Hansen's around Oz: Days 359-364 – Barn Hill, WA (7-12 Sept)

Well just can’t leave the place keep extending our stay. It is soooo nice and relaxing although starting to get a little hot, mid 30s every day and mid 20s at night and due to the limited power we can’t run our air conditioner so feeling it. Some days there is a nice ocean breeze which keeps it a little cooler but not all the time. It is quite a different experience to be in the heat in a van which is more like a tin shed rather than a brick and tile home – not quite as comfortable. We have spent a fair bit of time with David and Carmel and Nellie with the boys going fishing and Carmel, Nellie, Coco and I spending lots of time of the beach cooling off and long beach walks. David was the first to catch a fish, a giant threadfin salmon so the following day for lunch we cooked it on the Webber and devoured it for lunch. It was beautiful. For anyone who has not tried giant threadfin salmon try it is is delicious. Its not a fish you see in the seafood shops though. The next day John also caught a giant threadfin salmon and a shark mackerel. So we had another lunch the following day. In the afternoon David caught another salmon. In the meantime David and Narelle and Daisy (maltese dog) arrived and David caught a giant threadfin salmon the following morning so that day we had two salmon for lunch. So deja vu lunch three days in a row! Wonderful that’s what it is all about. David and John went to Broome on Tuesday to restock on supplies (240 kms return trip). John did very well and got everything on the list without buying any extras! Other than the excitement of catching fish Coco and I have been doing lots of beach walks and wallowing in rock pools at low tide. Today (Sat) the tide went out 10m at 6.15am. It comes in quickly and goes out quickly. When the tide is out the rock pools are exposed and there is an amazing amount of live coral on the rocks, oranges, greens, yellows. Quite surprising. Its a shame that everyone walks over the rocks to look at it, so much must get damaged. When the tide is in it is great swimming and the water is cool but not cold. Spent our last day packing and went to the evening roast again with entertainment. Same band as last week, another good night. John spotted a frill necked lizard in a tree nearby us, gee they move quick and we have gorgeous tawny frogmouth nesting pair in the tree next to our van. Did you know they are not related to owls, don’t catch food in their talons and basically just camouflage themselves in a tree fork and wait for anything to wander by like a lizard, frog, mouse etc and they catch it with their beaks!