Day 14 - Yardoogarra to Eighty Mile Beach

From one beach to the next, a quick hop, skip and ... push of the bike... to a wonderful sunset.

Quick Stats

• 3 hours on bike
• 269 km
• 5685 km total

What goes up, must come down. So I better start heading down this coastline. Also what goes in, must come out... back on that rudding awful red sand road.

I head off from Yardoogarra (at least I think thats the Yarwun word for the beach I stayed at, it might also mean Welcome) after a late breakfast at the infinity pool.

I've got 190 kilometres of range and 210 kilometres to the next service station. I've got a Jerry can with a couple litres in it, but I'd rather not dig it out.

I won't complain about the heat again, but you know the drill. I find the next roadtrain and slide into it's slipstream. I've found with careful tailing at about 90 km/h I can drop my 4.5L/100km down to 2.8L.

I'm two kilometres from the servo, I think I've made it. The power cuts out. Clutch in, coasting, shake the bike to get a bit more fuel into the lines. Sputters to life. One kilometre to go. More sputtering. My trick doesn't work this time. I can see it.

Dammit. Almost. I slip it into neutral and push it the last 200 metres. The truckie I was slipstreaming is pissing himself laughing. Glad he got some entertainment.

I fill up with fuel, or what Western Australians call this slurry that passes for fuel. And grab an ice cream.

Did I mention this place is called Sandfire? I'm not sure if its for the red sand, or that the place probably self-immolates in summer.

Oh well, farewell Sandfire. I'm off to Eighty Mile Campground to my donga by the beach. Just a short 45 minutes and I'm at the turnoff.

More red dirt. At least its dirt this time and not sand. 10 minutes more and I'm checked in. Bang on the 2 PM check-in time.

There's tradie utes running up and down the beach chasing the next big fishing spot.

Do you know why Eighty Mile Beach is called that? ... you'd be wrong. Its actually 220 km. The Dutch explorers were just terrible with distances. Anyway at 137 miles, the beach stretches to the horizon in both directions.

I go for a walk along the beach and ponder to myself whether I'm making any progress at all...

With that internal crisis in the background, I decide I'll do some lamb chops over the grill tonight. And definitely come back to the dunes for sunset.

There's a chill in the air tonight, a hopeful sign for what's to come.