Blogs from Geraldton, Western Australia, Australia, Oceania

After a day of driving through quite heavy rain, we indeed made it as far north as Pinnacles Desert, however it was still raining as we trudged around the weird gravestone looking rocks, so we decided to keep heading a bit north until we nearly lost sunlight. We ended up stopping in an RAC campsite in Cervantes, where Philippe's reaction upon first driving by was 'is this the local itinerant's camp?'. His face was priceless when I told him it was our abode for the night. In fairness the campground was quite nice when we got inside, however it was all dark, as the whole coast had been hit with an electricity outage. We sat smugly in our motorhome staring out at the poor powerless vehicles - nonetheless storing the bit of power we still had, ... read more

Leaving England about 3 weeks ago I wondered what I was doing going away for such a long time ( about 5 months ) again and so far away but once in the air and on my 3 day stopover in Dubai I knew I was happy to be on the road again. Staying with Suzanne and Kristy in Dubai and with August temperatures in the 40s Dubai isn’t pleasant ...so one has to find indoor air conditioned pursuits and so it was one day in Abu Dhabi at the Louvre Museum. A beautiful building by the water on Yas Island and well presented artefacts from many different cultures it was interesting to see what was allowed to be displayed in this Middle Eastern culture. Nothing like the Botticelli Venus was to be seen but a ... read more

Geo: -28.7731, 114.611Up early again for the dolphin feed but the kids weren't selected to feed them this time but as they both said at "least we've feed them" after a while when the kids had said bye to their friend, the dolphins, and pelicans we left making our way back South to Geraldton which is half way between monkey Mia and Perth. On route we stopped at Eagle Bluff Lookout which features a spectacularly high cliff and a great board walk that overlooks the Denham Sound near Shark Bay from which you can peer down and watch sharks, rays, & Dugong if you lucky. On our last visit in high Summer we saw nothing and shredded the cars rear tyre on the rutted road getting back. This time we were a little luckier Shell spotted ... read more

It seems like we have not had a day without rain or drizzle since we left home. In 2008 we were away for 6 months and had 6 days when it rained; oh, how I yearn for the old days. Gripe over. We checked into a caravan park in Esperance amongst the tree fellers and branch munchers, and were able to do all the ‘van duties’, i.e washing, water replenishment and something that her in-doors knows nothing about – emptying the cassette. We also tried unsuccessfully to find out how we could lodge an absentee vote in the upcoming election. Geoff washed the van in the fading light (into the dark), but it was to no avail as it rained on and off as we headed westward. The main problem with the wet roads is that ... read more

Geraldton known as "sun city" for it's warm climate is the administration centre for the region.Home to HMAS Sydney 11 memorial the ship was lost with all 645 hands in November 1941 just off Shark bay whilst engaging the German raider Kormoran which was also lost.This impressive memorial was completed in 2001.HMAS was commissioned in England before being bought by the Australian Navy and was considered to be the pride of the fleet.The memorial has not been updated since the finding of the lost ships in 2008 nevertheless a significant piece of work. Geraldton has aboriginal origins probably dating back 40,000 years. Europeans took interest in the area around 17th century, in 1629 two Dutchmen were marooned on the coast for their part in a notorious mutiny aboard the Batavia. French sailors also passed this way ... read more