Blogs from Geraldton, Western Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 2

From Exmouth we travelled south and called into the small town of Coral Bay, famous for its beautiful sandy beach and, of course snorkelling amongst the coral. It was so picturesque with its turquoise sea with canoes, kayaks and glass bottom boats to hire to view all the protected marine life from above the water. It is easy to see why it is a popular tourist destination with the caravan parks and motels all on the main drag. Next stop was Carnarvon and as this town prohibits free camping, like many in Australia, we opted for a caravan park that was offering 3 nights for the price of two, so a pretty good deal really. We again relaxed by a beautiful pool, reading our kindles and agreeing that our life style is not too bad! Carnarvon ... read more

Geo: -28.7731, 114.611We have been watching the weather now for a few days (since we had TV again) and they keep forecasting rain, but we woke again to blue skies and sunshine. David is still in shorts but it is getting cooler the further south we go.Geraldton is huge with a population of 40,000. That is more people than we have seen in 7 weeks!They even have a Target!!! The vibe here is very active and becoming cosmopolitan with renovations to the foreshore and building massive homes on every vantage point available. Geraldton is very hilly and the amount of money spent on some retainer walls would pay for a house. The port is enormous and there have been 6 huge ships out on the horizon and more in the port.We took a look at the ... read more

Day one! Woke early to an apricot Perth sunrise and finished packing and organising, which took a while. We left at about 8:45, traffic was great as it is a public holiday today (happy WA day!). First stop was New Norcia, the Benedictine monastry an hour and a bit from Perth. We've never been there before. We didn't do the organised tour this time as it is 2 hours and we didn't have quite that long, but we had a look at the museum and walked around the historic buildings. Also bought some monastery bakehouse bread which was very nice with dinner. From New Norcia we drove through Moora and then along the Brand Highway, past Greenough to the outskirts of Geraldton. We had lovely weather for the drive, enjoying the deep blue skies and glowing ... read more

Greenough 24th April Greenough is 27klm south of Geraldton and deserving of a Blog in its own right (I feel!). Sitting on the Greenough Flats a flood plain close to the mouth of the Greenough River is the Central Greenough Historic Settlement which comprises 11 original buildings. At its peak in the 1860’s and 70’s, Greenough (pronounced Grennuff), was a highly successful wheat growing area. However from 1900 the combined effects of drought, crop disease (wheat rust), and floods led to the areas dramatic decline of the population on the “flats”. The once bustling centre of this farming community became a ghost town and today with funding from the National trust in particular 11 restored buildings survive. Dating from the 1880’s these buildings include a school, the police station, courthouse and jail. Two churches, a community ... read more

Moora was a tad inland so first thing we decided to head back towards the coast. After driving through Jurien we moved towards Green Head by mid-morning and although there was a slight sea breeze it did not provide much relief with another scorcher on the way. The caravan park looked nice enough but after a few days out in the heat we were drained and exhausted and gave into temptation and booked into an air conditioned room for the night at a nearby tourist complex. Sunday was essentially spent enjoying cooler climates and doing not much more than watching TV, sleeping and reading; however, it was definitely required to get us back on track. Late afternoon we walked over the road to Dynamite Bay which was a picturesque little spot and enjoyed a dip in ... read more