6/9/20 Barn Hill 2

     Day 2 at Barn Hill started with some sea fog and quite a bit of moisture on the ute & van - a little surprising given how hot it's been .  

      

     Down to the beach we go , the layering in the rocks is incredible , would be interesting to know how it all formed !

     Soldier crabs have been busy overnight , tracks going everywhere .

     More layered rocks , this time a whiter layer on top of all the orange rock below - also a lot of ironstone rocks in there as well .

     Heading north along the beach , we kept having to stop to look at the shells , the rocks and everything we found , so it was a slower walk along the beach . This shell was almost translucent when looked at with the sun behind .

     The rocks and shells on the beach are an amazing range of colours , reds , pinks , orange & brown .

This shell almost looked a bit like opal .

     Interesting pattern on this shell .

     More & more colours .

     We finally got to this section - I nicknamed it monument valley , and some aerial shots were taken .

     Check out the beach and all the colours surrounding it .

     This is looking back to Barn Hill Station and park , also looking south . The clear area near the middle of photo is where we are in the non powered section . The powered section is middle top where the trees are . The powered sites are good for shade , but the power is limited and won't let you run appliances that use too much power .

     And there we are , the ute hasn't moved since we arrived .

     Further along the beach is another area of rock monuments .

     Use of your imagination will reveal all sorts of shapes & faces in the rocks .

     We wandered off the beach into a creek bed and found more amazing rocks .

     And more monuments .

     While looking around I found a foot - it was about a foot long hahaha .

     Orange clay on top of the sand continued the colourful theme .

    A few Pied Oyster Catchers .

     Hope you're not sick of sunsets yet , cause there's plenty to come yet !!

     There you go , what a way to finish the day .

 

5/9/20 Hidden gem Barn Hill

 

     

     Leaving Broome after a 3 week stay was a good thing right ? The car was serviced yesterday , they didn't bother to clean it after the service was done , there were hand prints on the door and they took longer than stated to me when I dropped it off , then they did the tyre rotation as requested , and reduced tyre pressures in the front tyres from 40psi to 32 psi . Broome Toyota have a lot to answer for - not happy Jan !! 

      So after packing up , hitching up , then pumping tyres up , saying a few goodbyes , we finally made it out the front gate . We were relieved to be back on the road again . 

     Okay back to heading south , our destination is Barn Hill Station . We haven't been here before , and I'm not sure why , but today was the day . We found the turnoff , another red dirt track for us to navigate down , 3 gates to open & close , 10 kms later we were there . Pulled up at the office and checked in , then went & found a site in the unpowered section - it's also the generator area , but it has the best views of all the park . Set up and it was hot , so off we went down to the beach , it was swim time !! This is the view from our site .

     The track down to the beach is a bit of a goat track , but doable , Mulla Mulla flowers made the view that much better .

  

     Our first view of the beach & surrounds - dark brown small rocks on top then white sandstone below that , then orange below that . About 100m back there was the red Pindan cliffs as well .

  

      Rocks down on the beach showed some very different patterns in the grain , going in all directions .  

  

     Further down the beach were a lot of tall rocks resembling monuments , which we'll get to tomorrow .

      After cooling off in some glorious ocean , we sat & watched as some whales performed for us about 600m away .  Time for a stroll along the beach and check out some of our surroundings . There didn't seem to be a lot of shells on the beach , but there were some , as well as the red , orange & pink rocks .

  

      Looking around to the headland , we found a couple of holes / caves .

  

   This one had a hole in the top letting the sunshine in .

  

      These orange rocks seemed to have been used to pour something molten from above .

 

      Then we had these blotchy white & red parts of the cliff - some amazing geology here !!

 

      Being where we are , sunset was always going to be good . Here's a few shots of what we have to put up with 😁

  

  

                            

  

     And so there it is for today , we are here for 3 nights , stay tuned . Here's map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1itcPxPX-iHF4xxZ5cMFDC2kz8ahW6Z2R&usp=sharing

1/9/20 Colours of Broome 3

     Our time in Broome is coming to an end , ute is booked for a service and the weather has been quite hot - we've had a week of temperatures between 35 and 39 degrees - the pool has certainly been one of our favourites , luckily it's only 100m away . This is our spot .

     We headed back out Crab Creek Rd to attempt to find some dinosaur footprints , so far we've found some colourful rocks !

     Somewhere here are some dinosaur footprints !

    There's plenty of interesting rocks here .

   We parked above the high water mark at the boat ramp , this guy drove up , drove down the beach to near the water and stopped , then unloaded the boat onto the ground - the water was 15m away from the boat . They seemed to be working on the trailer or something , as the water came up to the trailer , next thing we saw them driving back up the beach and parked beside the ute . When we got back to the ute , I noticed the trailer wheel on the drivers side had either seized up or the brakes had jammed on - they dragged it with the car back up to where he stopped - luckily for us , there was enough room for us to swerve around the trailer that had stopped partially blocking our way !

      Some of our favourite birds were there as well - Rainbow Bee Eaters - one of the most colourful birds.

     It was 11am and there was still some sea fog around , the drone picked it up top right of photo .

 

     The colours of the track and the water are a stand out .

                                          

    We hadn't been down to Cable Beach for sunset for a couple of weeks , so headed down to Gantheaume Point end of the beach - that's where a lot of the tour boats leave from , and also where the locals like to come down for sundowners , a bbq , or to catch up with friends .

   We thought there was going to be a wedding - there were tables & chairs , tablecloths & candles , table decorations and a light bar . No wedding , just some friends having tea down at the beach .

 

     Sunset didn't disappoint .

      A few tour boats returned and started unloading the passengers with their clever wheelie boats !

     This is the lighthouse .

     That's it for Broome - a colourful finish .