JUNE 25 - BARN HILL STATION

We arrived at Barn Hill station around 9.30 Wednesday.

Barn Hill is situated overlooking the sea and is part of Thangoo station – 450 000 acres, 85 km of coastline and running 8000 cattle. It is managed by a diminutive woman who has three sons, and who also manages to keep a campground running as well. Many of the campers are long-time regulars, who come every year for a few months and have the place organised with roast dinner nights, lawn bowls competitions (yes!), BBQ nights, Scrabble tournaments... The ones in the 'front row' have well-tended lawns and even little veggie gardens!

The beach is lovely, but the facilities are very rustic indeed, the power provided by generator, so only 6 amps, the sites are just dirt spots in the bush marked out with tyres, and the water coming from a bore through poly-pipe.

Ian had a great time fishing on that beach. He went every day, and caught a small shark and a small rock cod, both of which he released. He's proud to say he has perfected his casting technique and has rekindled his taste for beach fishing.

We had some memorable walks along the beach in the morning and late afternoon, experimented with cooking techniques using the Weber (fruit cake – yep, got it right this time) and the DreamPot (corned beef – perfect!), watched Season Two of 'Downton Abbey' in the evenings, read, relaxed.

On the last evening, we joined in the communal Roast Night ($15 each). We sauntered down in the same clothes we had on all day, and found tables set up in rows with tablecloths, candles, serviettes, and the ladies in 'nice' clothes, makeup and jewellery! We were invited to join one of the tables and had a very enjoyable time over our dinner of soup, roast dinner and salad/ice cream dessert.