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Perthday Presence
Yep, we’re in Perth – our final destination! We can’t quite believe we’ve made it this far, or that our adventure is soon to come to an end – for this leg of the journey at least. It’s currently grey, damp and pretty miserable here, so at least we won’t have a shock when we get home.
So when we last wrote we were in Coral Bay, 1200KMs up the coast from here - it was warm and sunny and now feels a million miles away. The hour’s drive into the town from the highway was very quiet, just meandering through quite desolate bushland and it didn’t suggest there’d be much at the end of it, we couldn’t even see the sea until the last couple of KMs. Then suddenly around a bend this bustling little town appears with campsites, a resort hotel, a hostel, a club and 2 shopping precincts - all for this bay of white sand that’s miles and miles from anywhere else. It felt quite bizarre and we were dreading it would be like staying at Butlin’s. However, although the town was busy, the beach itself was very quiet and there was loads of room for some solitude – we often wondered if we were missing something, as everyone just seemed to disappear!
The draw of Coral Bay is the Ningaloo Reef where sharks, whales, turtles and rays hang out at various times of the year. Not surprisingly, there’s a myriad of diving excursions and boat tours to see the wildlife, but we were advised by locals to just go snorkelling as you can see just as much near the shore as off it. So for the princely sum of $10 each, we hired some kit for the afternoon and waded in – and wow, it was amazing. In ankle deep water, we could see stingrays skimming along and only 100 metres or so off the beach we were swimming with all sorts of brightly coloured Nemos, parrot fish, snappers and the like.
We were lucky enough to spot an octopus and watched him for about 10 minutes as he slithered and slinked along the reef, stopping every foot or so to change colour and shape to mimic the coral below him. It was a fantastic sight, although when it changed from this bulbous blob into a spiky coral-like thing, it was quite creepy too! It was definitely the best $20 we’ve spent in Oz and was probably a better experience than the Great Barrier Reef, and at a fraction of the cost.
From Coral Bay we headed down the coast to Carnarvon, crossing again the tropic of Capricorn and noticing an almost instant change in the weather. We’ve crossed it a total of 6 times now and every time we’ve noticed a change, now it was much cooler nights and the odd cold breeze.
We were to stay in Carnarvon for a week, we didn’t think there’d be enough to entertain us for so long and we were correct – it really is only a one or two day destination. However, with the school holidays on, we just wanted to stay put somewhere and not worry about where to sleep. It’s a decent sized town surrounded by huge fruit and veg plantations, many of which were wrecked by a severe cyclone in March this year and the damage still shows in places.
We did our usual wandering walking tours, one day hiking the 4 or 5KMs along a disused railway to a jetty built in the late 1800’s that sticks out almost a mile into the sea. It was pretty rickety and actually falling into the sea in places, but they run a little tourist train along it, so we figured it was safe enough for now for us to stroll to the end. Near to town is a Space Museum focussing on Carnarvon’s role in the space-race as it was home to a NASA station which communicated with the Gemini, Apollo and Skylab craft as they passed over. Seeing the original equipment that talked to Armstrong, Aldrin and the other one was quite special, as was the simulator ride of their take-off in a life-sized replica capsule.
The site was also used for the normal satellite communications which we take for granted today, but in 1966 an error with the Intelsat satellite allowed the base to carry out the first live TV link between the UK and Australia. The satellite was meant to link the US and Australia, but it temporarily slipped from orbit and the techies realised they had an opportunity of a world first. An ABC crew rushed up from Perth to Carnarvon while the BBC contacted families in London. The result was that 3 families who thought they’d never see each other again were able to chat and wave over a live TV link, for the entertainment of the two nations. A very sweet little story.
However, the best thing about Carnarvon was that we met up with Heather and Dean again, as they arranged to stay at the same site for 3 days. They’re a really lovely couple, both with wicked senses of humour who kept us entertained while we drank and ate together. They even took us out on a day trip in their Winnebago to see the few sites around town that we hadn’t been bothered to walk to. It was sad to say goodbye to them again, as we may not have another chance to catch-up. Thanks again guys for your hospitality, we will keep in touch.
So then it was on to Geraldton, where the continuing school holidays meant we’d pre-booked another week, but first we stopped at the Hamelin Pool Marine Park near Shark Bay to look at some stromatolites. These are perhaps the first living things on Earth - estimated at over 3.5 billion years old and the first oxygen producers that allowed later life - they now only grow in a few places in the world and this is the best one to see them. All very impressive, but the reality is they just look like some cowpats and weird shaped rocks in the sea. Geraldton is a proper sized city surrounded by farms which seem to specialise in wheat and canola (rapeseed), but we also saw some lupins and sheep. The city itself is based around a huge port, but has lots of surrounding beaches. It was now quite cool, even during the day, so we would not be visiting these.
Our main aim while staying here was to start preparing Mario for his journey home – sorting out what would be left in him, what we wanted to take with us and the remainder which would be got rid of. The bullbar, roof-rack and empty gas cylinder are now living at the Geraldton “Waste Transfer Station”, or tip to us Brits. Our clothes have been purged yet again and the cleaning process has started once more. Mario doesn’t need to be as clean to be exported as he was to get in, but it’s still going to be a long and ongoing process – inevitably some of which we can’t do while we’re still living in him!
We took one day away from our chores and rode the bus into town for a wander, looking at everything and yet nothing in particular. A highlight was the HMAS Sydney memorial, high up on a hill overlooking the city. It’s a moving tribute to the 645 men that made up the entire crew of the ship when it was sunk in a battle with a German warship that had been disguised as a Dutch merchant vessel. Both ships sank without trace, but the majority of the German crews survived. Part of the memorial includes a statue of a lady looking out to sea, to represent mothers and wives waiting for the return of their loved ones. The memorial and statue were built in 2001, but the wrecks of both ships were not located until 2008 – and the wreck of the HMAS Sydney lies exactly in line with where the statue is looking. Spooky!
We had a wander around the Art Gallery that was the usual mixture of same, same but different Aboriginal Art, contemporary pieces and some “socially engaged” stuff by a bloke called Tim Burns, which was either confusing, disturbing or just plain weird. On our way out, the receptionist asked if we’d sign the visitor’s book and we soon realised that her husband comes from Cheltenham too. It was hell of a coincidence, not least as she was German, but was one of 4 people working there and just happened to be the one to speak to us. Small world scenario again!
Now we’re in Perth and we spent Bry’s birthday (the 18th) in the city seeing some of the sights. It’s a beautiful city with some quaint arcades that wouldn’t look out of place in York or Chester and lots of lovely parks. We went up the Bell Tower, a modern structure on the riverside which houses 18 bells, 12 of which came from St Martin’s church in Trafalgar Square. Here we had some more strange coincidences. Not only were the St Martin’s bells made by Rudhalls of Gloucester in the 1700’s, but the curator who chatted to us was from Burford! We stayed and watched a bell-ringing demonstration, standing next to the bells as they dinged and donged. Even behind the triple-glazed windows, it was deafening and the 7 tonnes of metal swinging about made the whole tower shake. We then climbed up to the observation deck to look out over cloudy Perth and the Swan River, where the swaying of the tower was even more noticeable!
We went to the Perth Mint, originally set-up in 1899 as a branch of the British Royal Mint using the gold found in Western Australia. Here we saw the world’s largest solid gold coin, which weighs over a tonne, is legal tender and has a face value of $1 million, although based on current gold prices, it would be worth almost $56 million! We were allowed to pick-up a gold ingot valued at $600,000, had a machine tell us our weight in gold (almost $8,000,000 combined) and had a demonstration of the traditional melting and pouring process in the original refinery. This refinery used to contain 14 furnaces, but only one now remains for these demonstrations. They melted down the other 13 to see what gold dust had leaked into them, and came away with $250,000 worth. So then they wondered how much may have evaporated onto the ceiling, spent a week brushing it and collecting the dust, and ended up with $28,000 worth! Even the crucibles they use to do the pouring demonstrations are smelted every two weeks and $200 worth of gold recovered.
The remainder of the day we spent wandering around and having a lovely lunch with a Happy Birthday cake, before returning to the campsite for a few drinks and a DVD. It was a great day, much better than Bry’s birthday last year spent arguing with Russian Customs and Immigration and then an evening in a lorry park! Now we’re in Perth we can start visiting some agents to sort the shipping out and see how long it’s going to be before we can head home. Hopefully, between the paperwork and bureaucracy, we’ll be able to spend at least another day in the city and also get to see Fremantle.
Hoo Roo!