DNLAROUNDOZ: 28th Nov - 2nd Dec Geraldton

We were a bit apprehensive of coming into Geraldton, this is the first big town really since Darwin. Traffic lights n all! It’s a big country town really, approx 40 000 population. Check out the tourist info, usually our first stop in every town we stay at. We check into the Belair Gardens. Surprisingly, the internet service is very poor, so I am not able to do any blog updates for the week. I’ve dummied my notes and will add the pics as soon as I get a chance and some decent service.

Wheat country!

My Darl has taken to Emu Export,

My Darl the laundry boy!

My Darl, the BIG kid, loves a jump

We do a bit of a tourist drive with Alana and Ian, up to HMAS Sydney II memorial. It is a wonderful memorial atop a hill overlooking the coast. We join the 10.30 am volunteer tour guide and it is most informative and gives a great insight into how the memorial is set up and the meaning of all the elements, we wouldn’t have known otherwise. For instance, the gull dome is made of 645 gulls representing each of the men lost their lives, there were no survivors. There is several propellors on display all upside down meaning dead ship. A brass statue of a woman looking out to sea waiting for the men to come home, the site was not know when she was erected. Look through the hole her elbow makes and that is the direction of where the Sydney wreck was located. The Sydney was downed by a German raider Kormoran in WWII, 19/11/41. It was many years before the wreck of the Sydney was located, only from notes taken from the interrogations of the surviving German raider as that vessel was also downed in the battle, unlike the Sydney there were some survivors, captured and sent to POW camp.

We have a look at the St Francis Xavier Cathedral designed by Monsignor Hawes, the priest/architect who arrived from Germany in 1915 as parish priest. Completed in 1938 the first thing that struck us about the church was the colorful stripes throughout, orange and silver.

We also visited Point Moore Lighthouse, the Old Goal and Craft Centre, the WA Museum which has a great display on the ship wrecks in past centuries, including the most infamous, the Batavia back in the 1600’s, hence this area is known as the Batavia Coast. Bill and Lyn arrived today and the boys – Darl, Ian and Bill went off to watch the Danny Green fight and we girls had our own little happy hour. They come back pretty dejected when Danny was KO’d in the 11^th round, he had won every round up to then, what a way to go……

Another place of worship, Freemasons Hotel

The trip to the Abrolhos Islands was a highlight. We joined Alana and Ian and “chartered” our own private plane (well we were the only ones on the tour that day so we felt special). We were a little worried as the wind was so strong, but it wasn’t a problem only a bit shaky on take off and landing. The Abrolhos islands consist of approx 122 small coral reef islands in 3 groups, where fishing for cray fish and pearl farming are the two industries. During cray fish season the fishermen go out and live on the islands for 3-4 months in brightly painted little fishing huts and there's not much else out there, barely a tree....

Long Island

We enjoyed a day of flying, snorkeling, a nature walk, lunch etc. Saw lots of different birds on the island, the snorkeling was great, my first big adventure out into the depths surrounding the coral reef, don’t worry I had my noodle to keep me afloat. Though we didn’t see any wild life, wallabies, lizards, we did see some sea lions on the flight over. A fantastic day out! We bought a disposable waterproof camera for some snorkelling shots, just one problem, have to find someone now that develops disposables, not an easy task we are finding out.

I forgot my noodle! Life saver to the rescue..

My hero Darl, ran 5kms back to plane to get it!!

Belair Gardens right on this point past the harbour

We picked up the car after we managed to get into an auto place here to get the gear box fixed so took it for a burn out to Mallewa (99km north east). A big upgrade going on with the railway and a lot of workers out in the heat of the day, toiling hard. This is big wheat country. We ran into a chap at the pub who told us this is the biggest season he can remember. A harvest contractor, he did 50 000 tonne last year and this year already 400 000 tonne. His best previous tally was 300 000 tonne. They are running out of storage space for the wheat, cannot export it quick enough. We had a look at another of Monsignor Hawes creations, Our Lady of Mount Carmel church. We wanted to have a look at his residence/museum also, but it was closed. Only open in “tourist” season.