West Coast Day 105 - Pilbara Coast

Eighty Mile Beach is popular with fishermen who come from Port Hedland for some respite from the searing heat of the Pilbera and in search of king salmon. David had already done his socialising with all who looked knowledgeable yesterday.

The tide was high at 10.30am so we set off with our fishing gear at 8.30am. For the two hours before and after the tide we caught 20 catfish to every salmon and sometimes pulled in bronze whaler sharks. Our day finished with only 2 salmon but that was enough for our dinner.

Two guys fishing besides us caught at least 10 salmon including the sought-after king salmon at 97cm (about 30lbs). He was ecstatic at his catch so he and his mate drove to the Sandfire Roadhouse 50kms away to buy 6 cases of beer. 5 for them and 1 for David. The fishos were gone for such a long time that I said to David that they'd taken off with his money and his beer. They looked a bit rough and were obviously on a "boys fishing trip". In the meantime we lay on our beautiful grass camp site and started to read our new books we had picked up at the second-hand book store in Broome. I had chosen "The Partner" by John Grisham for David who hasn't yet read one book this trip. I hoped it would interest him. By the time David's beer arrived, he had already read 100 pages!

The afternoon went quickly after we'd socialised with the fishos. A young couple, Glenn and Stacey from the Central Coast came and reacquainted themselves with us. We had met in the swimming pool at Karumba in September. They had travelled different routes to us as they were towing a caravan and stuck to the tarred roads.