Days 354-355 – Barn Hill, WA (2-3 Sept)

Carl and John had organised to take Carl’s boat out fishing leaving at 7.15am.  So up early and on the road by 6.40am and another 33kms.  I dropped John at the boat ramp and Coco and I went for a lovely walk along Cable Beach.  Still closed for swimming due to the croc.  We had a nice walk then went and sat on the lawned reserve at the boat ramp and waited for the boys to get back from fishing.  They came back empty handed, John caught 10 fish, 2 cod, 1 bream and 7 trevally and Carl caught one trevally.  They threw all the fish back as they were too small.  John took some piccies of a jabiru, a large black and white water bird, generally see more in NT which we didn’t so chuffed he managed to get a photo.  We headed back to roadhouse another 33kms and packed up to leave.  We didn’t get back until 12.30pm and the roadhouse were very good not charging us for the extra time.  After lunch we headed 120kms south to Barn Hill.  Barn Hill is a working cattle station on the edge of the ocean that incorporates a bush caravan park.  We had heard some good reports about it from other travellers and thought it sounded like a good spot to set up camp for a while.  It is very rustic to say the least.  The amenities are roofless and made of corrugated iron and concrete floors.  All part of the charm, the showers are good hot and lots of pressure.  We were told that only 4amp power is available so anything with a heating element is not a good idea.  However we know our neighbour is using the same power source as us and they are using their electric jug so when it is light we will be doing the same (just in case we have a problem don’t want to be sorted it out in the dark).  Our neighbour thinks they tell people this when it is packed and from June to September and it is with the southerners spending 3 and 4 months here.  Now that it not busy (although still a lot of people here) we think it might be relaxed.   No mobile reception and John put up the booster for our mobile/internet on the roof of the car and we have a low signal just enough to get a reasonable internet connection.  Had a quick look at the beach, it goes on and on so lots of walks for Coco.  Will explore further tomorrow.   Woke up to really strong winds (welcome to the west coast) but by about 11.00am they died down and we had beautiful warm day about 30 degrees.  Carl and Troy arrived about 11.30am with boat on tow.  They checked out the beach for launching the boat and by now the winds are onshore and the beach is quite rocky with waves and as Carl is not familiar with this coast decided to hold off launching the boat in those conditions.   So beach fishing was the thing to do.  So armed with gazebo, a few beers, water the boys headed down to the beach for afternoon.  Coco and I joined them a little later and it was just gorgeous.  Bright blue skies, beach sand was a reddish colour and the backdrop to the beach is the glorious Kimberley red with some really interesting rock formations.  Quite stunning.  I took Coco for a walk to a point at the end of the beach and we climbed some rocks and ended up doing a lovely bush walk along a dry creek bed.  I could imagine now fantastic it would be in the wet season to see torrential water gushing down the creek bed to the ocean below. We walked quite a way.   Back to the boys, no fish caught but they had a good day catching up and enjoyed the beach environment.  John really did catch the one that got away he had a big fish that broke his line.  That night we had a bbq and it was chilly we even had to get our trackies out!  Good for sleeping though as we can’t use our air con here with the limited power supply.

3 likely lads