DNLAROUNDOZ: 26th Nov to Port Gregory

We’re off to visit a Prince today in another country (apparently). Prince Leonard of the Principality of Hutt River. On the 21/4/1970 his property was seceded from Australia all, 18,500 acres of land, due to a dispute over a wheat quota. I was expecting to be a castle and security gates at the entrance, but no, it was just like going to visit the folks on the farm (wheat).

He's not a very attractive head is Prince Leonard...

It is quite interesting how the place is set up, the “town” is called Nain and consists of various buildings, including Admin Building (Government office and Post Office), Tea Rooms, Chapel, not forgetting the arcade with memorabilia (souvenirs). Yes you can spend quite a bit of money here if you want, they take all denominations.

Memorabillia / Souvenir Shop

Admin buiding including Gov and Post Office

They have their own currency, stamps, number plates and I guess all else that comes with operating your own Independent Sovereign State. The Prince held audience with us for quite some time, he never drew breath, a very interesting chap, one would say eccentric really. The Princess was not present as she was recovering from a fall. Definitely worth a look if you ever over this way. No entry fee, a donation box or if you get sucked in like us they have every souvenir imaginable, even postcards!

Several statues made up of all sorts of bits in grounds

The Chapel - note the artworks on walls

We are travelling along today with Alana and Ian (our friends with the bus/motorhome). Next stop is Port Gregory and the Pink Lake, yes it is pink and we got the photos to prove it. Quite a number really, Alana and I went a bit crazy with the lake, as not ever seeing anything like this before we found it pretty amazing.

We booked into the Port Gregory Van Park, this is a small fishing village, with lots of little fibro fishing/holiday huts. The permanent residents amount to 28. It’s probably the smallest town we have visited so far. It has a corner store and a fire brigade and ambulance. The van park is just taken over by a young couple, Tim and Sam with 11 week old baby boy. They have done some great renos and the place has the best rec room we have seen on our travels so far, including pool table, big flat screen TV, bbq’s and lots of tables/chairs, we can see they have some big party nights here. Transport of choice here is quad bikes, every man and his dog has got one.

We gather our drinks, nibbles, chairs etc., and Ian drives us up to the water tank look out for sunset. We are told the lake turns colour to a purple in late afternoon/sunset. That doesn’t happen but yet again Alana and I go a bit crazy on taking pics of the Lake/sunset/Lake/sunset and a few of us in between. The colour of the lake is due to a bacteria trapped in the salt granules which provides a rich source of beta carotene which is harvested from small ponds. Here we also meet Roger and Jan from Rockingham just south of Perth, asked us to call in. They are heavily into windsurfing and kite surfing and like so many we meet, travelled all around Australia over past years.