World Australia Western Australia Cervantes

Round Australia with Ev and Az

Day 90 – Geraldton to Cervantes – Culburra of the west Oct 19, 2009

As every thing in Geraldton is shut on a Sunday we waited until the shops were open before heading into town. Ev used the time constructively to practice his new found freedom, bike riding without training wheels. After running one lap alongside him, I told him I was going to let him go and then slowly dropped back. What did he do? He took off. More laps of the caravan park than we could count, each one with a bigger smile on his face. At the end he said, “I’m proud of myself”

We did some shopping in Geraldton for some much needed items, namely a suitcase to get our things to Melbourne in two days time. Think about it, when you pack for a caravan holiday you don’t bring bags, it’s all in cupboards. After this we got on the road and headed south.

The towns we visited or drove through all had that real holiday town type of feel to them, all small little places, built around the beach with one of most things, but rarely more than one. Greenhead, Jurien Bay and Leeman were the towns and they all looked good. We will have to put them on the plan for the next lap. Yes we are already planning it. To be honest we started planning the next lap in about central Queensland. Maybe just before Aaron starts school

Our destination for tonight was Cervantes. It is right on the water and has the typical one of most things, one petrol station, one club, one caravan park etc. Sitting here late this afternoon as the sun slowly moved towards sunset, with the boys playing in (the fantastic) playground outside the van park, it really felt like I was back in Culburra. Karumba was the Culburra of the north, Cervantes can be the Culburra of the west. It has that relaxed and welcoming feel that little towns do. It’s a real shame we only have one night here.

Apart from the ability to do nothing, the key attraction here is the Pinnacles, or Nambung National park. At its simplest level it’s 400 odd hectares of tall rocks sticking out of sand dunes resulting from the ususl causes of wind erosion etc,

Did you see the show, Billy Connelly’s World tour of Australia? If you remember he finished the show with a shot of him dancing off into the sunset through the Pinnacles. Ok yes he was stark naked. There was not a repeat of this or there is no photographic evidence. Choose your favourite version, I suggest the former if you are eating.

Unusually we actually had some clouds today, in fact we did not see the sun until the late afternoon and even a few seconds of rain (I used the wipers at least twice). Compared to our weather for the last 3 months this was bad, but with almost no rain in three months we can’t and aren’t complaining. See what happens when I wash a car!

When we first arrived at the Pinnacles we still had some cloud cover. We took the walking path through the Pinnacles which is good but I would have described them as interesting rather than anything spectacular. As we walked back to the car to do the 4km drive through the area the sun came out. The difference in the colours was striking so we took all of our photos again.

As I mentioned earlier, there is one club in town, the “Cervantes Country Club”. Judging by the large (artificial) bowling green out the front I would say bowling club but let’s go with Country Club. In a very smart move, everyone who checks into the van park (and I suspect the motel) gets a voucher for $20 off the seafood platter for two. $75 down to $55.

Remember we are still in lobster territory so you can bet we jumped in on that one. $55 for a full lobster, salt and pepper squid, prawns, snapper chips salad etc. Yum! We rolled back to the van again, very full of good seafood.

Just a quick note. Tomorrow we will be arriving into Perth and flying out to Melbourne early the next morning for a wedding. I am not sure if the computer is going with me so we may well be off the air for a few days. Cath please do not send rude (or ruder than usual) e-mails, Mum and Sis, don’t panic we are actually in civilisation.

Regular programming will return once we thaw out from the Melbourne weather…..and once I get over having to get back into a suit…..and shoes!!!

Kiddies stop reading here....about that last photo, here is the response from our neighbours

Merl: Earl, come and look at this

Earl: What dear?

Merl: Have a look at this photo.....I thought this was a nice blog

Earl: Pardon dear

Merl: Well I dont look at the internet for this kind of pornography

Earl: Yes dear I'll put the kettle on