Step 74 Cape Kedauren – Eighty Mile Beach 115 km's

Wednesday 8^th June

Flies, damn flies. Oh oh, what does a sand fly look like. Am I being bitten??

But on the positive side, it's a beautiful view out the window this morning. But the ocean has moved further away. They have big tides in these parts.

Another early get away for us this morning, maybe we are getting better at this after all. That is even with the half  hour delay while we emptied about half a cubic metre of sand out of MM. Not sure how it got in, but it was a pain to get out. 
Lesson for today: Put the outside mats out every time we stop.

The drive back up the dirt road was not quite as bad the way in yesterday, but not sure we would want to be doing this every day. Back on the main road and it's a pretty dull drive. Fortunately we are not going far today.

Editors note: Looks like I made a mistake with the entry for yesterday. It was the Eighty Mile Beach road where we waited for the grader. Either way both roads were atrocious.

Again, the view as we approached the site for the night makes the gravel road drive seem worthwhile. Also, tonight we are in a proper caravan park with power and all amenities. We are due in Broome on Friday so we decided to check in here for two nights and do the 384 km's in one go.

Put the awning out for the first time in a while as we set up and finally got to try out the anti flap straps that we bought from Arthur Daley's aussie cousin in Coral Bay. Amazingly they seem to work and we are able to leave the awning out even when the wind gets up a bit.

After lunch we headed down to the beach, which given it's name is surprisingly 140 miles long. I guess they didn't want to brag, or maybe 80 mile had a better ring to it. However whether it's 80 or 140 miles, the first mile is completely covered with

fisherpeople.

They are almost shoulder to shoulder in both directions. Then, stretching in to the distance there are 4 wheel drives for the ones who wanted to move away from the crowds. Amazingly some of them are even catching fish. I'm surprised the fish can make their way through the lines, it must be almost a solid wall of fishing line under the water.

 A lazy afternoon and then it was back down to the beach to watch the sunset. You have to be quick to catch them, the sun drops at a great rate of knots over here. You can literally see it drop.

 After finishing up the Exmouth prawns from last night we settled down for a couple of drinks with our new friends Tony and Jo from the previous stop. No camp fire tonight (park regulations). So we huddled around a citronella candle. According to Tony there's a few big fish being caught, mainly mulloway, salmon and SHARK (Bronze whalers). Herbert and Mal would love this part of the country.

Thursday 9^th June

The ear plugs are still working well and when we finally get up the guy next door has already packed up and left. Didn't hear a thing.

Another first this morning when Tony and Jo took us 4wd'ing along the beach.

Editors note: I wonder if Mighty Merc could manage to tow a little Suzuki 4wd so we can do this ourselves?

Proof readers note: No.

 All in all we drove about 20 km's each way and with the tide out you can see how shallow the slope is. No wonder the tide goes out so far. We have noticed at Cape Kedauren and here how many shells there are on the beach. Some of them quite big as well.

 We resist the temptation to collect some though. Particularly as one gets up and walks away as we go to pick it up.

On the other side of the dunes - cattle grazing
These cows had booked a trip to Indonesia
but apparently the government said they can't go now

C'mon you mighty hawks
The loss to Geeeeeelong was just a hiccup

After lunch while Di pottered about in MM I went for a walk along the beach again. With the tide in the beach is wall to wall fisherfolk.

SHARK!!!
This time I'm not scared.

Local council fishing club.

Three guys standing around giving advice.

One woman doing the fishing.

Vicki would be so proud – 

never send a man to do a job a woman can do better

This, apparently, is a giant threadfin salmon.

Don't know about giant, but it's huuuuge 

If presentation is everything in cooking
This "Fish in mayonnaise sauce"
leaves a lot to be desired

After the exhaustion of watching the lady fight the giant threadfin salmon in to shore  Steve sat back and played on the computer. 

            Discovered that there is a chess program on the Mac. 

            Discovered I am not very good at chess.

A nice relaxing evening tonight with omelette for dinner to fnish of the free (not free range) eggs we got given at Coral Bay.

Next stop Broome.