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Noy's 4th Walkabout
We spent last Wednesday morning posting presents to grandchildren and finding a good internet link through which to send our latest news. Then we visited the cathedral in Geraldton designed by a priest (John Hawes) who came out here from Rome in 1915. His work was finally consecrated in 1938 and a fine building it is too. Before we left we paid our respects at the memorial to those who lost their lives on HMAS Sydney in 1941. The life of each sailor lost (645) is represented by a seagull in the dome and the Australian flag flies from the bows of the ship, used effectively as a sort of mast. The statue of a lone woman looking out to see, known as the "Waiting woman", is tribute to the wives who waited on shore in vain. The whole memorial faces out to sea at the point where the ship sank while engaged with a Ge4rman warship...neither of which was ever found.
Once more on the road we headed for Kalbarri, stopping briefly at Port Gregory to look at the Pink Lake, from which much of the world's Beta-ceratone is drawn. The fact that it is orange and the lake is pink remains a mystery! Kalbarri is a beautiful resort, much understated but as soon as we arrived we booked to stay a second night! The meal that evening crept into the top three - it was THAT good. Jill had local crayfish and Richard bought the chef a drink after the "Prawns with horns on" (Surf 'n' turf) nearly sank him! We stayed in Kalbarri on Thursday and did an off-road tour over the unsealed road to the Murchison Gorge. Some stunning views awaited us in what John, our driver, referred to as the Australian "John Wayne" country. In the afternoon we explored the coastline nearby as well as visiting "Rainbow Jungle", an Australian parrot breeding centre which had on show (and flying pretty freely too!) most of their native parrots as well as one or two from overseas. We ate at the "famous" (we'd never heard of it before but everyone else has!) "Finlay's Fish BBQ" and had Red Emperor and chips for $17! Very tasty! We'd called at the local on the way and found Bundaberg Rum and Cola on draught; strange things happen out west! Thursday presented with the first day we needed to drive more than 400 kilometres but it was done with ease and we were in Monkey Mia by lunch time, soaking up the sun and atmosphere, paddling and watching the dolphins just cruise by in mid-distance. We had an early night because the fun and games start early in the morning!
So, up at 06.00, we set off for the spectacle on the beach and, despite a cold wind and choppy water, the dolphins turned up for their meet with the humans at 07.30. It was a real privilege to find them coming to see US, standing on the shore and to be able to interact as naturally as they did. The photos tell the story but the real posing which they did, as if they knew they were the stars of the show, took place when they returned to the beach later in the morning. Their intelligence appears to be without parallel and it may well have been a case of the watchers being watched! In the afternoon we went out in the "Shotover" catamaran (yes, you HAVE heard that name before on this trip and YES, there is a connection!) which, in a former life in 1990, was the fastest cat in the southern hemisphere and held the record for sailing between Australia and New Zealand...1,200 miles in 97 hours! The object was to find the mystical Dugong but we were out of luck, as we usually are on any sea-bound search for wildlife! At least we got a couple of free t-shirts by way of an apology! So Sunday and we were on the road again, covering 360 kilometres but only moving 120 kms northwards.
This is the main problem with our route...every time we want to see something of interest we have to leave the Brand Highway (As State Highway 1 is called in the west) and usually rejoin it back where we left it; there are no "loops" off it and back on again! Monkey Mia is one such place...154 kms from the highway and you have to rejoin at the same place. Anyway the journey went quickly and smoothly once more and we were in Carnarvon early enough to walk their "1-mile Jetty". This was built over 100 years ago (in wood!) and served into the 1960's as a railhead for loading ships with salt from a salt mine as well as wool and livestock down to Freemantle. Now road-trains do it all but the jetty lives on as an attraction and fishing pier from which sizeable fish can be caught. Our campsite again had en-suite facilities for us and after a cold night we left for our last drive north before changing direction across the "top" of Oz. Only 230 kms away was Coral Bay and we were there by 11.30am, time enough to book a glass-bottomed boat trip out to Australia's other reef, the Ningaloo. Besides some wonderfully colourful (and quite large) fish was saw some turtles, though they soon swam away when they saw us coming! So that'd be another "no show" to chalk up on the wildlife watching saga of the Noys! Never mind, the trip was a great way to relax before the long drive to Karratha, Port Hedland and on into Broome; a journey of 1,400kms in three days with very little sight-seeing except for Richard's "Big boats". If we catch an internet café then we'll get this off before it becomes a novel and let you have some more when we get to the end of our Broome stay. Lots of love and "On the ball, England!!". Richard & Jill xx
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