After breakfast, we spend an hour walking to the far end of the beach. It is high tide or thereabouts and the beach has taken on a different character this morning. More sand, less rocks. It’s not a partcularly inviting sea, not the usual light blue beckoning you to swim. It has a more raw and wild appeal. There is no-one else on the length of the beach, and only a couple of vans are visible on the dunes at the far end.
Roebourne is a deadly quiet township noteworthy for its many fine old stone buildings dating back to the pioneer days of the 19th century. The tavern appears to be permanently closed and the hub of the town seems to centre on the General Supply Store – which sells every thing from food and clothes to TVs, music centres and fishing tackle – and the library – which confusingly is no longer housed in the original library building which fulfils some other purpose. The Visitors Centre is housed in the original stone gaol complex which includes the old courthouse and police station. It closes at 3.30pm and with the only access to a public water supply.
The tourist bumpf makes the coastline up to Point Sampson sound interesting and after spending some time in Roebourne library on the internet (payment only required sites requiring passwords), we visit Cossack at the mouth of the Harding River – a tiny riverside settlement with good views across the tidal flats – and on to Settlers Beach for a picnic lunch and a walk down to the sea which is a couple of hundred yards out. There are an enormous number of small crabs scurrying in groups hither and thither then suddenly burying into the sand to disappear from sight. There are lots of snails and starfish too. The lookout above the beach provides sweeping 360 views of the tidal flats, the beach and the enormous Rio Tinto loading jetty at
Cape Lambert further round the coast.
Tonight we are paying for our pitch – we need to do laundry and have a shower; and whilst we could do the former at a launderette we have yet to find any reasonable public showers.