Gnoorea Point

a nice way to finish the day

 40 Mile Beach/Gnoorea Point is 65 km (about 40 miles in the old money – imaginative folk our pioneers) south of Karratha and is a very busy spot this time of year and rightly so with waterside camping with views and sunsets to die for, clean dunnies, bins, dump points and unlimited RO water (gold coin donation to the RFDS) at the nearby Devils Creek gas plant – all this for $92/week.

Whiting Queen

We were lucky to secure a large beachfront site so finally our little hound could wander freely without bothering others. We did have a few days which were a little windy but overall the weather was fantastic with 30C days and 16C nights – the perfect camping weather - swimming during the day and fire and pull up the doona at night!

After being here last year I came prepared for the long walks out onto the sand flats fishing the low tide for whiting and flathead. My new shoulder bag, back-pack, small landing net worked a treat and some of the days were diamonds with heaps of whiting and flatties and other days were not so good but 2-3 hours of walking in shin deep water watching the small sharks, stingrays, sea snakes, queenies, shovel nose sharks constantly swimming by wasn’t a bad day out.

crab eating people

On one of my unsuccessful fishing forays I was walking back to my car thru shallow water and came upon a large mud crab who was likewise walking the flats – straight into my landing net! To make good, better, as I walked up to my car I met a guy who was camping nearby – he taught me how to tie up a mud crab and better still gave me another crab he had sitting in his bucket – fresh crab for Linda and I that night – nice!

The two weeks we spent at Gnoorea Point were some of the best beach camping we have ever done and that’s a pretty big statement noting the beaches we have camped on over the years.

Heading off to another beach camp at Cleaverville for two weeks but will be back at 40 Mile for two more weeks before we head south in September.

Short video is HERE

A month in the sun

Bones Beach at high tide

 Wow – how quickly has our 4 weeks at Pardoo Station gone! We chose our site and paid a deposit 12 months ago and it’s a good thing that we did - with lock-downs, community spread, contact tracing, contactless payment, flattening the curve, hard borders, herd immunity and all the other Covid issues (and new jargon) - the parks and camps in WA are packed this winter and the Pardoo Caravan Park has had the “no vacancies” sign out on the main highway for weeks.

We have had endless 29-17C days and nights marred only by one day of no stop rain (50mm) which closed all the beach access tracks for 5 days (NO FISHING ☹).

Red Point at low tide

Not all beer and skittles though as we have had our share of car problems with a 3:30AM departure for a 700Km round trip to take Ian’s car to Port Hedland for temperature stress test and my Pajero now only a 2WD as the 4WD select system has stopped working. Good news is that Mitsubishi has agreed to put a brand-new engine in Ian’s car and because we have been to the places we plan to visit after here not having 4WD should not impact on our plans to stay north till September (did have to cancel our planed sandy beach stay at Giralia on the way home).

A highlight of our stay has been the company for the 4 weeks of Linda’s sister Wilma and hubby Ian (a very keen fisho), Alan and Sally’s 6 nights stay, and day visits from Neil and Sue, and the Collie bunch who were staying at Cape Keraudren. These, together with a sunset BBQ on the beach, Molkkey competitions (yes - Wilma you are the weakest link), day trip to Cape Keraudren, and shopping trip to Port Hedland certainly passed the time.

Banningarra Creek

And yes, we did a little fishing.

Red Point, Bones Beach, Banningarra Creek, and Pardoo Creek mouth all  being visited when the tides suited. The fishing was a little more “boom and bust” this year but we still managed to fill 70% of our new 40ltr freezer with fish fillets! 

Talking about fishing – a little story about courage, determination, and reward:

one very happy lady

As a lot of you would know Linda’s second hip replacement was not a successful operation and she has suffered from debilitating nerve pain brought on any time she walks a short distance. 

So - a 100 meter walk/slide along a steep muddy creek bank, 60 metres of mud/rock river crossing, 30 meters of knee deep water crossing, up a muddy bank and 150 meter walk on mud and sand flats to fish takes courage. Then to cast a heavy plastic on a short boat rod with an unsuitable large reel for an hour takes determination. The reward came with a 500mm threadfin salmon on the bank – not a huge fish but a huge effort – immensely proud of my lady!

Already looking forward to our stay next winter – booked the same site fort two months this time.

The short video (link is HERE ) highlights the various locations we fished/visited and also some shots from around the Park. Some of you “older” folk may remember the sound track from the Benny Hill show.