Sunday 21 May 2023
Having gone to bed so early the night before we were both awake by 5am even though we had both been sure to turn off our alarms from the day before so we didn’t have to! It was fine though as we just opened the blinds and lay there watching the sun slowly come up and knowing that the first real day of holiday was ahead of us.
L eventually got up and made coffees and after a quick breakfast of cereal we were packed up and on the road by 7am. We knew that both Pardoo Station and Pardoo Roadhouse were wiped out by Cyclone (can’t remember the name) but we had forgotten how far apart those two places are (over 50km) and it was obviously by the leafless trees and bent road signs that all the spaces around and between those two places had felt the force of the 200km plus winds. We pulled over to see the total devastation that is Pardoo Roadhouse and it looks like they have just given up on it and packed up and left as it was desolate and no signs of any work being done to repair. We overheard one truckie nearby saying that they had been underinsured – not sure if that is the case?
Hugely windy and a strong headwind as we made our way north so we were glad to not have to drive too far with poor fuel economy today and arrived at Eighty Mile Beach Caravan Park just after 9am. It’s now a G’day Parks caravan park that takes bookings so we will remember that for on the way back but we were able to get a member discount and site next to Shaun so all good.
Shaun was happy to see us and we did a quick set up and the boys were cracking their first beers of the trip just before 10am. Tcchh! (Jen had a cup of tea). Sat and yarned for an hour or so and we then jumped in S’s car for a cruise up the beach. Howling a gale on the beach and the water was very choppy so pretty hopeless for fishing so we were glad we hadn’t bothered although there were a few highly optimistic types trying to fling lines out into the water.
We turned back when Shaun suddenly realised he was low on fuel and his jerry cans were back at the van so we headed back there and cooked up toasties for lunch whilst S made up a yummy cheese platter. Food and a few more beers consumed and suddenly the beds in the vans looked very tempting so it went pretty quiet for an hour or so.
J then went up the lovely hot showers to wash her hair (had left it all week as I had been to the hairdresser and wanted to show L whilst it was all blow dried straight and with no grey!) then back to the van to sit around but definitely not to watch any of the horrifically putrid Eagles versus Hawthorn game. Honestly, every week I think the Eagles have gone as low as they could possibly go only to be surprised that there is a bottom even lower than rock bottom. Surely heads will roll now, interesting times ahead.
Before we knew it the sun was starting to set so we walked down to the beach and across the sand and out as far across the low tide sand as we could before we started sinking into the slush. Was an awesome sunset and took lots of photos and then walked up and sat on the sand until the last of the golden glow started to disappear.
Back to the van for honey soy chicken on the BBQ and a big salad and then some more chatting, some blogging, some reading and some bed.
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