25th August 2013
During our drive down from Kalbarri
(Cal’Barry) we passed the unusually coloured Pink Lake of Port Gregory.
Amazingly we couldn’t find a designated parking area or observation point to
take some photos and had to just pull up on the side of the road and walk down
a companies access road. Rather strange considering the phenomena of a pink coloured
lake is of considerable fascination to many tourists.
Closer to Geraldton we stopped for a wander
around the small old town of Northampton,
ref;
At
the 2006 census,
the town had a population of 813.[1] It is an attractive historical town, with
an outstanding National
Trust building. The town lies on the North West
Coastal Highway. Formerly named Gwalla after the location's copper mine, it was established
by the Cornish
ex-convict
Joseph Horrocks. It is the
service town to the micronation, the Principality
of Hutt River.
Copper and lead
ore were found in the 1840s, and by 1877, 4,000 tons of copper and lead were
being produced each year.
The first
Western Australian government railway was constructed from Geraldton to
Northampton, a distance of 33 miles 25 chains, and opened on 26 July 1879.
Nancy couldn’t resist the local butchery and we ended
up with another swag of raw flesh.
Geraldton
After setting up at the caravan park we did a quick
run into town to find a bank (withdrawals nothing goes the other way these
days) and a caravan accessory place for much needed spares. Then the rest of
Friday and Saturday were taken up shopping and site seeing and a quick trip to
the local museum that we intend going back to as it was so interesting
particularly information relating to the wreck of the Batavia.
We were seeing Geraldton at its best for sure, the sky
was cloudless about 25C and no wind. The beaches around Geraldton are white fine
coral sands the sea is blue blue and the water crystal clear, it looked magic.
The place is pretty spread out along a coastline that runs out to a narrow
short peninsula, a old iconic lighthouse dominates the point and as you follow
the road around in a northerly direction is a port complex that contains a
large lobster fishing fleet and processing works, huge grain silos and
facilities for loading and exporting iron ore that is railed to the port. One
thing you don’t see is great dirty dusty stockpiles of iron ore so they
certainly have things under control; it is a relatively small port but looks
compact and clean. While we were there, several large ships were in port and
several anchored at sea so it is a busy little place. Further along from the
port area (less than a kilometer), are two or three ‘Town Beaches’ separated by
low groynes and within a very short stroll from city heart, where several
people were taking advantage of the beautiful weather and getting an early tan.
On from the ‘Town Beaches’ is a new looking well-protected small boat harbor
marina with an adjacent equally new and yet to be occupied multi story block
looking very modern and attractive and that’s as far as we walked. The whole
place looks nice and we certainly saw it at its best.
Saturday night I took Nancy to a recommended pub for a
seafood platter and celebrated her 70th birthday, we both thoroughly
enjoyed it.
25th Sunday
It rained during the night and when I went for my
shower there was a very black sky and I could hear thunder rumbling. Although
we had planned on joining a couple of tours during the morning, Nancy
considered that now she was old she didn’t need to get out of bed until she was
ready.
Suddenly the wind started to roar and there was a god
almighty bang that shook the van, Nancy shrieked and I laughed and told her it
was thunder directly overhead, then down came the rain like a Queensland summer
storm. Like one of our storms it was over shortly and Nancy stepped out of the
van to go for her shower, she promptly called out that something had come off
the caravan.
Outside laying across the Toyota bonnet and across the
ground was a caravan awning frame and bits and pieces lying everywhere. As it
turned out the awning from the caravan two places away from us had been hit by
a wind bullet that whipped it up and catapulted the frame etc over the top of
their van, over the top of the van next to us and dropped it down onto our car
and caravan damaging our front mudguard and windscreen and bending the TV
aerial on the caravan. I’m referring to a large roller about 20ft long and legs
and braces torn away from the canvas awning top and flung through the air like
it was no weight at all. Several people were in the same unfortunate situation
loosing their awnings and someone told me they saw it coming across the bay
like a tornado.
According to Suncorp it’s an act of God so no-one is
to blame and we have to pay the excess on car and caravan, (we are not finished
with that lot yet).
Showers persisted on and off all day so we chose not
to go out. Nancy did what she’s good at (sleeping) and I made a couple of
batches of pikelets for future smoko’s.
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