Eighty Mile Beach WA June 6 2018

Eighty Mile Beach is one of those places all caravanners talk about. 'If you go to WA you must go to 80 Mile', they say. The Eighty Mile Beach is actually 140 miles long and is 350km south of Broome by road and 250km north of Port Hedland. The country you drive through is part of the Great Sandy Desert, so there is low but vibrant green scrub and hills or the remnants of mountains in the distance. There are two roadhouses between Port Hedland and Broome, one is Pardoo and the other Sandfire, more or less equally spaced apart. And that is all.

Except for a turn off toward the Indian Ocean about 45km south of Sandfire, where a 10km long dirt road will lead you to one of the few access points to the beach, this one going through Wallal Downs Station. I was dubious about the dirt road, given our experience of getting into El Questro and the damage it caused. I need not have worried, this dirt road is not too badly rutted and we made it in without any drama.

I admit that i was expecting a squalid shambles of old vans and trucks and boats all jammed into a rundown sandpit, a place where anything goes and first in best dressed, if you can find a spot not taken over by the permanent campers. To say that I was surprised is a bit of an understatement. The office and shop is up on a slight ridge that overlooks the park, which is separated from the beach by a low sand dune, and your first impression is of green grass, trees and orderliness, a veritable oasis in the aforementioned desert.

We arrived about 11am and there were plenty of nice grassy shady spots, we even got power along with water, of which they seem to have an abundance. We couldn't resist having a look at the 'world famous' beach before lunch.

80 Mile Beach WA

80 Mile Beach WA

And lots of washed up coral from the nearby reef. 80 Mile Beach WA

After lunch, we ate an ice-cream while a bunch of stall-holders, who appeared from around the park, set themselves up in a market stall. Apart from the usual old books and hand knitted tea-cosies and dog jumpers there were a number of places selling 'things' made from the local shells, of which there are literally billions on the beach.

Market day. 80 Mile Beach WA

And then there was this electric piano locked in the Piano Accordion mode and with its volume set to 'Stun',  started blaring out accompanied by a lady who could not sing. It were truly awful, and lasted 2 hours. I went back to the beach to get away from it. The tide was up and on the turn. Every man, woman and child who could be spared from the market and torture, was down there spread out along the shoreline fishing.

80 Mile Beach.

80 Mile Beach

 And they were catching some too, salmon I'm told. I walked along for 30minutes and never reached the last fisho. When I turned for home the once packed beach was fast being deserted; either the tide had finished turning or the 'entertainment' had packed it in. Sadly it was the former, as the latter kept up the excruciating pace for another 15 minutes.

Anyhow, it seems a pleasant enough place to relax and we have put it on as an extension to Broome for a future trip.