We decided not to go any further north at this stage and headed to a place just south of Barn Hill Station called Port Smith Lagoon with the intention of finally getting the boat wet and doing a bit of fishing. We weren't sure what to expect.
The caravan park is in the middle of Biddyadanga Aboriginal Land. It is a 20km drive in on dirt road so we just took it very slowly. We had booked in for two nights until we sussed it out. On arrival they told us to just let them know if we wanted to extend our stay but preferrably within the next 24hours. We drove up to our site (No. 87), parked the bus, and went and extended our stay to a week. The park is set up very nicely. The sites are huge so you don't feel hemmed in with good shady trees and the ammenities are clean and spacious.
The lagoon is 600 metres away and is another story in itself. The tide movement is unbelievable and a bit tricky to work out. If you go down to the lagoon at low tide you can walk for miles on the sand but you must keep your eye on the time as when the tide turns, it races in. You can be standing on sand and within a couple of mins it is up to your knees. We put the boat in the water and left it moored there for the time we stayed. This meant that we had to work out when the water would be the same height each day so that we didn't have to try and drag the boat to the water. We didn't venture out into the open seas, we just moved around in the Lagoon (which was huge when the tide was in). There was also some really great cliffs just up from the Lagoon where you could fish from.
This is where Steve caught his big Trevally.
The assortment of fish was unreal, the water was so clear it was like an aquarium around the Mangroves. We would sit in the boat and just tease the fish with the bait just to watch them. We caught Cods, Angel Fish, Javelins and Barracuda. Most of them we had to throw back as they were too small or protected. We were hoping for a Mangrove Jack but were unsuccessful our neighbour Mark caught a ripper but he ate it LOL.
Every Thursday night they have a Fish and Chip night. It costs $5 (which goes to the Flying Doctors) and you get a couple of bits of freshly caught fish and chips. Then once everyone has been up an paid and had their feed, you can go up for seconds free of charge. They do a great job, the first night there was prob about 200 people there and you could still get seconds. They venture out and catch a heap through the week and other people also donate fish they don't want themselves. They also have live music and games. All in all a good night. If there was one place in WA we would buy into, it would be Port Smith.
Their was a family camped next to us for a while and Wally had them conned. Mark, Carol and their daughter Sarah from Australind near Perth. They had been on the road for approx 4 months and were on their way home. They missed their dog, so our three were getting plenty of cuddles from Sarah. Steve would have stayed there for a month and we probably should have as we got too far south too early and it started getting a bit cool, so we crept North again and across to the coast.
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