Our waistlines have certainly benefitted from all the fish dishes we’ve been eating! We’ve both lost around 30ks each now so our little boat goes much faster (it’s like losing a third person as far as it’s concerned!). It makes everything we do on this trip so much easier than other times too. I wish we’d done something about our weight before we headed off a few years ago.
On Saturday 28th of May, we drove the 160ks into Broome for the first meeting of their race carnival. Beth got us tickets to a marquee right on the track which was great. We ate our share of the yummy finger food included in our ticket, then snuck up into the members to spend the arvo with Jimmy and Beth and Beth’s friend Janelle. What a fantastic day, but what a long way home after a big day out-in hindsight, we should have accepted Janelle's kind offer of a bed for the night!. It was really nice to get dressed up for a change and such a beautiful day for the races in such a pretty spot.
We left Port Smith on Monday 30th of May and made our way to Port Hedland where we spent the night in an expensive ($40) tiny site in a crowded park with not so clean showers and toilets (imagine termite mounds growing under the hand basins cos no one had bothered to mop there in a month or two!). We did manage to visit South Hedland's fantastic Coles supermarket and stock up, and go to an oriental restaurant (mainly Japanese) we we'd been to around 4 years ago with Jimmy and Beth, so the stop over wasn’t a total waste.
The following night though we decided to try our first ever free camping on the side of the road. It seems you have to get in early for the good spots and we’d almost given up when we crossed the Cane River 40ks away from the Nanutarra Roadhouse. We crossed a very big bridge over a somewhat dry river and there was our spot-flat, by the river and not another soul there. We drove back 1k along a dirt track and set up for a lovely night. We built a fireplace, collected enough timber for several hours, then sat and ate our dinner (sausages and a couple of salads), drank a bottle (or maybe two) of wine and watched the most amazing stars until the fire went out around 11pm. So much nicer than the night before!
Yardie Creek hasn’t changed-even the prices are still much the same. It was good to pay $24 a night rather than the $44 we paid in Broome! The park has a very old electrical system, so we can’t use anything with a heating element or too big, so no air con, toaster, jug, oven, hairdryer, jaffle maker etc. We are cooking on two gas cookers that use disposable butane cans and doing a little bit that’s not too smelly (pasta, rice, potatoes etc) in the van, but we are still eating well.
On the way out to the homestead over the last 5 years, I've loved seeing two old horses (a bay and a buckskin)on the side of the road. No fences, nothing to make them stay but they've always been there. I was so sad to only see the buckskin the day we arrived and so happy to see his friend, the bay, the next day. Now Idf like to see a few bustards!
We managed a couple of days fishing before the weather changed on us and we got our first rain of the whole trip. I don’t mind as I felt we’d arrived here, got the boat in the water and got fishing. The break has made me relax. We even managed a lovely long walk on the beach between showers yesterday!
Today we’ve just lazed around, then tonight the park puts on a roast dinner which we’re off to. Tomorrow we are off shopping then it’ll be fishing as normal on Tuesday.
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