Waking to the stunning view of Windjana Gorge was a treat. Day twenty-nine was another travel day, seeing us complete our journey across the Gibb River Road. After saying goodbye to our newfound friends we began the final stretch of red dirt and corrugations of the Gibb, heading to Derby and onto our quick overnight stay at Roebuck Roadhouse.
It was a bittersweet feeling setting off - reflecting on the last few days spent exploring gorges, surrounded by amazing colours and ranges and visiting waterfalls and tunnels. It had been awesome and we were grateful to have experienced it.
As far as roadhouses go, Roebuck is a pretty good one. Hot showers, great food, the shop is full of essentials and lovely takeaway food. There’s no traditional ‘hot box’, but great-looking salads and rolls. We enjoyed a great pub meal, the staff were lovely and Leigh got a surprisingly unreal espresso martini.
No waking up to birds on day thirty - the sounds of nature were replaced by triple-trailer road trains all night (our campsite was right next to the road and entrance to the park). It was a drive-in site though, which saved us from unhitching the Tundra, so we were okay with the trade-off for a rough awakening. And it was going to be an early start regardless, as we headed into Minshull Mechanical in Broome for upgraded CV shafts to be fitted. The team - Zac, Chris and Bart - were unreal to deal with, fitting us in and doing a great job.
We went to the town centre for some breakfast and a walk through the shops and surroundings, and we’re looking forward to returning when we have more time, with four nights booked later in the trip. Minshull Mechanical had us all ready to go and on the road just after lunch. We stocked up at the shops afterwards and also bought a grinder - which we hopefully won’t need but feel safer now having on board.
Then it was onto the 139km drive to Barn Hill Station, a beachside campground located on a working cattle station.
On arrival all designated sites were fully booked and we were given options for where we could set up camp. We were still able to find a cracker beachfront spot with a phenomenal view.
We loved this experience - not only Rex’s teachings and display of his and the dogs’ skills with cattle herding and seeing impressive stock horses in action, but also hearing the history of Barn Hill Station. It’s located within Thangoo Cattle Station, and is a huge half-a-million-acre property. Janice spoke of her parents, along with her nine siblings who took over the property in the 1960s, and told the story of how they triumphed in developing this isolated and harsh land into a thriving cattle business. Stories were told of the hardships like carrying water and droving day in, day out.
With five boys and five girls, Janice and her sisters were told to find another career while the boys were welcome to work on the property. Undaunted by this, she realised the tourism opportunity for the station, with many travelers keen to see the country and ocean. Hence the creation of Barn Hill Station as a thriving stay for caravanners.
We spent most of the day watching the adorable dogs and beautiful horses and listening to Rex and Janice’s stories. There are farm animals, a cafe and bowling green there too, but we chose to enjoy the beach - swimming, walking and talking with other travellers. 
It’s a beautiful part of the world and we are grateful to the owners for sharing. We also ran into Mr and Mrs Deardon, fellow Toowoomba residents. It was nice to catch up and to make another connection to home so far away.
Day thirty-two was spent enjoying Barn Hill Station again. In the morning we caught up on work and cleaned the camper and Tundra after the Gibb knocked a few things around. In the afternoon we explored the beach, swimming, reading and enjoying a couple of games of NRL with some drinks.
It has been so scenic and relaxing here and we wanted to make the most of the beachfront campsite we had, so we decided not to move on tomorrow but instead extend our stay by a day. It’s not hard to understand why when seeing these photos, and we enjoyed dinner with a background of live music in the evening.
There were no dramas extending our stay here at Barn Hill Station. On day thirty-three we visited reception to do this and were surprised to find Sunday markets in progress - the managers and operators out here are clearly very capable and do a great job.
The markets had various cool little stalls to be enjoyed, and afterwards we decided to head down to the beach for a walk. We made the most of it with multiple swims, quite short and sweet ones though as there’s a possibility sharks and crocs may be around.
It was back to camp in the afternoon to watch two good games of rugby league - the Titans beat Manly and the Dolphins managed a victory over the Cowboys - then rounding out what was another unreal day enjoying a beautiful WA sunset atop the Tundra’s Tub Racking, accompanied by some fairywrens heading home for the night.
On day thirty-four we woke early, catching the sunrise and a few more photos of this beautiful place - “Where the red meets the white”.
We then split up to grab freshly cooked fruit bread and hot coffee from the Barn Hill Shop, and also prepare the Tundra and pack up. It had been a great day by 8:30am. We said farewell to Barn Hill Station and headed to our next stop - Eighty Mile Beach, around a 256km drive.
Eighty Mile Beach was amazing. It was funny rocking up to a ‘G’day Park’ in the middle of a station (Wallal Downs Station). It’s like your classic caravan park in the middle of nowhere. We let the tyres down on the Tundra and we quickly hit the beach, although there was no swimming to do here with a sign advising a crocodile sighting three weeks earlier.
It’s a really popular fishing spot and we enjoyed seeing fellow residents of the park on the beach relaxing, fishing and shell collecting. It also has one of the coolest array of shells we’ve ever seen.
After enjoying the beach in the afternoon we watched the sun set and savoured some leftovers for an easy dinner. Eighty Mile Beach is another gem.