Cervantes and The Pinnacles

Cervantes is one of WA’s newest towns and services the local rock lobster industry and tourism. It takes its name from an American whaling ship that sank on the nearby coast in 1844. The town is adjacent to the Nambung National Park famous for the world renowned Pinnacles Desert with its thousands of lime stone spires which can reach up to 4 metres high. It is promoted as a photographer’s paradise but unfortunately for us it has been and still is pissing with rain. Because of the weather we extended our stay hoping that tomorrow the rain will stop and the tent can dry out before we pack up and move on towards Kalgoorlie.

Geraldton

The drive down to Geraldton was very pretty, it is wildflower season and together with the flowering wattles they are growing along the side of the road, in parts it was almost like driving through a botanical garden. When we reached the wheat belt and a landscape similar to that north of Adelaide and of a type we haven’t seen for a long time, we knew we had sadly well and truly left the tropics behind! One reason for our stop over here was to get a car service, we have travelled over 15,000 km so far!
It is school holidays in WA and this weekend a Monday public holiday for the Queen’s birthday, so busy with local holiday makers here in Geraldton and many family groups in the camp ground which is next to the sea. The ocean here is popular with wind surfers, and they have plenty of wind to play with. We went down to the marina this afternoon, there must be some money to be made here because a good supply of large glossy boats were in dock, but then rock lobster fishing is a local enterprise.
On a hill above the CBD is a memorial to the HMAS Sydney, a silver dome consisting of 645 silver sea gulls, one for each of the men who went down with the ship, it can be seen for miles around a touching memorial to a tragic event.
We aren’t enjoying the cold and windy weather - will likely head in the direction of home soon and leave southern WA for another day.

Shark Bay, Denham

Shark Bay is about 850 km north of Perth and we are staying at Denham. It is a World Heritage region and offers plenty of activities relating to the sea. You can swim with dolphins at Monkey Mia, snorkel, dive, fish or cruise to see dugongs, manta rays and turtles etc etc. The weather has been a bit too windy to go out on the ocean so we have only viewed it from landward but we have been down to have a look at the stromatolites at Hamelin Pool. Stromatolites are living microbes which form colonies similar to the earliest forms of life dating back 3000 million years. They are very rare and only survive at Hamelin Pool because of its very saline waters. To the uninitiated they look a bit like stumpy rocks sticking out of the shallow water but a walkway with information signs provided an interesting view of the site.
We have also been to Shell Beach, a 120 km long stretch of pure white beach but instead of sand it consists of tiny white shells similar to cockle shells but much smaller. These small shells are thought to be up to 4000 years old and in some places they are 10 metres deep. The shells glitter in the sunlight and the beach sparkles. They are also used locally for paths and the like and our camping ground has them as road cover. We have a very good camping site, private and sheltered from the wind so we have spent time enjoying the sunshine.

Carnarvon

Carnarvon provided all that it promised in the way of being one of Western Australia’s food bowls, due to both the warm climate and availability of water from the Gascoyne River. We went on a tour of a plantation which specialized in growing bananas and red table grapes - after seeing all the trouble and care given to this activity I will never wonder why grapes can be so expensive to buy. They are grown in vast spaces, with netted walls and roofs and are manicured every step of the way to ensure that each bunch is perfect in shape and size and number of grapes per bunch and they are only picked when tested as having optimum sugar content - each bunch has to be perfect for their intended market. Quite amazing the amount of energy and effort put into the production process. There is also an emphasis on organic growing and we were able to buy tree ripened bananas which have a very different flavour and texture to those ripened with gas - we also stocked up on other fruit and veg but alas no mangos until about January!

Quobba Blowholes

The coastline of this part of Western Australia has rugged cliffs and we took a side trip from the main road to have a look at the Quobba Blowholes. The blowholes are a series of rock fissures and cavities through which the ocean waves send huge volumes of water which shoot into the sky and can be up to 20 metres high. Freak or king waves also happen there, so going close to the edge is a no no.
On a cliff nearby is a memorial to the HMAS Sydney the wreck of which has only recently been located after being sunk by the German raider Kormoran in 1941. The area is notorious for ship wrecks and also is prone to regular cyclones.

Point Sampson, Coral Bay

Since we left Pardoo we have had a combination of either no power and/or no internet signal, hence no blog. We are now in Carnarvon and have both power and good signal.
We travelled from Pardoo to Point Samp
son which is a holiday resort near the towns of Roebourne and Cossack. Cossack was once a prosperous pearl shell and turtle catching town but is now nearly deserted. However the old buildings have been restored with the help of labour from the local gaol residents (what a good way to keep them busy) and it makes for an interesting visit and a whiff of what it was like in times gone by - more fishing but none to eat, either too small or of a variety that looked as though it should live in an aquarium and not on a plate.
We headed further south staying one night in shearer’s quarters on a station home stay and then to Coral Bay which is another holiday town, this time on a bay of the Ningaloo Reef and has some of the most beautiful clear water I have ever seen. More swimming but this time a noticeable difference in water temperature to that of further north.
We are now south of the Tropic of Capricorn and the days are cooler - we are both as “brown of berries” from spending time out of doors.
We have been driving through the Pilbarra region, rugged with dark red rocks rich in minerals and with wildflowers WA is renowned for amongst the rich red soil. It is said that Lang Hancock flew over the area and decided that the red rocks must have something worth mining - the rest is history.
Carnarvon is on the Gascoyne River and the shire takes its name from the river. It is a prominent food growing bowl and on the way in we passed plantations of bananas and various vegetables - veggies have been a bit hard to come by, in some shops you find them in a refrigerated cabinet and often looking as though they have been there for some time.

Fishing at Pardoo Station Homestead beach

Pardoo is about 500 km south of Broome and we had been told that the Station Homestead was a good place to stay. It is a working cattle station with small caravan park plus accommodation for back packers and groups as a sideline. We found that many of the caravan owners are regulars who come every year and stay for up to 6 months. The big attraction is the fishing and we found people incredibly friendly and happy to share their fishing tips. So at long last we has some successful fishing expeditions and even threw back those we caught but didn’t need for dinner.
We meet many people who are permanently “on the road”, many having sold their homes and bought a big rig and some who go home for the summer and travel north in the winter - a tempting proposal. Weather here still nice and warm, the sea is beautiful but unfortunately no good for swimming, sea snakes and sharks!

Broome

If someone mentions the name ‘Broome’ an image of pearls or camels on the beach probably pops into your mind. Pearls feature prominently here, there are heaps of shops selling them at various prices and tours galore to see how it’s done, you can even eat pearl meat at some restaurants. We have given all a miss but have been down to the fabulously long and white Cable Beach where at sunset you can take a camel ride through the shallows. In fact we have swum twice at Cable, the first time I have been into the Indian Ocean, the water temperature is about 24, so the water is warm and silky, very pleasant, oh dear!
Another first, last night we went to the movies at Sun Pictures outdoor cinema. You sit out under the stars in deck chairs (remember the scene from the film Australia), we saw Samson and Delilah, a gut wrenching story about the problems young Aboriginal people face. Very relevant for us, during this trip we have been made aware of many of the issues.
Broome has a long history of pearl production, initially in the 1880s it was mainly pearl shell but with the introduction of diving helmets and the ability to dive deeper Broome pearls became famous around the world. With the introduction of plastics the bottom fell out of the button market and the industry went into decline until the 1950s when the introduction of cultured pearls revived the town’s fortunes. There is a long history of pearling masters from Malaysia, Indonesia and Japan working these waters and the town has a multi cultural feel.
The town was bombed by the Japanese during the war and has had to endure many cyclones, the latest in 2002, so much of it is newly built, but there are 120 million year old dinosaur footprints which can be seen on the rocky shore at low tides. We are enjoying the warm and balmy climate here and have extended our stay until Friday when we head south.