Port Gregory to Guilderton

Day 179

Time to pack up and leave Port Gregory and head south to our first big town in what seems like forever, Geraldton is todays destination.

The road is quite busy and as we round a sweeping right hand bend a road train throws up a stone and BANG, he’s only gone and cracked the windscreen!! A small crack at first but by the time we arrive in Geraldton it has already crept its way to the pillar.

This really does seem like a big city and as we approach an intersection we are both puzzled by the coloured lights at the side of the road, which seem to change colour every now and then. As they turn red we realise that they are in fact traffic lights and that we probably should be stopping! The novelty soon wears off and is replaced with contempt at the fact we seem to be stopping every 100 metres or so.

Head into Coles to do some shopping and are literally dazzled by all of the bright lights and the seemingly endless selection of food. Both a bit overwhelmed by it all it takes us a while (and a lot of self-control) not to go crazy and fill the trolley with all of these beautiful looking things. The other thing that also becomes clear is that it must be approaching Christmas (and therefore my birthday). All of the decorations are up and the seasonal faire is out. Again it takes a lot of self-control (on my part) not to fill the trolley with Christmas puddings and custard!!

Fully stocked up we head out to our campsite (complete with lighthouse) and set up in the ever increasing wind. By the time we are finished you might say it was a bit breezy.

To try and get some rest bite from the wind and to avoid siting in the van all afternoon we walk into town and find ourselves in a pub drinking beer (Don’t know how that happened!).

Day 180

Time for a (long overdue) haircut, so we’re off on the bikes. After cycling up and down just about every street in town looking for barber (there were a hundred flash looking salons) and not finding one I settle for a salon full of women and with an air of trepidation head inside and politely ask “Do you do men as well?”. Of course they did and 5 minutes later I am back on the streets feeling considerably lighter.

The Beatles would have been proud!

Head to the Geraldton regional branch of the museum of Western Australia, which although badly laid out was pretty good. The best and most interesting display was a video about Australia’s only woman gold processor. She has her own rock crushing equipment and all of the other bits and bobs you need to extract gold from rocks (I thought it was good anyway).

Then it was on to the Geraldton gallery and to see an exhibition of this years ‘Moran prize’ for photography. Some great photos (and some not so great) but we were both not sure we agreed with the winner.

Starving hungry by now we head off in search of a fish and chip lunch, cycle around and see a quite a few places but they are all shut (it was only about 2 o’clock)! The one place that was open didn’t look at all appetising and so both disappointed it was back to the campsite for a sandwich instead

After lunch and in now gale force winds we strolled around the corner to have a look at this lighthouse.

The wind really is blowing so it’s a quick look and back to the safety of the van for an afternoon of reading (after exchanging some books at the book exchange) and watching films.

Day 181

After a windy night and more forecast (apparently it is windy in W.A. for months on end!) we decide to head on and leave Geraldton. On our way out of town we stop at the historic settlement of Grenough. Nowadays it’s like a giant outdoor museum consisting of a collection of restored heritage buildings. We park up and have a look round the gift shop (often the best bit) and discover that you have to pay for the privilege of walking up and down the street! A quick trip to the loo’s (thankfully free) and we decide not to bother after all and so jump back in the van and head onwards.

A short drive down the coast and we reach the small fishing villages of Dongara and Port Denison. The wind has died down and it’s lovely when we arrive so we decide to stay and check into the campsite. Of course by the time we have set up and had lunch the wind has picked up again and has brought with it the stench of rotting seaweed!

We chance a walk along the sea wall and a quick look at the sights but the wind has now reached cyclonic proportions and so we return to the (relative) safety of the van and spend another afternoon watching films and reading.

Day 182

In the hope that it might be less windy further along the coast we pack up and head off for Jurien bay. We arrive and set up and sure enough it is less windy, still blowing but at least bearable and so we go for a stroll along the beach to the harbour and back. When we return the jetty is packed with people fishing and they seem to be catching as well so we vow to return later.

Now we have been thinking about getting some work for a while now and as we are approaching some growing areas we thought we would make some enquiries. Carmen rings the number and speaks to a man who tells us there is some work available for experienced pickers but as we are not experienced he would not employ us!!

(Note to self, next time tell the man we are experienced)

By now of course the wind has picked up again and so we spend another afternoon in the van watching films.

Day 183

The fishing rods are out and we are straight down to the jetty this morning to try and catch us some dinner. Before too long Carmen has hooked something and reels it in to reveal that it’s a Blowfish (poisonous) and so back it goes. Shortly after I am in and it’s a small Snook, far too small to keep though (would you believe it) and so back he goes as well. We continue fishing for a while but after feeding the fish most of our bait we decide to call it a day.

Mercifully the wind seems to have dropped considerably today and so we spend a lovely afternoon sunning ourselves and swimming about in the ocean.

We return to the wharf, rods in hand for the sunset and it’s almost a party atmosphere, lots of happy people fishing and chatting away and so we settle in, quietly confident that we will catch something.

I do manage to catch 5 more small Snooks but as seems to be the case not one of them is big enough to keep (even if we had kept all 5 it wouldn’t have made much of a meal!). Luckily it’s the taking part that counts and I am happy to have at least caught a few fish and so retire happy.

Day 184

Pack Polly up and head off in the morning to our next natural wonder, the Pinnacles. Made up of thousands of limestone pillars on the edge of an area of sandy desert. As with most of these things (we are finding) no one really seems to know how they were formed and the visitors centre provides you with a couple of alternative theories.

The Pinnacles themselves are pretty good though and the track allows you to drive right in and amongst them and Polly enjoys her time off-roading along the sandy track.

We decide to head inland to get away from wind and to visit Australia’s only monastic town! New Norcia is a strange place, straddling the Great Northern highway 150KM (or so) north of Perth with a collection of Spanish style buildings that look somewhat out of place in the western Australian outback. The whole town (including pub, bakery and roadhouse) are owned by the monastery although we later find out there are only 8 monks living here!

We arrive in the afternoon and so are too late for todays guided tours but decide to stay the night and instead head to the bar to sample some ‘Abbey ale’. Based on a Belgian recipe the beer goes down pretty well and along with this they brew their own range of wines and two types of port, Oh and they bake their own bread and as we sip the ale we contemplate how busy the 8 monks must be!

Day 185

Wake up and head over to the visitors centre for the much anticipated tour of New Norcia. The other people seem to be a lot older (and all look religious) and we wonder if this is some sort of pilgrimage. The tour itself is not much cop, interesting enough but the woman was not the most eloquent and we didn’t even get to see a monk (probably too busy baking and brewing).

The buildings are quite grand though and some of the history is quite interesting although some of the previous teachers were the infamous Maris brothers (those of kiddy fiddling fame) and so I’m not sure it would have been a nice place to be (surprisingly the guide glossed over this fact).

The tour complete we head off back towards the coast and decide to have a final night (or two) of relative quiet before heading into Perth. Pull up at Guilderton and check into a lovely campsite right on the beach in time for a beautiful sunset over the Indian ocean.

We never tire of seeing the sunset