This next episode takes my travels further south along the "Turquoise coast of Western Australian. Geraldton, Jurien Bay and Cervantes
After leaving Geraldton I called past Greenough, where I had a look through the old historic homestead (and gardens) that are now owned and managed by the National Trust of Australia . There is also a historic River Gum purported to be 800 years old and as you can see is still growing, albeit along the ground, as is most trees in the area.
An indication of how windy it is...and this tree is still off the ground. Many grow along the ground 🤨
Then I did another stopover at Northampton as I wanted to see. "Ewe Turn For Art". It was a 2018 project to attract people to Northampton and is now a fabulous installation of hand painted fibreglass sheep spread around the town...and it's obviously doing the job as I stopped off to check them out. It gives the town a lovely atmosphere.
Next stop was Oakabella Station, which is an historic home, farm and caravan park. The homestead is known for it's supernatural encounters....ghosts!!! There are tours through the original homestead, which I didn't do as the next one was too late in the day for me. Or was I scared!!😱🤣 Anyway, I called in to have coffee and scones, which it's renowned for...Date and wattle seed scones...mmm... that was lunch!!!
I ate inside the restaurant under air con, but if the weather hadn't been so hot 😅I would have been outside. It had a great rustic character.
Mid afternoon I arrived in Geraldton and parked my van at the Sunset Caravan about 10 minutes north of the CBD. The park is right on a beautiful beach and has a small but delightfully cool pool😎.
The CP's are almost empty at the moment and that's because it's out of holiday season, it's hot, and it's windy, which is normal for this time of the year. Although it will still be windy and HOT in December the parks are all preparing for a very busy Christmas holiday season.
Interestingly, on the west coast, although caravan park numbers are low the current travellers seem to be international visitors (British, German, French, Swiss and Asian countries to name a few) as well as lots of families travelling for extended periods (like Sara, John and the girls). One guy, camped next to me, has been coming out from England to Geraldton every year for 20 years to windsurf!!! He says November and December the wind conditions are nearly always perfect for windsurfing and he can usually windsurf for at least 20 days a month. He stays for up to 5 months!! Along the coast around here you see lots of wind or kite surfers.
I stayed a week in Geraldton and spent a few days visiting the Geraldton Regional Art Gallery, the Museum (another fantastic 3D movie about the Sydney & Kormoran battle Nov 19 1941) and did a few free tours with the historical society. I also visited a local chiropractor twice as I hadn't had any relief from the Physiotherapist with my back. It hasn't stopped me from getting out and about, but it has slowed down my exercise routine a little, I'm just not walking as far or as fast!!😡
The Geraldton CBD has had a big facelift. WA artist, Trevor Richards, was commissioned to paint the "Rocks" laneway, a project to re-create interest in the Geraldton CBD. To coincide with the official opening of the finished project, which I believe was started in Feb 2019 and was completed about 2 weeks before I arrived, the Gallery is exhibiting his latest exhibition. It's a great exhibition and was worth the look.
What you see here is about half the project. It encompasses the town square, another laneway and public space
One room of Trevor Richards exhibition at the Gallery
Geraldton had a Rotary meeting I was able to attend 😃...Finally ...They had three in fact!!! I have tried many times, but either there is no Rotary Club in the town where I am, or it's not on the night that I'm in that town. In this incidence I had a fabulous night at Batavia Coast Rotary and met a great group of people. I ended up guest speaker for the night and was even presented with a gift. A lovely momento of the Club...a pen inscribed with Batavia Rotary Club. A couple of days later I met up with Sue (front row in the green top (acting President for the night) and Faye, to my left in the black polka dot dress, for afternoon tea and we had a delightful chinwag for a couple of hours.
The big adventure I did in Geraldton was a full day boat trip out to the Abrolhos Islands. 😍stunning...a chain of 122 Islands and reefs about 80 kms out to sea west of Geraldton. White sands, turquoise waters, corals reefs, sea lions, birds...in other words PARADISE!!! We left just after 7am and got back after sunset at 7.30pm. I travelled with nine other women doing a 50th birthday cruise together....It was a party boat!!! It was ideal conditions...the wind had dropped and the weather was perfect. The boat trip took 3 .5 hour each way, but it was relaxing and the catering was superb. We had a snorkel on the reef and another around one of the islands. The tender took us to a few other locations to see the sea lions and generally have a look around the islands...BIG day, but fabulous
Leaving Geraldton around 7.15am, pulling our tender.
Our first snorkelling spot...and were we dropped anchor for the day
Our mode of transport from Geraldton. They supplied us with lots of beautiful food throughout the day non alcoholic drinks/water and we were able to BYO alcohol.
Arriving in the tender at one the islands where the 6 people who are registered as living on the Abrolhos Islands reside!
One of the islands we visited and snorkelled at.
Some of the bird life including a sea lion resting on the beach
Another sea lion
A tern kept landing on the pigface bush about a metre from us as if waiting for us to throw it some food!! or maybe protecting a nest somewhere!!
Saw a few of these very colourful crabs
Some background on sea lions...I was confused... To me they looked the same as a seal....I have since found out sea lions have external ear flaps, walk on land using all four flippers (seals bounce on their bellies) and use their front flippers to swim (seals use their hind flippers). The Australian seal lions only live on the Southern and Western Australian coastlines and are one of the rarest breed of sea lions in the world.
My last night in Geraldton I took a walk along the beach and sat and watched the sunset.
On December 8th I left for Jurien Bay. I left early so I could spend a few hours at Green Head on the way as I was told the beaches were magnificent....not wrong, BUT the wind was magnificent as well. I did the boardwalks along the coast line and almost got blown off the paths, but well worth the views.
Dynamite Bay, Green Head
At times the pathways were pretty spectacular. Having great paths keeps people off the sand dunes and allows regeneration
I arrived at Jurien Bay and parked my van a the Jurien Bay Tourist Park. At dusk I walked over to the beach to catch the sunset. I think I could almost call it "stairway to the sunset"
Jurien Bay sunset
I could hear music and Christmas Carols being sung so I followed the sound and discovered...Jurien Bay was having their Carol's in the Park. It was almost over, but I got to see Santa!!!
I caught up with Trish and Lyle again who were staying nearby at Cervantes. We spent a day exploring Lesueur National Park and surrounds, taking a few walks, having a picnic lunch and finishing the day with a swim at Sandy Cape. Trish and Lyle walked to the top of Mt Lesueur, but I opted out as my back is still playing up.
Trish and Lyle part way up the mountain...Look for the green t-shirt!!
There are still many wildflowers to be seen although it is getting very late in the season and they are struggling with the dry conditions to stay in full bloom. The first bock on the left is the WA Christmas tree...more about that at the end of the blog...
We caught sight of some wildlife during the day...big and small
This big fella was keeping cool under scrub, right beside the road
This is a Australian Native Bush Cockroach and is bigger than any cockroach I've seen before. He was about 4cm long and very colourful...looked a bit prehistoric!!!
Mt Grigson lookout over the National Park. That's not water, but dry salt lake beds and sand
Sand-boarding is very popular around this area and people travel to Sandy Cape just to sand-board down the dunes and into the ocean. On the white sand dunes in the distance the couple of dots you can see are board riders. The caravan park hires out boards, but we didn't attempt it...maybe next time🤪
Another adventure...this time a sea lion encounter...I went on an early morning tour to swim with the sea lions. OMG this was another highlight😍💞💖!! It took about 15 minutes to get to the island where the sea lions were and for the next hour we swam with sea lions playing all around us in the water. They would swim to the sandy bottom and look up at us with inquisitive eyes. If we dived down they would take off twirling around us and at times coming right up to nudge us. You could see the smiles on their faces as they entertained us. We were NOT allowed to touch them!!! they didn't have the same rules obviously!
Arriving into the snorkelling bay at Escape Island where a colony of Sea Lions await to entertain us.
Apologies for the unsteady film, which happens when you try to take a video on a boat that keeps moving😎
Jurien Bay was beautiful. A modern town with some beautiful homes and quite good shops and services. It's an ideal holiday destination for Perth residents as it's only 320kms north. I could have very easily stayed on a little....maybe a lot...longer, but I decided to pack up and move 26km further south to Cervantes where the CP has a big pool and better shade for the caravan. The weather was getting very hot and the forecast was for even hotter weather. I parked my van at the RAC Cervantes Tourist Park, beside the ocean once again!!!
Just south of Cervantes is "the Pinnacles Desert"... I went there twice!!!. I saw them during the day and then went back at sunset...stunning! I also spent time at the NP discovery centre, which was much cooler than the 40 degree temp outside.
Earlier in the day
Up close and personal to a pinnacle or two
Arriving back at 7pm
7.17pm
After visiting the Pinnacles I went for a swim at Hangover Bay...A beautiful beach and I had it all to myself😎👍
My swimming pool😎😍
Lake Thetis near Cervantes has stromatolites and thrombolites not unlike the ones in the Shark Bay area. The following paragraph is taken from this website and gives an understanding of what you're looking at....https://www.westaustralianexplorer.com/stromatolites-at-lake-thetis/
They may not look impressive at first sight, but if you consider that these grey, bubbling blobs are some of the oldest living organisms on earth, they become a lot more interesting. Stromatolites and their close cousins, thrombolites are living fossils that have been producing oxygen for about 3.5 billion years. This means that when you’re looking at these rock-like structures you’re essentially stepping back in time and seeing at how life was billions of years ago.
Take the water out of this photo and you could be mistaken for thinking this was a scene from moon.
The tree you see below is called Moodjar by the local indigenous community. It's common name is the Western Australia Christmas Tree, its botanical name is Nuytsia floribunda. From what I read it is only found in WA, it is a parasite tree in the mistletoe family, but unlike mistletoe it grows in the ground. It's a beautiful sight and stands out in the vegetation because of it's bright golden orange flowers. As I am in Perth for Christmas I am sending you a Moodjar Christmas greeting.
May your Christmas be filled with family, friends, love and good cheer and wishing you happy memories and good health in the year ahead.
Thank you to everyone who has been following my journey. I've really enjoyed being able to share my adventures (to date...more to come in 2020) with you. This will be the last post for 2019 as I have just arrived at a friends home and parked my van in Kingsley Perth for a week. Christmas plans are in turmoil as I was meeting Sara and John and the girls at Yanchep National Park, but the park is closed due to the devastating fires there at the moment. Still working out a contingency, but I will be spending the first 2 weeks of January with my nephew and family in Rockingham south of Perth before starting the journey home across the Nullabour.
Until 2020...Happy New Year...Stay safe
🥂🎄
Anne