Sunset on Eighty Mile Beach

 

 

 

Early morning moon setting on Eighty Mile Beach

Fishing at Eighty Mile Beack involves waiting for the last 2 hours of the run in tide - something that most of the people staying there do.  Armed with a tide chart the boys set up their rods in preparation for fishing the next day.

Craig and Adam drove down the beach with high hopes of catching a fish seeing as this was a very popular fishing spot.  The younger boys and I walked down the beach for a couple of km’s to find them.  The wind was so strong I had sand blowing in my face the whole way. Unfortunately the wind was no good for fishing and there were no fish caught despite about 80-odd people peppering the water with juicy baits. 
 

That afternoon we went to Mif and Darren’s van to watch the AFL and Craig announced that he was going to go for a fish that night.  A few people told him not to bother but he did it anyway.  Although Craig did not catch anything that night the only other guy "silly enough" to fish at night managed to hook a 20 pound Jew fish.  He ended up giving Adam a few fillets as Adam had talked to him the day before asking him how his fishing was going.  It was such a generous gesture from a stranger and we enjoyed a beautiful feed that night.

 

We went around to say goodbye to Mif, Darren and their kids Archie and Rosie.  As they had packed up and were leaving the same time we decided to travel to Port Smith together.  After we set up at the van park we took a drive to the lagoon.  To get to the water we had to wade through lots of mud and the kids played “dodge the mud crubs”.

The next morning Mif made us all some scrumptious pancakes and afterwards we packed up to head to Broome.

 

 

Port Smith