Blogs from Geraldton, Western Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 5

Hi All! We've just got back from our 10 day "Wicked" roadtrip up to Exmouth and back so I have lots to write about today but I'm going to split our trip into several blogs rather than one very loooonnnnggg one. We had decided to hire a "wicked campervan" for our trip as we'd thought it would be a pretty cool and cheap way of covering a vast expanse of Western Australia in a short space of time. For those of you that don't know, wicked campers are basically old banger vans converted so that they have a bed, sink and work top in them, and each van has a different paint design. Having seen loads of photos of different vans we weren't really expecting much when it came to picking ours up early Wednesday morning. ... read more

We drove south, yesterday to the town of New Norcia. This is a town founded by the Benedictine monks in 1846 where they helped the indigenous population and started an orphanage for aboriginal girls. We did intend touring the town and abbey but found the tour would take over two hours. We had a long drive ahead of us and it was raining off and on so instead walked around the very interesting museum there. There was a collection of Europen religious paintings from the 16th and 17th century which had been stolen from the monks in 1986, but all but one was recovered, if in bad condition. We pressed on, back to Moora where we'd stayed the night before and then another 150 kms or so to Eneabba - always in wind and occasional rain. ... read more

We woke up early on Monday morning and headed into town to pick up our “Chubby Camper” van that is ironically named “Sandman” (you’ll find out why it’s ironic later). We checked out of the hostel and, after some help from an Australian that “used to be a Pom”, we hit the “Brand Highway”. Calling it a highway is quite deceptive as it really is just two lanes long with overtaking lanes every 20km or so. We also passed loads of road trains and they are seriously scary! They make our little camper shake like crazy; they are the biggest trucks I have ever seen and they can be up to 36 metres long! We were on this road for 400km and it is just the most crazy, long straight road with hardly any passing cars ... read more

Geraldton til Coral Bay 4 dage i Geraldton med badning og ren afslapning , lige hvad vi havde brug for efter mange dage på farten . Vi boede i en god lejlighed hvor der var plads til hele familien. Geraldton er en halvkedelig by - men stranden var god. Vi besøgte en dyrepark - krokodillen boede i et badekar, og det hele var fuldstændig sveden af - ikke en af de store oplevelser - men sådan bor man åbenbart ude i bushen. Hver større by med respekt for sig selv har en memori lane - fra krigsskibet Hms Sydney som gik ned i 1941 med 645 mand. Dette er også tilfældet i Geraldton som har et stort monument på bakken over byen. På monumentet er der en fugl for hver mand der døde - ret flot. ... read more

We went to Steep Point (the most westerly point of Australia). On the way there we saw a lot of wildflowers and we took a lot of photos of them. We got to the most Westerly Point, but I don’t get it, because the sign is in a spot, but you get still get further west to the edge of the cliff. Had to let the air out of our tyres to 20psi so that we could get traction on the sand. We also risked a fine of $25 if or when the ranger checked the tyres. We drove back and stopped at False Entrance to see the blowholes and then we drove out. It was a long day, because it was over 320km’s round trip. We drove to Kalbarri National Park which had a lot ... read more