"Gibson Views", Perth and the South Pacific

Our time at Sandy Cape was shorter than we would have wished, but we had a lot to get done in Perth and it was time to move on. This time I was smart enough to reduce the pressure in the tyres, reasoning that I could drive slowly down to Jurien Bay and use the air-hose at one of the service stations to re inflate them. It was a good plan and while the Shire of Dandaragan should be ashamed of themselves for having such a bloody awful "track" into a venue that they charge money for you to use, the ride out was a lot softer with the tyres aired-down.

Pumping the tyres up at the servo was all about saving time. Our dear old ARB pump will get all of the tyres pumped but boy, it is so slow! Even driving more slowly than usual for the 16Km to Jurien would still be quicker.....well it was supposed to be - if it wasn't for the line-up of vehicles waiting to do the same thing, not to mention the moron who parked so that access to the air hose was restricted, while he sat in the roadhouse having a coffee.

It took the best part of an hour to get the tyres back to road pressures and I daresay it would have taken about the same amount of time with the ARB pump. Never mind, it wasn't like we were in a hurry or anything. Finally, we were able to rejoin the Indian Ocean Drive for the remaining three hour drive to Perth.

From Jurien Bay you follow the coast at a distance of about three kilometres inland, allowing for fleeting glimpses of the sea. The first town you come across (although bypassed) is Cervantes. Like all of the other towns that we had passed since leaving Geraldton, Cervantes also owed its existence to the Rock Lobster industry. It has suffered, just as the other towns have as the restrictions on Crayfishers forced people to abandon the industry. One saving grace for Cervantes is that many farmers in the inland areas have chosen to retire to the town.

Passing by, but not visiting, many small towns is one of the problems with the Indian Ocean Drive. From Jurien Bay, all the way to the northern suburbs of the city, you do not drive through a single town, yet you drive by many. This is a boon to those residents whom would prefer not to put up with the traffic, but it surely cannot be good for the businesses in town. Sue and I stopped at a roadside parking bay with magnificent views and had our morning tea, whereas we would probably purchased a coffee and cake if we were passing through a town.

As just mentioned, there are occasions on this section of the road where you do get took take in the magnificent turquoise water of the sea, lined by fabulously white beaches. There are also islands, not that far offshore, that can be seen as you drive along. Many of these islands are home to seal colonies which, in turn, mean that the odd White Pointer can be found cruising the waters. I have been diving with seals on the west coast and they are great fun, emulating the moves that you make while underwater. I also know that you grow a third eye, located in your posterior, as you are always on the lookout for seal-hunting Noahs.

Once you pass south of Lancelin (about 100 Km north of Perth) you rejoin the old road which, sadly, is in nowhere near as good condition as the recently completed section to the north. The road narrows, is a little windy and has much more traffic. I was almost glad to get into the really heavy traffic at Wanneroo - at least there was dual lanes for the quicker vehicles to pass us. This brings us to our little bit of excitement for the trip.....

We were approaching a set of traffic lights. They changed to amber and immediately I knew we were in trouble. It was a wide intersection, meaning that I would never get through before the lights changed to red, but I also knew that at 60 KPH, I wasn't going to stop real quick either. The caravan brakes had been adjusted when we had it serviced at Geraldton and I was told that it would take a while for them to self-adjust to optimum. Along the way I had been adjusting the brake controller in the car because it felt like the caravan brakes had not been doing their share of the work.

Modern vehicles, such as ours, have anti-lock braking systems, meaning that as soon as a wheel locks up and starts to skid across the tarmac, the brakes momentarily release, to allow the wheel/s to rotate again, and then the brakes are reapplied. Thus we careened toward the intersection, tyres screeching, brakes coming off, brakes back on, tyres screeching, over and over - all the while the white line where we should stop was getting closer and closer. We stopped with about a metre of the vehicle over that line and our hearts thumping in our chests. Yep, caravan brakes needed more adjustment!

Needless to say, we approached all subsequent intersections a lot more slowly as we made our way to our destination - "Gibson Views" caravan park. There is no real caravan park there. The place we stay at is the residence of a very good friend and former work colleague who has six acres of land up in the Darling Ranges to the southeast of the city centre. He has plenty of room for our van and us and we have wonderful afternoons (perhaps too many) having a quiet shandy on his veranda. Our host lets us tap into his water and power and even helped me with a couple of projects that I undertook on the van whilst at Perth. He has a swimming pool, a well equipped shed and, as you can probably tell from the name we gave his place, excellent views of native bushland. We are incredibly grateful to him for his hospitality.

Unfortunately, the place is on the market, although our friend doesn't really wish to sell it, and sadly it may be the last time that we stay there. On the agenda while at Perth were: having an annex made for the van; fitting our spare 123 Watt solar panel to the roof of the van, making a total of five panels now; purchasing "flat" water and sullage hoses that can roll up onto reels; buying the last few LED replacement globes to replace the fluoro globes in the van; catch up with my Parents at Madora Bay (near Mandurah) and Sue's Parents at Busselton; catch up with our Daughter and her children, whom had not long moved to Perth from Karratha; catch up with many friends living in Perth and whom we don't get to see too often; get ready to fly out to Brisbane to join our 11 day Pacific cruise and spend lots of money on stuff we probably didn't need but would buy anyway (including a new GoPro camera to replace the one that had the untimely demise at Warra.)

All of the above took about a week and a half and soon we were at Perth Airport waiting to board our plane to Brisbane. For possibly the first time ever, Qantas managed to get us off the ground on time and soon we were winging our way across this broad, brown, land. Imagine our surprise, after taking off in brilliant, sunny, conditions at Perth, to find ourselves landing in the rain in Brissie - NOT! I cannot ever remember visiting Brisbane when it has done anything other than rain there. Not to worry, it was only for one night as we would be boarding the ship the next day.

Our taxi driver, whom, oddly enough wasn't from Australia, managed to drop us off at the wrong motel. Thankfully, the correct motel was only another couple of hundred metres up the road. We had chosen the motel from Internet searches for places that were within walking distance of the berth where we would board the ship. The lovely lady at reception could not have been more helpful and informed us that they had a courtesy bus that would take us to the ship in the morning - free of charge. Fabulous!

Our buoyant mood started to change almost immediately when it dawned on us that our room was right next to the lift-well. After entering the room we were even more enthused when we discovered that the bed in the room was right up against the wall that adjoined the lift-well. Things only got better when I sat on the bed and discovered that I would need a mining permit to dig down far enough to see how low my butt had sunken into the very soft mattress. Thank goodness it was only a one night stay! We ate at a nearby restaurant and then turned in for the night (having lost 2 hours of our lives due to time zone changes.)

What a night! Neither of us was able to get much sleep because the bed was so crap and I managed to aggravate the back injury I received at Ned's Camp some weeks earlier. By morning I was almost a cripple again and had to reach for the Panadol bottle. We had both worn ear plugs to stop the noise from the lift and thankfully they worked, otherwise I am sure that we would have got no sleep at all. That morning we ate breakfast at the same restaurant, after which Sue made for the motel while I went up the road on a mission to buy a few toiletries to take aboard the ship. Sometimes it doesn't pay to be an early riser/diner. I got to the supermarket only to discover that it wasn't going to be open for another 40 minutes. Unwilling to walk back to the motel, only to walk back to the supermarket almost as soon as I would have arrived, I decided to buy a newspaper at the local newsagent shop and pass the time catching up on the news.

All plans are subject to flaws and the flaw in my plan was that the Queensland newspaper was full of Queensland news. Apparently the remainder of Australia, and the World for that matter, does not exist....or simply didn't have any news worth writing about. So I was stuck reading about stuff I knew nothing of and cared even less of. None-the-less, it did kill off the forty minutes and finally the doors of the supermarket swung open. I was in and out in a flash and soon on my way back to the motel. Those who have followed our blogs over the years will know that Sue and I are the Rain Gods, being able to make it rain everywhere we go. Nothing has changed and on the walk back to the motel it rained. I just shrugged my shoulders and soldiered on.

Within minutes of arriving back at the motel we were down in the forecourt, waiting for the arrival of the Transit Bus. All around us stood other people, obviously booked on to the same cruise, and in the driveway was a single, six-seater Toyota Tarago. It didn't take a Rhodes Scholar to figure out that we weren't all going to fit into this little vehicle and after some confusion it took off with just one couple and their luggage. The lovely Reception lady was buzzing around with a clipboard, assuring us that arrangements had been made for the remaining customers to get to the ship terminal.

Soon enough a small car (not a taxi) turned up. Out popped a young Vietnamese fellow and he whisked the bags of one couple into his boot, ushered them into his car and took off. Within minutes another vehicle appeared, belching smoke and this time being driven by a very old Vietnamese gent. We were shoved into this car and with a crunch of gears, followed by a frantically slipping clutch and a screaming engine, we were off at a snail's pace. The driver lurched us onto the main, very busy, road without any regard for oncoming traffic and proceeded to go through the gears - all being changed too early and with the same slipping clutch and screaming engine.

I have to say that I was truly frightened and didn't think that he would get us to the wharf alive. Sue told me that she was similarly scared witless. This was to be the second last drama of the day as the ship's crew and Custom's Officers efficiently and promptly processed our boarding formalities and got us onto the ship. Immediately upon boarding the ship you are ushered into the forward lift area. As the lifts arrive, having just taken a group of passengers to their deck, you are literally shoved into them until you cannot fit a cigarette paper between the passengers crammed in there. We were even luckier, as they also tied to jam a couple of wheelchair-bound passengers in with us. That was it for Sue....she doesn't do confined spaces and she pushed her way out of the lift just as the doors slammed shut behind her.

There we were, only on board for two minutes and we had already been separated. I waited outside the lifts at our deck for what seemed like hours, but was probably about 10 minutes, before Sue arrived in a lift with just three other people in it. She had told the crew, in no uncertain terms, that she was not up for being jammed in with a crowd of people and they finally acceded to her wishes. That was the last real drama for the day and for the rest of the trip really.

OK, the brief details of the trip, so that I don't bore you to death (with a written version of the old "slide night".) We sailed at 4:00PM and took over an hour and a half just to get out of the Brisbane River. We then did some quite tricky manoeuvring just off Stradbroke Island before finally reaching open seas about five hours after departure. Next we had two "sea days" (days where you don't call into any port), followed by a stop at Noumea (New Caledonia). Here were did an excursion, kayaking up a river (and it rained.....naturally.) Next we cruised all night and berthed offshore of Mare Island (pronounced Mar-ay) early the next morning. Mare is also a part of New Caledonia. Our excursion took us to a lovely beach but there was little else to do. Mare is totally devoid of tourism infrastructure and was selected as an alternative port of call after the Isle of Pines had to be taken from the schedule (for reasons that were never explained to us.)

 

Going under the Gateway Bridge on the Brisbane River

One thing about the Pacific Ocean - there's a lot of it

Most ports that we visited feature some sort of welcoming dance by the Locals

The ship was too big to park at the wharf at Mare

At the beach at Mare. The skies looked threatening, enhancing the beauty of the place.

Next was a sea day as we sailed to the Fijian capitol of Suva. We spent a day on shore at Suva, where we took an excursion up a river in long boats, to a scenic waterfall. Also included in the excursion was a meal at a traditional Fijian village. That night we were back on the ship and cruised to Port Denarau, which is on the other side of the Island from Suva. This is the "touristy" side of the island, where the luxury resorts are. Our excursion there was totally forgettable and I won't go into it here, lest I start to sound like a serial whinger.

Fijiians love their brass bands and being a member of one carries great prestige

Cop a look at the crack in the windscreen of this bus!

This photo is for Karen, whom regularly posts pics of buff blokes to Facebook. Check out these Fijiians Karen - they're all trim like this! (Ignore the silly caucasion buffooon, though.)

From Port Denarau we had another sea day, before arriving at Vanuatu. Vanuatu was, for us, the highlight of the trip and we plan on going back there (by aeroplane) for a holiday at some time in the future. From Vanuatu we had two sea days getting back to Brisbane. During all of this time Sue, whom does not do boats well, managed to avoid getting seasick - although she was feeling a little off on the second and third days and wisely elected to take some pills.

Sunset at sea

These Vanuatuans give a welcoming dance that is predominately very forceful foot-stomping. Now take a close look and see what it has done to their feet. They are huge!

Our thoughts on cruising: For us, the sea days were boring. To their credit, the staff run lots of activities but the activities were not for us. Bingo, carpet bowls, quoits, shuffleboard and so on, are for another generation - just not ours. This is explains the patronage on these cruises. I actually joked to Sue that if the ship were to start sinking, then all we would have to do would be to chuck all of the Zimmer Frames overboard and we'd be out of trouble. As far as the destinations go, we weren't taken by New Caledonia at all and Fiji was passable. Vanuatu was lovely.

These are just our views. People do these cruises time and again. One couple on the ship were on their 149th cruise! Obviously these holidays are a matter of taste. Give me a caravanning holiday in Oz any time. We did, however, have plenty of opportunity to relax (to the point of boredom) and the ship's staff, facilities and food were first-class. You are not allowed to take your own alcohol aboard and drink prices are just slightly higher than pub prices in Australia (with the exception of the Birdsville Pub!)

We flew back to Perth the same day as the ship arrived in Brisbane and our fabulous friend picked us up from the airport and drove us back to our van. We had changed timezones eight times in 12 days and were quite out of sorts, so it was a great surprise to find that dinner was awaiting us when we arrived back at "camp".

Just prior to leaving on our cruise we found out that we had been successful in our application to work at the Birdsville Pub, so we planned to spend three days doing final preparations at Perth, before heading off to our new life. Our first act on the morning after arriving back in Perth was to forward our resignations as Cossack caretakers.

A new chapter in our lives had opened.......

Next issue: Bound for South Australia

Sandy Cape and Another Terrible Road

Driving from Geraldton to Sandy Cape, just north of Jurien Bay, allows one to catch fleeting glimpses of the bountiful waters of the Batavia Coast. Western Rock Lobster congregate in large numbers along this stretch of coastline, especially from about mid November 'til late December. It can be a bonanza time for the rock lobster fishers, whom call this time of the tear "the Whites", a reference to the colour of the lobster's shell. Later in the season their shells turn to the darker red/brown colour that most would be familiar with.

Port Denison, just south of Dongara, is a favourite stop for us and we availed ourselves of the little bakery located on the foreshore. They do a very nice coffee and we purchased some frosted buns with a jam twist to round off the snack. The marina was the scene of quiet activity as fishers checked their boats while folks walked, jogged, paddled or swam in the tranquil surroundings. It was a real effort to drag ourselves away.

Heading south, we took the bypass road through the coastal dunes and rejoined the Brand Highway near the gas fields at Pye Rd. Dongara has been the home of a small-scale gas industry for many decades, with the gas from there being the first to be piped to Perth back in the 60's. Although there are many production wells in the area, none can be seen from the main highway - which is probably a good thing.

Not so long ago, Jurien Bay and Sandy Cape required a two hour drive along the Brand Highway, many kilometres from the coast, followed by another thirty minute deviation back to the coast. The drive took in the rolling hills of the sheep grazing country between Eneabba and Dandaragan, but wasn't particularly inspiring. Alternatively, there was a pretty scrappy coastal drive, linking numerous small towns and unofficial fishing villages that all owed their existence to the rock lobster industry. In recent years a reasonable bitumen road has replaced the old track and has been named the "Indian Ocean Drive".

Stretching from just south of Dongara, right through to the northern suburbs of Perth, the recently completed Indian Ocean Drive is a more scenic route between the State Capitol and Geraldton. It is a Tourist Way, with the only trucks allowed to use it being those re-supplying the towns along the drive. Caravanners now have the exclusive rights to holding up kilometres of vehicle traffic! This is the road onto which we turned as we made our way further south.

Within minutes you find yourself back on the coast, catching glimpses and, sometimes, full-on views of the blue waters and white sandy beaches as you wind your way along the bitumen. There are few opportunities to overtake along the first fifty or so kilometres of this, sometimes narrow, stretch of road and this means that slower vehicles can, and do, hold up long lines of vehicles all the way to Leeman.

Leeman is the first official town that you come to, although you will see many small clusters of shacks, once home to the fishers whom plied the waters to make a living from the succulent lobsters. Local Government Authorities along this stretch of coast have banned the use of these shacks as none were built with planning permission and few would come close to the building codes in construction quality. It goes without saying that none of the shack-holders was paying rates, which irked the Shires somewhat. Most shacks have been removed but a smattering remain as reminders of a bygone era, some even occupied during the lobster season by defiant fisho's whom argue that they have a historical right live in the area while earning their living.

Leeman has suffered through the State Fisheries Department's efforts to ensure that the Western Rock Lobster fishery remains sustainable. This has resulted, as it did in Geraldton, in many boats coming out of the industry, leaving their skippers and crew to find work elsewhere. The Fisheries Dept. cannot be blamed for this - it is necessary to preserve fish stocks for the future and most in the industry knew that the shake-up was coming. Unfortunately, knowing about it did not lessen the impact that it was to have on these small coastal towns.

From Leeman it is a short drive to the turn-off into Green Head. Now bypassed by the main road, Green Head is named after the headland upon which it has been built. Again, fishing has been the dominant industry in the past and it too has suffered for the same reasons as Leeman, Geraldton and Dongara. Bypassing the town has not helped businesses there either.

After Green Head you will not pass another town before reaching the turn-off into Sandy Cape, requiring you to keep an eye out for the sign, which is not overly prominent. The road into Sandy Cape is just 13 kilometres of gravel but I'm sure that the Shire of Dandaragan does not even own a grader because the surface is always corrugated, exacerbated by the trucks that haul Gypsum from a nearby mine. On this occasion, the road was probably at its worst (in my experience of visiting many times) and again I made things worse by not letting our tyres down, thinking that the short drive in must have at least a few patches that would not shake the bejesus out of the car and van. Wrong!

Normally I prefer to drive slowly and steadily on corrugations like these, but on this occasion I threw caution to the wind and wound up the revs until we were "skipping" over the corro's. (Theory number: 2, on how to drive corrugated roads.) This worked after a fashion and saw us arrive at the Cape on the same day, rather than set up camp half-way in due to not being able to reach speeds greater than five kilometres per hour.

Imagine how surprised we were to find numerous available places to set up camp, given that it was during the middle of the school holidays. We chose a site that had a modicum of grass cover and importantly, was tucked in close to some of the coastal vegetation that could afford us some protection from the west-coast sea-breeze, should it blow. Just as well we did - it blew pretty much the entire time we were there, but, thanks to the vegetation we felt no discomfort.

A little bit of grass and plenty of shelter at our chosen site.

We had company, after all, it was school holidays.

Herring, also known as Tommy Roughs or Tommies in South Australia, were in abundance when I fished here about a year prior. Even though I laid out a berley trail from Sandy Cape to Green Head, not a single fish bothered my bait. This was to be the story of the stay and I later found out that an unusually warm Leeuwin Current, in the months prior, had done enormous harm to the fish in the area, with estimated losses of up to 90% of stocks of some fish. One wonders what effect this may have on the already suffering Rock Lobster industry?

Sue loves Herring and my inability to catch a fish did untold damage to my Brownie Point count, which had been momentarily looking good after fixing the caravan window issue. Thankfully, Sandy Cape compensated for this lack of fish by providing us with a splendid, tranquil, scenic venue for our short stay.

For those not familiar with Sandy Cape, it is located 16 Km north of the growing township of Jurien Bay (about 32 Km by road.) There are about fifty campsites, spread along the coast, just in behind the first line of fringing dunes. Sites vary from being suitable for tents only, right through to several that would easily accommodate a large Winnebago or bus, even with a trailer attached. Payment of $7.50 per person per night (or a minimum of $15.00 per night if you travel solo) can be made at an honour box about a kilometre short of the camp area, or will be collected by the on-site Caretaker.

Looking down from the fringing dune. Most sites have plenty of shelter from the sea-breeze.

For those "personal needs", there are reasonable hybrid toilets that are a sort of flushing long-drop and for those with their own amenities, there is a dump point at the honour box. Water is available in very limited quantities and is rainwater collected from the roof of the dunny block. With the large number of seabirds in the area, drinking that water would be at your own risk and, at the very least, it should be boiled vigorously if you do plan to ingest it. There is no power available.

The beach that runs along the majority of campsites is very safe for swimming, with the exception of some very small stinging jelly fish that are present at certain times of the year. These have a mildly irritating sting that does not bother you for long and can be treated with vinegar in the same manner as more serious jellyfish stings. The rocky headland that is the Sandy Cape, shelters the bay surrounding the aforementioned beach, providing a safe haven for boating and kayaking. Atop the headland is a walk-trail and a lookout that offers excellent views along the coast in both directions. Walking is a great activity in this area, with many beaches, trails and tracks to be explored and, if you are reasonably fit, there is a stark, extremely white and bright dune system that can be climbed.

Looking north along the sheltered beach.

Facing south offers splendid views of the sandy Cape.

School holidays and long weekends are popular, so avoid these times if you can. Bookings are not taken for sites, but you can contact the Shire of Dandaragan if you require any information about the facilities. The Shire has posted warning signs at the Cape. Some derelict fishing shacks, partially made from asbestos, were knocked down and buried there in the past. It is recommended that you do not disturb the soil in any way.

Sue and I spent most of our time "chillaxing" (a nice word I stole from our Daughter, whom is an expert at "chilling and relaxing" ), steeling ourselves for the chaos of the big city - our next destination.

Modifying those pesky caravan windows

Geraldton was reached without drama and soon I was performing the tricky manoeuvre of reversing the van up the driveway at our Son's house. On one side, the fence has a gate-post and the remains of a gate that had clearly been hit many times in the past and on the other side is the gutter of the house, which sticks out about 700mm. The result is that the clearance is about 60mm on each side of the van. Thankfully, Sue is excellent at giving directions and we completed the job without mishap or frayed tempers.

Our Son was at work and we were keen to get to the shops and start purchasing the things that we would need to replace the inner windows of the caravan. As mentioned in the previous blog, these windows are a right-royal pain in the rear end. The concept, where the insect screen rolls down and/or the block-out blind rolls up, is clever and would be a joy to have - if only they worked! Unfortunately, the insects were able to skittle around the edges of the screen, or the blind, for that matter, meaning that we spent many a night huddled in the van with all of the interior lights switched off, trying desperately not to attract the little blighters.

We attempted to do the recommended modification but this had the effect of putting too much pressure on the rollers, making it difficult to retract either the insect screen or the blind - and it didn't completely fix the insect issue. The solution came to me one night and after a quick discussion with Sue, it was decided to give it a go.

All of the windows were measured and we set off to buy the materials. The plan was to make wooden window frames with a recess rebated into them to accommodate a standard sized aluminium flyscreen frame. Once made, the aluminium frame would fit flush with the wooden frame and seal out the critters. Now, when measuring windows to make frames, always remember that it is length x width x 2. The times 2 bit is very important or you will end up only buying half of the material that you need, like I did.

We were able to get some Tasmanian Oak timber with a rounded, or as it is correctly described, bull-nose edge. This is the stuff that you will commonly see being used as skirting boards in houses. I purchased half as much as I would eventually need and we set off to see about getting the flyscreens made up.

The first glazier who we visited had just returned to work after the extended Christmas break. He had a backlog of work as long as your arm and declared that all of the other glaziers in Gero would be in the same position. He wouldn't be able to make the screens for a couple of weeks - much longer than we could hang around as we had booked a Pacific cruise for just a few weeks from then and had to get to Brisbane to join it. So we decided to purchase the aluminium frame material, the corner joiners and the spline and make the screens ourselves.

The glazier said that it would even take a day or two to have the aluminium frame lengths cut into two so that we could fit them on the car! What to do? Naturally, I ordered half as much stuff as we needed and settled for waiting a day or two because I could be getting on with the wooden frames while we waited. Because we were going to make the frames ourselves, I would need to purchase a saw blade specifically for cutting aluminium - $153.00 that I wasn't planning on spending. Never mind, our Son would probably be able to use it sometime in the future.

We purchased a couple of rolls of insect mesh, not even thinking that we would be able to re-use the mesh in the existing windows, which we later did. We spent just under $400.00 for everything, including the blade and a couple of other tools that we would need. Of course, this was for only half of the wood and aluminium that we needed and we spent another $120.00 when I realised my mistake and got the remainder. Still, if things went to plan, this would be money well spent.

Things did, indeed, go to plan. Routing the rebates for the screen frames was easy, cutting the 45 degree mitres on the corners was a breeze, joining the frames was a little tricky because the cheap, Chinese, corner clamps flexed as they were tightened but, all in all, they looked a million bucks when finished. All that remained was to coat them with some sort of finish. Sue was given the task of applying outdoor furniture oil to them and I busied myself making the aluminium insect screen frames. These were even easier and by the time I made the last one I had got it down to about 5 minutes per frame, including fitting the mesh.

Once the frames had dried I laid the old, plastic frames over each one in turn, using them as templates to drill the mounting holes in the wood. Next, it was time to fit the screens to to the wooden frames using piano hinge. I guess that I could have used ordinary hinges but I was wary of the amount of flex the frames would experience as the caravan trundled along and elected to go for the stronger option. Finally, I fitted good, old fashioned, butterfly clips to keep the screens closed and a small cabinet knob as a grip to open and close the screens with. Job done! Now it was time to fit the new windows. Using the old screens as a template was the best part of the design, allowing me to fit each window in minutes, without so much a a single hole being drilled in the wrong place.

Hooray, nice looking windows that actually work!

A close-up, showing the fiddly bits.

From start to finish the entire job took about ten days, although actual working time was much, much less. We had also built a 3m x 3m shed in our Son's back yard as his shed was bulging at the seams, mostly with our stuff. While at Geraldton we also had the caravan serviced. This included bearings, brakes, hatch cover replacement and all of the outside light covers being replaced as they had all gone brittle over the years. Mission accomplished, it was time to think about heading to Perth, via a stopover at Sandy Cape for a few days. We had much to get organised in Perth and could delay our departure no longer.

For those whom have not been to Geraldton, it is located about 400 Km north of Perth and has a population of around 30,000. The beaches are a feature, with stunning white sand and clean water. Geraldton is very windy during the summer months but much less so during autumn, winter and spring, when winds are usually accompanying the frontal systems as they pass through (less and less often these days, unfortunately.)

Geraldton was once the home port of a thriving crayfishing industry, but as the fishery came under pressure, the WA Fisheries were forced to implement some harsh conditions to ensure that crayfishing was sustainable into the future. This has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the size of the fleet, with many former skippers and deckhands turning to the mining industry for employment. Mining and farming are major employers, both directly and indirectly, of people living in Geraldton these days.

For the traveller, there are many caravan parks, hotels and motels. Geraldton could do with a few more restaurants but for those preferring simpler fare, there are plenty of pubs, cafes and takeaway places. If you need something, you will most likely be able to get it at Geraldton and the retail sector is strong in the town.

Visitors to Geraldton usually take time to look at the HMAS Sydney Memorial and the Foreshore and Marina developments, including the Geraldton Museum, which is located right on the waterfront. Geraldton is a logical starting place for touring the wildflowers destinations further inland, which have become almost legendary in status. Spend a day or two at Geraldton, you won't be disappointed if you do.

Part of the HMAS Sydney Memorial. The dome is made up of one stylised seagull for each of the crewmen who went down with the Sydney. The statue is of a lady gazing out to sea, trying to spot her loved one returning. As it happens, the direction that the lady is facing turned out, quite by chance, to be aligned pretty closely with where the Sydney was eventually found. 

Next issue....Sandy Cape and Another Crappy Gravel Road