Small World

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DAY 179

Today is amazing, I often wondered about Australia being such a small place for a vast country but today just confirms how small the world actually is.

Waking up in Cervantes, it was 7.00 but it was too cosy and warm to get out of bed and I suppose not quite so easy as stepping out of bed, dressing, and wandering downstairs to make a cup of tea, ok so the process is not that different except that we have to use the small step ladder to get out of bed, dress in the not quite so warm confines of the tent, then wander 30 yards down the road to the camp kitchen after of course, stopping on the way to get the tea kit and the milk out of the truck instead of the cupboards.

Breakfast was not too dramatic, the kitchen was a lot less busy than last night’s dinner mayhem. There was another couple in the kitchen with a laptop, also doing their blog, they are from Sydney and are currently heading in the same direction as us. We chat to them briefly, after I insulted him over how to use the toaster, but that was only because most men (sorry chaps) have difficulty doing more than two things at once, which I have to say was only confirmed by Andy a little later on during our conversation with this couple.

They tell us that they have a white Landrover so no doubt we will bump into them again on our journey.

While I showered Andy uploaded the blog and photos, then he showered while I finished up, we wanted to make sure we were all showered by 9.30 as they close the ablution block at 9.30 for cleaning.

We were all in the kitchen when a young chap wandered in with a tub of goodies set to do his breakfast, when one of the cleaners walked in and said “You are not starting to cook now are you?” This poor chap replied, “Yes”, to which the cleaner then said, “I need an empty kitchen to do the cleaning!” Yikes, this poor chap then turned around and left, the rest of us looked at each other in amazement. We have all paid to stay here and that gives you an entitlement to use the camp kitchen, there is no notice on the door to say that the kitchen would close!! I cannot believe that he was dictated to in that way, if the cleaner wanted an empty kitchen a bit of politeness would not have gone a miss.

So just to be sure that you know which campsite it was, we stayed at the Cervantes Pinnacles Caravan Park, the only one in the area, and as there is no free camping (absolutely no free camping or you will be fined!!!) in the area then you are stuffed really.

We pop into the Post Office to mail a couple of things which include a photo CD that I need to get back to England, the woman behind the counter said with a smile, you must be late for Mothers Day, I have to explain that Mothers Day in England is in March, not the same day as Australia’s Mothers Day which is in May.

We set off down the road to see the stromatolites and thrombolites at Lake Thetis. We find that there is a nice walk around the edge of the lake so off we trot, on the way we see some Americans that we saw last night at the Pinnacles. We all pass pleasantries as you do and walk on.

It is an interesting walk; the boardwalk is made out what appears to be carbon fibre which we think must be because it is low maintenance or maintenance free, as it is such a high salt content in lake Thetis, (1.5 Times) that of the sea. Then we find the stromatolites (built in layers) and thrombolites (clotted structures) learning the difference in structure between them. The salt lake here was made thousands of years ago, 5000 years ago the sea level was higher than it is now. When the sea retreated it left behind a series of saline lakes. Lake Thetis was formed about 3000 about 1 kilometre south of here however the dunes have been shifted northwards by the strong winds and thus changing the shorelines of the lake and burying older generations of stromatolites.

Back in the truck we leave Cervantes and head towards Jurien Bay, we are both surprised to see a bigger town which seems quite lively in comparison with Cervantes, although both towns seem to have land sales and new buildings in process.

The drive North from here is beautiful, every now and again we can see the lovely beaches, however I am using this part of the drive to do some journey planning, i.e. a bit of forward planning for when we get up to the Kimberley’s, which of course needs doing but then I am missing out on a lot of scenery. Andy is ok without me navigating for a while as he only needs to drive north on this road for over 100 kilometres without me having to tell him where to go, eventually I look up and say, “turn left at the next junction.”

We plan to drive to Kalbarri today but we thought we would see how the time goes, as I know what we are like for dawdling when there are things to see or do.

We stop at Dongara for lunch; we find a nice park with freshly cut grass and a nice picnic bench, a very pleasant place to stop. We get out the lunch kit and make ourselves a sandwich, I saw the guy on his sit on mower leave the park and trundle across the road onto the pavement and soon he is on the other side of the roundabout. I chuckled to myself and thought, if that were me I probably would have driven straight across the middle of the roundabout and mown all the lovely flowers down.

It is a lovely warm day, about 28 degree’s we are feeling the difference in temperature again, the further North we travel the daytime temperature will get hotter, but let me remind you that we are heading into winter here, if this was summer the heat up North would probably be unbearable to those of us that are not acclimatized.

We arrive in Geraldton, it seems to be quite a nice town, a population of about 33,000 people. Lots of new houses, plenty with that sought after ocean view and probably the price tag to go with it too! We drive into the centre as we want to grab a coffee and use of Maccy D’s WiFi to do a couple of bits on the Internet (saves a few Megabyte on our monthly usage).

We find quite a pleasant town centre and of course it is right on the coast, the ticket machine is out of order so I cannot pay for the parking (shame!) but soon after we are back on the road again, I am concerned about the time, we have 160 kilometres to go before Kalbarri and although I am sure we can make it, I just think we should perhaps look at stopping earlier, partly because I have found what could be a nice site and also it means that we can stop in good time and get set up before it is dark.

We drive off the main highway towards Coronation Beach, which is roughly 8 kilometres of bitumen and then 1 kilometre of dirt track, and at the end we find a campground (already busy) and beautiful scenery.

After a chat with the caretaker he tells us that there are still some sites available and it is $10 per vehicle, great, he recommends bay 10 it should be empty as a lot of people with caravans find it so difficult to get in, so we find site number 10 to park up for the night, it was easy (with a camper trailer of course).

While we were putting up the tent a couple wandered over and said “we don’t hear you arguing and your tent looks easy to put up.” We find out that they are looking into getting a camper trailer so they are taking some interest in how hard or easy they are to put up. Andy and I do have this off to a fine art now as we have done it so often.

Just as we finished putting the tent up we see a white Landrover coming down the track, we recognise them as the couple we were speaking to in the camp kitchen this morning, we wave and they stop, amazingly they should be in Kalbarri tonight too, but were also running late and looking for somewhere to stop.

We have our bed for the night and Andy suggests a quick walk to the beach to see what it is like and grab a couple of photos. We find the track next to a Landrover and Camper Trailer (with a Hannibal Tent - we looked at one of those ourselves), we spoke to the owners because their dog Jack was guarding the pathway so we wanted to make sure he was friendly, to which they confirmed he was.

On our way back from the beach, this chap came over to talk to us, we find he is English and actually used to live in Lymington which is not that far from where we live in Southampton. He explains that he was living and working in Sydney until recently when he got made redundant; the company he was working for had been taken over.

I had not connected anything yet, until he mentioned the word Skandia, I then asked what his name was and just as he was talking the words that came out of his mouth were somehow what I had expected “Jasper Thomas,” “You have to be kidding me,” my mouth dropped open and said “I was given your name by some ex colleagues in Southampton and told to look you up in Sydney, as I have just finished a contract for the same company in England.”

I was completely gob smacked, not only am I on the other side of the world but I am also on the other side of Australia in the middle of nowhere and I bump into somebody I was told to look for in Sydney. We could have stopped anywhere tonight, we should even have gone to Kalbarri, and so fate once again has intervened.

I think he was as amazed as I was, I reeled off a list of names that he may know and he certainly did. Jasper tells us that he is going back to England as he is now on a tourist visa rather than the 457 that he was on, they had to change the visa type when he was made redundant, so now they are taking some time out before flying back to England, to drive around Australia. Their belongings are in storage in Sydney waiting to be shipped back to England.

Jaspers son appeared and when he found out what we were discussing, he said to his Dad “I knew we would bump into somebody you know, it always happens.”

So there it is confirmed, it truly is a small world.

The sunset was beautiful, even though we did not make it up to the lookout as we were talking to Jasper, and the night is actually quite warm (at the moment). While Andy cooks the dinner I hear a rustle in the bushes, worried that it might be a snake I flick my torch around only to find a tiny little mouse frozen by the light of my torch. I turned it off and let him carry on with what he was doing (Mice are snake fodder though!).

It is 9.00 and the campsite is quiet all I can hear is the sound of the crickets and the ocean waves crashing to the shore, oh and the tippy tapping of the keys as I type up the blog.

I think it is nearly my bedtime though, not much to do here in the dark and as Andy has already gone to bed, I cannot play cards.

So I retire to bed with my Marian Keyes novel.

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Photos

Lake Thetis
Cervantes Western Australia

Stromolite
in Lake Thetis

Lots of Stromolites
in Lake Thetis

Thrombolite
in Lake Thetis

Lunchtime
In the park at Dongara

Coronation Beach Sunset
Beatiful but missed most of it because we were talking.

Coronation Beach
Sometimes our bed for the night is pitched in the most amazing of places.

Read all about it
Caroline reads the information board at Lake Thetis

Jasper
I am still amazed that I was given the name of this guy to look up in Sydney and I found him quite by chance in Western Australia! Sorry Jasper for taking the photo when you had not shaved!