Broome to Eighty Mile Beach

We left Broome, much to the disappointment of some, and headed off to Eighty Mile Beach for a couple of nights and a chance to do some fishing.

We stopped at Sandfire Roadhouse, a service station that had been burnt down some time ago and has not yet been rebuilt. As a result, the services available are very limited and there is no real shop to speak of and there is no opportunity to buy anything. Too bad if you had planned to buy anything, even bread here!

It was then on to Eighty Mile Beach Caravan Park, our stop for the next few nights on our way south. It was an eight kilometre corrugated road, we were aware of this before arriving but were unsure of how bad, or good, it was until we started along the road. As you are unable to prebook this caravan park, it was also a gamble that we would travel in and find it was full and that we had wasted our time.

Two kilometres in, it was a case of whether to turn back or not. If we were only in for one night I would not have gone in any further, but the fact we were there for two nights meant it might be worthwhile. It was not that the road was really that bad it was just a slow and careful journey to the park.

We arrived at reception and were pleased to find that there was a powered site available for us for the next couple of nights but I was informed that I had missed the fishing for the day. As it turned out, you could basically only fish one hour before and after high tide. It was when we finally saw the beach that I understood why, the high and low tide levels were very different. Almost a kilometre we think!

After setting up in the park, which was not too bad since we were so isolated, it was time to have a walk over to the beach to see what we really had in store. The tide was about midway and so the beach actually looked quite good and so we decided to come back after lunch.

When we returned, it was about another 500 metres out and so not quite so good. Instead of walking along the beach, you had to walk out to the water a long, long way! This kind of took away from the look of the beach as it really was not a place you could swim, a little disappointing especially after Broome.

Nothing much else today, well there is not much to do at Eighty Mile Beach!