Barn Hill Station (May 2015)

At the far end of eighty mile beach we have a change to slow down a little at Barn Hill Station. A red cliff face drops down onto the beach. Broome’s night lights are visible in the distance at night time. We are just enjoying a bit of shade, some quiet time, more walking for Flickie and Pieter and going through all the shells collected so far.

On the second night there Jolmer is so nice to grant my wish to have a campfire on the beach. There is some wood we collected near the cliffs earlier in the day. We drag our large camp chairs and a bag of mega marsh mallows, sticks and my little ukulele out to a rocky area in the middle of the beach. Come high tide it will all be washed away, the remains of the fire, but for now we are just enjoying the moon playing hide and seek with the clouds and the small flames of our modest cosy fire. No bright stars tonight, but that doesn’t take away from the magic of the whole scene.

We try not to think about Broome too much because we know it’s where we have to say goodbye to Jolmer’s parents and we don’t really want to. 

 It is like our family of seven has become a family of nine with the representation of an extra generation. How fortunate can you be? Certainly all our children have adored spending time with both of them. Pieter’s love for finding things, be it shells, rocks or other things, seems to light a spark within Hugo, Tim, Peter and Jaap alike. Laura prefers spending time with Oma Els, and they chat, and chat, and chat.