We set off for our next stop, Port Hedland. They mine everything here I think, including salt. The whole town was full of people wearing mining uniforms.  We weren’t very impressed by what we saw or the red dust that covered everything so decided to head off the next morning and go further south.

Our next stop was Karratha, it looked a nice little town but the caravan parks were horrendously expensive so we carried on to The Nanatarra Roadhouse, The distances between towns is astounding, up to 650kms. the only thing in between are the roadhouses.  On our way, we managed to collect another flat tire, the whole thing shredded and again we had to stop on the side of the road and change a wheel.  At the roadhouse we managed to buy a tyre and have it fitted to our wheel as we felt we had tempted fate enough the first time around driving so far without a spare.   We did meet a nice couple here though who offered to follow us the next morning as far as Carnarvon if we didn’t want to pay the exorbitant prices they charged at the roadhouse for a tire.
At the roadhouse we saw white peacocks and lots of red dust, not much alse to be seen.  Although the tyre was expensive, Bruce, the owner of the roadhouse fitted it to our wheel
and delivered it to our van at 8.30pm so the service was appreciated.

Next morning we set off for Carnarvon which was a very pleasant surprise. A lovely little town and a very nice caravan park. We decided to stay a few days and enjoy GREEN grass under our feet, We’ve seen precious little of that for a long time. Carnarvon grows fruit and vegetables for most of W.A. and for miles there are orchards and farms.   Most of the farms sell their produce at their gates also and all on an honour system.   This was just one of the refrigerated units that we passed on the side of the road.

There were flowers everywhere also and this was just one of the many laneways which were a blaze of colour.  The town is overlooked by a huge communications satellite dish which was used during the gemini and apollo missions. It is no longer in use and you can climb  up there for a view over the town.  The size is incredible, impossible to get an idea from a photograph. Motley1 climbed only a part of the way up and was suffering from a little vertigo afterwards.

There is a long wooden jetty ( 1 mile long, if my memory serves me well ) which was used by passenger liners and freighters alike many years ago. Motley1 was for walking out but I wasn’t for that
so we travelled out on the Coffee Pot. It was so windy out there that I held on to the train the whole time we were out of our seats but Motley1 went for a walk and saw a shark swimming around the legs of the jetty.

Heading to Geraldton, we stopped for lunch at Northhampton at these lovely gardens where Motley1 took off his socks and shoes (despite the cold) just to walk on the grass.

We arrived in Geraldton and all the people we had spoken to en route to here were proven to be correct. Everyone had warned us that it was a windy town and they were right.
The town was much larger than we had envisioned so looking for old friends when we had no idea where they lived proved an impossible task. The visitors centre was very impressive
and adjoined the old hospital building which has been preserved. We spent a couple of days looking around the town and now complaining bitterly about the cold weather.

Never Happy!

The memorial to the H.M.A.S. Sydney 11 was enormous and overlooked the town, my favourite was the waiting woman who still waits for the ship to arrive.  Driving along the coast road we stopped to photograph the lighthouse which as you can see is now kept painted red and white.

Our next stop was Perth, oh what a shock. It’s so long since we were in a large city with traffic jams, traffic lights and people, people and more people that we had trouble coping with all
that hustle and bustle. We stayed in a park in the centre of town and arrived to find that we had been put on an overflow site with no tap for water. We weren’t very happy but the thought
of driving around Perth in rush hour traffic with a caravan behind us was a worse case scenario so we stayed.

We went into the city for a look around and it wasn’t until we parked the car and looked for our cameras that we discovered that they were both in the caravan. So no pictures here at all.

It was cold, raining and very windy and we didn’t spend more than half a day before heading for the caravan and the heater ..who would have thought that we would be complaining about cold weather after Darwin and Broome.
We moved to Fremantle where again we were surprised by how much it has grown and how much busier it was than we remember it from 10 years ago. Motley1 and family landed here at
Fremantle in 1955 when they first came to Australia. We headed down to the pier to have a look at where the ship berthed and watched this ship leave the harbour and head out to sea.
You will all have heard of this one as it was front page news for a week or two. It was the Tampa.
We were impressed by the bronze statues that abound throughout the area and this one was the favourite of Motley1.

The sunsets were spectular and have been in many places, we thought you might like this shot.

Medina, the town Motley1 and his family moved to on their arrival in Australia was our next stop and the house they lived in is still there. The town has been swallowed up by the neighbouring town of Kwinana but there were a few places like the school and oval which evoked many memories from long long long lonnnggggg ago for old Motley1.

One of my favourite places both on our last visit and this was Rocklingham and before you all remember that the British Lolly Shop is located there, that isn’t the only reason. OK, so maybe it plays a big part of it but it really is a lovely town.

For those who are wondering about the markets and how they have been going, they haven’t. W.A., unlike all the other states we have visited, has very few craft markets. Our first attempt at a market for ages was while we were here in Fremantle. There was a five week waiting list to have a stall at Fremantle, so we booked into a Perth market. Gale force winds, rain and temperatures in the single digits put an end to that one quick smart.

Our next destination was Bunbury where I have friends who moved here from N.S.W. many years ago. We found a nice caravan park with nice big sites and booked in.  Fran arrived soon after to visit. I couldn’t believe she looked exactly the same. Hasn’t changed a bit in 10 years, it’s just not fair !

We visited the Dolphin Centre in town and saw some dolphins but they were pretty far out from shore so we drove round to the harbour for a look and whilst walking down the jetty saw the dolphins come in really close to us.  I saw the latest little baby dolphin which was a real thrill.

I found these units fascinating. Old grain silos converted to units. Apparently there was much opposition to them from the townspeople but I think they look great.
Fran took us for a drive to see the wild flowers, we had seen many on our drive down the coast but here there were paddocks full of beautiful colours, pinks, yellows, white, blue.

My theory is that they dropped the seeds by plane but the locals are adamant that the grow naturally
Finally, we did a market at Busselton just down the coast a little which did not too bad. The rain stayed off but boy was it cold.  Sadly, we farewelled Fran and Nisha ( the dog ) , Carol and Katie and headed to Busselton as we could do two markets there on the weekend.
It’s school holidays here in W.A. so the caravan park was full of delightful children enjoying the break.
Saturday we did the market at a little town called Vasse where we had an inside stall which was just as well as it poured the whole day. Sunday the market was on the foreshore at Busselton and although the town was busy I think it was too cold for people to come to the market.

Today, we headed to Margaret River, the wine growing region of W.A. There are so many wineries here it is a wonder they can all survive. Makes for a great day out though We stopped here for morning tea. Home made pies which were delicious.
Augusta is just down the coast and we couldn’t miss it out of our list of places to visit.  Home of the tallest lighthouse in Australia, it’s where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean and it’s the most south-westerly point of the continent.

We saw so many different wildflowers here, it’s impssible to put them all on here but if anyone would like to see more just let me know.

The golf course was interesting, we couldn’t understand why they use gravel as the whole place was green.

We had lunch on the banks of the river watching the pelicans and seagulls, it was so peaceful. Driving back up the coast, we turned off to Hamelin Bay which was really spectacular. We are so disappointed in the photos as tthey just don’t do justice to the real thing and wish we could share with you what we see ..

We met two Scottish girls who work in the mines as geologists doing the cape to cape walk, 135kms, they were on the final leg and were having the time of their life.  Motley1 climbed up to the lookout, the cliffs are limestone and eroding all the time. I stayed at the bottom out of the wind and enjoyed another few pages of my book.

So we are up to date again and heading off in the morning. I wish the temperature would come up by about 5 to 10 degrees although I know it won’t be long and we’ll be complaining about the heat again.

Till next time…