We had close enough to a five-hour drive ahead of us today so we decided to get up a little bit earlier because we prefer to arrive before it gets too late in the afternoon when we are getting a bit tired. We made good time even with stopping for fuel and for me to take photos of the beautiful wildflowers on the way, arriving just after 1.30pm. We set up and I made lunch for us and by that time Robb had received his regular call from his camping buddies. We were planning to go shopping and to the Visitor Information Centre after that but we decided to leave it for the next day. We gave our grandsons Connor and Ollie a video call because we hadn’t spoken to them for over a week now and they are in lockdown and must be very bored being at home all day. We have internet on our Optus mobile modem here but it is very slow so we had a frustrating night trying to work with that, I only managed to upload and edit my photos before I went to bed, so it is now morning and I am sitting up in bed writing my blog and I will set my photos to save to Google when we leave this morning so that it won’t clog up the internet when we want it later today. Photos thankfully saved because I really wanted to share some of the beautiful wildflowers I captured on our drive here, as we came closer to Geraldton the fields of flowers increased. We passed through Northhampton, about an hour out of Geraldton, I think we need to visit here one day because it seems to have an interesting historical story and some very old interesting buildings but what intrigued us most which we would like to find out more about is that there seems to be a bit of destruction around town and we were wondering if that was due to a cyclone.
While we were in Denham I had organised for hair appointments for the two of us in Geraldton. We were lucky enough to get appointments on the Saturday morning after the Friday we arrived. Our last cut was in Broome and it was fine for Robb but it was just a cut for me and I was gradually going greyer each day. I have been keen for a long time now to see what I would look like if I embraced the grey and because I was unintentionally nearly there I thought I would ask for the hairdresser's advice on what to do. She recommended I go to grey with highlights and then as it creeps up on me it will take less care, I decided to try this and my thoughts were that if it didn't work out I would have a colour put in next time I was due for a cut. As it turned out I liked the look so I will stick with it for a while until I get sick of it and decide to do something different. We were both very happy with the results on the day, Robb had a good head and beard shave and I was happy with the cut. From here we drove to the Visitor Information Centre to pick up brochures to see what we could do in our time in Geraldton. While we were there Robb managed to book a fishing charter for the next day, we didn't hang our hopes on this as he has been disappointed so many times but he booked it in and we will wait and see. The ladies in the information centre were most helpful and we came away with a pile of brochures and if Robb does go out tomorrow I will go through the information to plan our time here after that. From here we drove to Aldi to shop, I am so happy to be able to visit Aldi here this is the first time since Queensland. Similar to Queensland it looks like WA doesn't have a liquor department but it was still a lot of fun walking the aisles, especially the middle ones to see what was on offer. Naturally we bought much more than we thought but there were items we needed to stock up on like coffee pods and toilet rolls. BWS was next door so we drove over there to stock up on wine for the days ahead, not as cheap as Aldi but still much better than paying $12 for a bottle Gossips. We drove home for lunch from here intending to go out in the afternoon. Not that we did much in the afternoon but we did drive down to the wharf to see where Robb was to catch his charter the next day and then we did visit the HMAS Sydney Memorial which is very impressive and moving and from here we drove to the lighthouse at Point Moore which is just behind our caravan park. We were very happy to take care of all these housekeeping type things and we are looking forward to investigating the area further.
Father's Day arrived and Robb hadn't received a message to say the charter had been cancelled so he was up in time and made his lunch to take with him and then went to meet the charter. He didn't come back so I assumed all was ok. I was so happy for him because he had been trying to get on a charter for four years now and this is the first time he has succeeded. I spent the day at home mainly preparing meals for the week ahead, I hoped Robb was going to bring home some fish from his trip and I was so happy to receive a text from him to tell me he would be bringing at least six rock lobsters home for us. My day was fairly uneventful but I didn't get to editing my photos until later in the day than I thought I would and I wasn't expecting Robb home until after 6.00pm but he turned up around 4.30pm with two very big fish and seven rock lobsters. Dinner looks sorted for the next few nights. Robb had a really good time and it was such a special Father's Day present for him, he filleted the fish and cleaned up the lobsters before dinner. We had a couple of the rock lobsters with a little bit of salad for dinner, we put the rest away for the night after next. All up a memorable Father's Day.
Today we are taking the wildflower road trip up to Pindar and across to the wreath flower trail which is 10kms outside of Pindar on a dirt road. We have come here at the perfect time of the year so we are expecting to see quite a display. As we get closer to Pindar the fields of wild flowers increase and when we turn off to the wreath flowers there are a great many people in cars and caravans ahead of us lined up the road and walking up and down the display. The wreaths are very impressive and I take quite a few photos both of the wreath flowers and the wildflowers in the fields. On the way back we stop of at Mullewa for a bit of a look around and come across and amazing building the Monsignor J. Hawes Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church. The Monsignor built this impressive building by himself and it took 6 years to complete, it has an interesting history which is worth reading about.
We started today with a visit to St. Francis Xavier Cathedral which had been designed by Monsignor John Hawes the same person who built the church at Mullewa which we visited yesterday. Yesterday’s church was interesting but this one today is beautiful, both on the inside and out. We had a wander around the outside and then walked in and we were both amazed with the interior. If you have been to the Mesquite in Cordoba Spain, you would remember the striped arches in the mosque part of the church, this church had the same arches and lots of them. The inside of the church was very colourful and a beautiful design. There is a basement but unfortunately it was locked, they do tours on various days and I think they take you down there then, it is a bit of a shame not to go down, we might try to catch a tour to take us down there we will see how we go. While we were talking to another couple outside the church a lady approached us and asked if we would like to see the basement, she said she would see if she could turn off the alarm and get us down there but unfortunately, she couldn’t do that but we appreciated her trying, she gave us a bit of an insight to the church and said the basement was the most interesting part which just frustrated us more. Our next stop was the Old Geraldton Gaol and Craft Centre, we have visited quite a few gaols in our travels and this was like the others the only difference here was that in each cell there was a craft shop and the person who owns the shop was in there working at the time on whatever they produce and sell. One part of me thought what a wonderful use of the space that would otherwise be sitting there empty, my other side thought that the craft shops took away from the attraction the gaol would be. We drove from here to the Old Railway Station; we could only look around the outside as the inside has been rented out to various businesses including a café where I think there would have once been the toilets. While we were having a look around, we were approached by a man who turned out to be the owner of a couple of businesses in the station, including the café, so we had a good chat to him and learned a bit about the history of the original station. We seemed to have lucked out today with meeting people in town and finding out a bit more about the old buildings. I wanted to see the replica Batavia Longboat at the marina on the foreshore, we started at the top of the foreshore and had a bit of a walk around and then drove down to the end. There is a little cafe at one end which seemed quite popular and beside that is a children's playground and water play space, people were riding their bikes or sitting on the lawns looking out over the water. We drove around to the Museum where the longboat is tied up, it was much small than I thought, the Batavia and the longboat have a great story to tell. Before driving home we stopped to take a look at Skeetas Restaurant where we are hoping to have lunch tomorrow, it looks out over the Marina and the menu looks interesting so it should be perfect.
The very small hamlet of Greenough is only 18 minutes drive from Geraldton and is marked as an historic village, we thought it worth a trip out to take a look. We drove off the highway to the Greenough Museum and Gardens and we were both pleasantly surprised by this attraction. The house, if you can call it that, was built in various stages over a long time, added onto as needs demanded ending in a very large establishment for the times. Beside the house is the old flour mill which is now in ruins. We entered the house at the lounge room and followed through as directed by the signs along each door. The house itself is very well maintained, the rooms are all quite large and have been fitted out with furniture that has been found around this area that is originally from this building. The curators have spent a lot of time tracking down items that originated from the house and they still have requests posted about asking if anyone has items they could add to this collection. The gardens are beautifully maintained as are the outbuildings, we were particularly intrigued by the double seated outhouse, I mean who in their right mind wants to sit on the loo beside someone else. The volunteer on duty today was very passionate about the house and shared lots of information we wouldn't necessarily have picked up ourselves on the visit. From here we drove down to the Greenough Hamlet, stopping on the way at the leaning tree where I took a couple of photos, when we arrived at the hamlet we had a look at the two churches and the cafe that is located in one of the original houses, we didn't call in here wanting to see as much as we could on our travels. We drove on from here to Walkaway which is just 8 minutes down the road, we wanted to visit the Railway Station and when we arrived we had a bit of a look around the outside, we didn't want to go into the museum but did visit the shed just down from the station where an engine is stored but it doesn't look like there has been any work on the engine for a long time. There is an hotel in Walkaway and a General Store and not much else. We drove back to Geraldton from here and called into the Freemasons Hotel for a beer before returning home.
Our last day in Geraldton we had hoped to take a cruise out to the Abrolhos Islands but they didn't have a cruise running today so onto plan B. We only have a short trip tomorrow so we are going to try to take our caravan through a car wash to get rid of the Pilbara red dust that we are still carrying around with us, a job well overdue. Our first stop this morning was to check out the car wash places in Geraldton, we need one high enough to allow our van to go through and also one where we are not going to impede other cars going through the car wash. We think we have found somewhere so we will call in here tomorrow on our way to our next stop. After that we visited a few retail outlets to pick up a few items we needed, before driving back to the van we visited the Port in Geraldton and the Marina Precinct. We enjoyed looking at the old boats at the port and we also watched a machine pick a boat up and place it into the water where it took off into the bay, I had never seen this before and I was very interested. We had plans to have lunch today in Skeetas which is on the foreshore, we arrived around 1.30pm and found a table and ordered our lunch. We chose a prawn pizza and crispy skin chicken to share, both dishes were very good and plenty for us for lunch, we won't need much for dinner tonight and we picked up sushi for dinner on the way home. Today is a bit colder than it has been I am not enjoying this cooler weather and feel like running back up North but we do need to get home at some time.
Today we drove along the Indian Ocean Highway in WA to the small coastal village of Cervantes. We left our park in Geraldton in good time because we had searched out a car wash where we could wash our van down before going any further, we really wanted to get rid of the Pilbara dust we were still carrying around. It took us a good hour to do this and then we had to fill up with fuel for the trip. We chose to stop at Cervantes because it is halfway between Geraldton and Perth. There is only one caravan park in town the RAC caravan park and that is where we are now stationed. The Indian Ocean Highway is supposed to be the scenic drive to Perth but I have to be honest it really wasn't that scenic, we had a few snatches of water on our way and the village of Jurien Bay was very pretty to drive through but that was about it. I think there is a lot to explore in the area so I am looking forward to that. By the time we arrived we only had time for lunch before Robb had his normal Friday night catch up with camping buddies. It was getting quite cool later in the afternoon so we both moved inside. I have dinner planned and it shouldn't take long to cook. Tomorrow we will start the day with a visit to the information centre before, I hope, driving to the Pinnacles which is a huge attraction in the area.
The Visitor Information Centre turned out to be not that at all, it was incorporated in the Newsagents cum souvenir store cum tattslotto agency and the gentleman on duty wasn't very helpful at all. From here we drove to Nambung National Park and The Pinnacles. We checked in at the entry station and were given information and directions on where to enter the 4km road that takes you through the desert where The Pinnacles are. I am pretty confident that I can speak for both Robb and myself to say that we were both completely awe struck when we saw the first group of pinnacles when we entered the desert. We parked the car and had a walk amongst them before moving on further around the park. I had seen articles in magazines about this spectacle but I never expected them to have the impact they did on me, I think I thought there would be a space the size of a football oval where they were but they went on forever and covered the equivalent of several football ovals. The Pinnacles are many shapes and sizes and there are three theory's as to how they were formed, I couldn't stop taking photos around here as I was quite fascinated. We drove around to the Discovery Centre before leaving the park and had a quick look around and I am glad we did. One of the ladies on duty heard Robb and I discussing the formation of the Pinnacles and started talking to us and this led to her giving us lots of information on what to see in the area which is what we were looking for when we visited the Cervantes Information Centre. We left here with a bit of a plan for tomorrow. We drove back towards Cervantes stopping off at Lake Thetis hoping to see the Stromatolites but there was too much water in the lake and we couldn't see much, it looks like we are destined to not get a really good look at them. We went in search of the Lobster Shack then and it turns out it is just down the road from the caravan park, we might go there tomorrow for lunch. We drove on further to overlook the beach and the jetty before returning to home.
I usually make our coffee in the mornings but we decided to pick one up at the cafe at the caravan park before heading off for the day. We intended to drive back to Jurien Bay for a look around and then onto Lesueur National Park. We drove down to the new jetty in Jurien Bay where we walked along to the end, on the way we saw a pod of dolphins playing around in the water and stopped to watch them for a while before walking back to the car. It looks like there is a new playground/water park in construction on the edge of the cliffs overlooking the beach. From here we drove onto Green Head and then Leeman for a quick look around before driving to Lesueur National Park. We entered the park and then took the scenic route around this spectacular park. I have to quote from the tourist brochure here because I don't want to get this wrong so here goes 'Lesueur National Park is a biodiversity hotspot and ranks as one of the most important reserves for flora conservation in Western Australia'. Apart from all these really big words it is just a beautiful National Park. We stopped at Wilson Lookout car park and walked up to the top to have a look at the views but the walk is more about the variety of plants on the way. The whole scenic loop is full of a variety of plants and wildflowers. We drove back home from here to have lunch at Lobster Shack where we chose the platter for two, I don't think we will need dinner tonight. We are driving on to Perth from here tomorrow.
Love all of this. So looking forward to when we can do the west coast xo