Geraldton

We have been in Geraldton WA, about 4 hours drive north of Perth on the coast.  It is a town of about 50,000 not to big . We were originally booked in for one week, but we liked it here  and as we are not booked into Perth until just before Christmas we decided to extend our stay.  There is a deep water port here, exporting wheat and iron ore.  Some cruise ships visit occasionally,
 about 4 a year. Geraldton has some very interesting history, including the sinking of the Dutch East India Ship the  Batavia in the early 1600"s  and the HMAS Sydney in 1941, sunk by a German ship. There is a stunning memorial to the crew of the Sydney who all perished (645) a dome of seagulls one for each of the sailors. Also a woman looking out to sea for loved ones who will never return. Also a reproduction of the keel of the ship.

Views from the memorial

 Reflective pool showing the co-ordinates of where the Sydney was found off the WA coast, only a few years ago

 Below Geraldton Museum

Arch built from blocks carried by the Batavia

 Crew of the Sydney, before returning to Australia and their death

 A moving tribute after the wreck was found, including a prophetic poem by one of the lost crew

 Cruise ship entering Geraldton port

As you can see Geraldton is a very windy town,We were told it is the windiest in Australia

I love these sculptures, done by Aboriginal artists, representing emu eggs.

Life savers lookout

Public toilets!

New signage on the van

Grae had this done when I woke up on my birthday

Carnarvon

We have been in Carnarvon for 6 days now and leave on Sunday 1/11, next stop Kalbarri.  We like it here, it is a small town and very friendly. We are staying at the Wintersun caravan park, which is very clean, shady and has some memorable social nights in the camp kitchen. The manager rigged the raffle the other right ( baked spud night ) so I won a bottle of wine. We also met a lovely man Evan and his wife ; Evan provided the entertainment last week at roast beef night, mainly bush ballads, we really enjoyed his music and bought his CD.

 One mile jetty, it really does stretch a mile out to sea.

 Some views of the town

 On the drive down from Coral Bay, the countryside is very scrubby, then as you get to Carnarvon it gives ways to huge plantations of various fruit and vegetables, especially bananas and tomatoes.  There was a cyclone here last April which wiped out the banana crops, but now replanted.There is also a huge levy surrounding the town to prevent a repeat of flooding.

 Today we drove out to the blowholes, about 70 kms north of Carnarvon.

 Memorial cairn for HMAS Sydney, sunk in November 1942 with loss of all lives (645)