Eighty Mile Beach

Steve and I left Cape Leveque to continue our journey south. We were getting closer to finishing our lap. 

We both felt a little sad. We’d had great few days in the beautiful Cape Leveque. It was hard saying goodbye to Rochelle, Ryan and their kids realising that we won’t be running into each other anymore. It was also a bit of a realisation that we were close to finishing our gap year and our lap. We were pretty much on our final leg. But as we all know, “all good things must come to an end”. We don’t want it to come to an end!! 

We headed back out to the highway along the dusty road that kept changing from a narrow bowl to wide and flat. It was crazy when we had to pass another car in the bowl because each car would have to go up onto the edge and at times it felt like we’d touch. 

We finally reached the tar and turned right to Broome to grab some supplies and lunch. Steve went looking for a new beach rod because he had broken his, but decided against it at the last minute. By the way, Broome has the worst visitors centre we’ve been to so far!! 

We left Broome, having covered 230km already and had another long leg of close to 350km to go to 80 mile beach. It was all tar road and the landscape was very flat. We saw a lot of dead cows along the way too. We guessed they were road train casualties. 

We made it to 80 mile beach caravan park around 5pm. It was a large caravan park and it had grass!! It also had the fine red dust we hadn’t seen for while. Once again the sunset was spectacular. 

The next morning we went to check out the beach and it was lined with fishermen. We found out that it was a fisherman’s paradise. The park was full of keen fishermen who even had quad bikes set up to hold all their rods and gear and some had eskies. And some had stretch 4WD’s!! 

There was also a resident nutter. He set up his own ‘Coastal Watch’. He believed that 80 Mile Beach was a good entry point for refugees so he was ensuring this wasn’t going to happen! 

It also had millions of shells!! And so many different, beautiful shells. It was a shell collectors paradise! 

Steve was now kicking himself that he didn’t buy that beach rod. As it was recommended not to swim there wasn’t much else to do but fish. Luckily for Steve the shop sold beach rods and tackle. He was a happy boy!! 

I wasn’t happy because I was planning on having one of the home made pies for lunch ( I’d been craving a good pie since the Gibb!!) to my horror the lady before bought the last two! So I’d have to wait for the next day’s batch. 

That afternoon we went for a drive down on the beach. It had nice firm sand so Steve was happy he didn’t have to let the tyres down. It was low tide. The water was so far out it looked amazing with people walking right out to the edge. 

We had planned a night fish but got too settled relaxing with our afternoon wine so the plan changed to an early morning fish. 

That night Steve had to get rid of a snake that was about to go into the ladies toilets. Yes snake!!! He seemed to think it was some kind of harmless python and but it didn’t like him helping it along with his foot. Steve said it was ready to go into battle. Eventually a lady grabbed him a broom and he was able to give it a good sweep away. I was quite calm when he told me about the snake but I made sure I had my torch and eyes peeled!! 😳

Steve was up early for a fish at 6am. He was so keen he put his shirt on inside out.  It was also dark inside the tent. When he arrived at the beach there were only a small number of people there. It wasn’t long before he felt crowded. It’s an 80 mile beach yet people just move in on top of you. 😁

 I decided I’d join him later with some breakfast and a cup of tea. By the time I arrived at around 8.30 he’d caught two blueys which are juvenile threadfin tuna.

The pilchards were almost gone so I went back to camp to grab some chicken fillet we thought didn’t look right to eat. By the time I returned Steve had caught a black tip shark!! 

Soon after he caught another bluey with the chicken! He threw it back because we already had enough for dinner. 

Then I had a go. They liked my chicken too but ate it before I could bring it in. My excuse was that the rod was too big and heavy. 

Steve kept fishing and decided it was time to go because the tide was going out again but then he caught two baby fish and decided to use them as bait. 

Nothing took the bait so we packed up and went back to clean the fish. We kept the blueys whole for dinner and Steve filleted the shark. 

While we were there a couple brought in a big threadfin tuna. Everyone was looking at it with envy. 

The rest of the day was spent relaxing. I tried again to get a pie without luck!! There were two sausage rolls left so I decided I’d settle for a sausage roll. One was going as I was thinking this and the next went before I could get to the counter!! There were also some lovely looking fresh bread rolls. Too slow for them too!! I wasn’t happy. So it was vita wheats for lunch. 😡😁😩

We ate the blueys for dinner and they were yum. Steve cooked them on the BBQ wrapped in foil. Looking forward to tasting the shark. 

With a big drive ahead we were up early and I was a very happy girl! The pie gods were on my side!!!

We had a nice few days at 80 Mile Beach.