Month: June 2015

On the very day that Marion Robert Morrison* appeared in The Australian newspaper, we travelled from Coral Bay to Paraburdoo thru country Mr Morrison would have been proud to ride; neckerchiefed, rifle in hand, squinting in concentration.
U.S. film lot or the Australian outback?
Actually it’s the road to Paraburdoo from the Highway1 at Nanutarra Road House about 270 km travelling east with afternoon sun behind us all the way.
Australia: Australia: Australia all the way.
The Canadian Rockies, Norwegian Fiords etc all have their place, but it is the Aussie mountain ranges that beat them all. Travelling hour upon hour these ranges are mesmerising in their beauty. Against an other-wise blank flat landscape canvas the ranges’ entreat you with brilliant red sandy earth, starkly contrasting to a brilliant blue sky, distant views are clothed in the familiar Aussie blue hues, creek beds are adorned with stark white trunked gums, native Australian budgerigars fly in a harmonious unison of yellow and green, fat cattle graze on belly high green grasses, tufted green grass/shrubs clothe hillsides and eagles, kites and (an obviously smelly) solitary emu, all enjoy this spectacular landscape. But it is the greening of the countryside that takes your breath away!

Wow! What a day!

We got away from the sunburnt country of Coral Bay to the red-earth reaches of iron ore country- a distance of 529km- which included missing a snake slithering across the road and stopping for a Tasmanian lady travelling alone in a Ford Transit motor home broken down by the side of the road**

*Marion Morrison changed his name to John Wayne
**Isabel arranged for the RAC to go out and help the broken down lady

Not being a beach person—I get sun-burned travelling on an outer deck of a Scottish ferry in winter—-it was fascinating seeing so many beach birds without getting sand between my toes.
For it is in the caravan park we were visited by a couple of friendly locals (of the feathered variety).
Reluctantly we left Carnarvon and all the good ole folk just before 10 and pulled into Coral Bay around 12.30 in time for lunch.
On the journey up we saw 3 kangaroos, but they high-tailed it in the other direction upon seeing us approach; but not so what appeared to be a murder of crows, or worse, a wombat straight ahead in the middle of the road.
Slowed down to a halt and saw a magnificently proud wedgetail eagle lunching on a bit of road kill.
What a tremendous sight!
Thankfully the eagle decided he might become prey to a few tonnes of shiny metal and wedge-tailed it to a nearby dead tree stump. Sadly we were unable to get the camera out in time, so the usual pinched web pic adequately illustrates my yarn.
The other feathered friends at our caravan pitch I’ve identified as crested pigeons and a few noisy miner birds (Aussie native variety). Identification and pictures all courtesy of Mr Google Images.
Tomorrow we head toward Tom Price for a few days and the Karinjini National Park

P.S. I did actually stroll along the beach and check out the other bird life

Today we explored the new Carnarvon.
Landcorp is here and similar to so many other WA rural locations, is making a power of a difference. Like Albany, Augusta and Mandurah (that I know of) the government agency has sculptured this town’s best known attributes into a brand new housing and aquatic miracle.
For, gone is the vibrancy of main street Carnarvon with its 30 or so cabs servicing the station workers who periodically came to town to spend their pay. The then local parliamentary member’s shopfront is now a hair cutting business; Wesfarmers Coop is is now a Carpet Call retailer and pedestrians at the Woolies/BWS carpark confront road-train sized trolleys full of cheap beer.
But I jest!
To scale, Carnarvon rivals the Mandurah canals housing development. Green lawned public fascine areas attract young fisher fathers and sons while the local hoy-poloy support brand new development with attractive homes on the water.
A recent cyclone appears to be overcome with lots of plantation repairs already in place and new crops looking advanced, with devastated bananas crops pushing up new suckers. A healthy and resilient future ahead.

The first time we laid eyes upon St Paul’s Cathedral in London its dome was covered in scaffolding. The same building dais covered NY’s lady with the lamp, the Statue of Liberty, making pictures an impossibility on our first visit.

Similarly, in downtown Carnarvon the iconic fascine is fenced off with royalty for regions money supporting its reconstruction. We will have to come back!
Robinson street, Carnarvon’s main thoroughfare is still there, be it all reduced to a single piddling lane in each direction outside the old Port Hotel. The Gascoyne Hotel which once fronted the red dirt banks of the Gascoyne River, now abuts a new permanent yacht mooring area. Olivia Terrace is still there, so is Skipworth St. Even the famed pink house appears to still exist, although now painted in a fetching light baby blue.
Wintersun, our caravan park home for a few days, is a genuine oasis of manicured lawns and trees with plantations surrounding 3 sides.
Just up the road the once booming Haselbys general store is an abandoned wreck, forlornly painted in a once-only application of anaemic yellow undercoat.
Yesterday we travelled 323kms from Denham to this Gascoyne town via Hamelin Pool with its stromatolites (fawned over by the scientific communities as some kind of bacteria wonderland) but about as interesting as a visit to Wave Rock at Hyden.
Today we are looking forward to re-acquainting ourselves with many of the attractions on offer since we last holidayed here about 35 years ago.

And a message to the thousands of followers of this blog. The pictures are out of order. They are the wrong size, but if you click on them they come up to full screen size. That’s what becomes of part-time blogger’s; WordPress updates it’s procedures between holiday blogging exercises and for me it is always a new beginning. But rest assured, all will be well by weeks end at Carnarvon.

“I love her far horizons
I love her jewel-sea”
Dorothea Mackellar came readily to mind on the road to Denham.
Rolling plains as far as the eye can see and a lively, spirited jewel-sea
Arrived in Shark Bay and within an hour, more of a history lesson
The severely rusted hulk of an ancient anchor told the story of an 1880 Quebec built barque; originally Braidwood until a Norwegian bought her and renamed it Gudrun; and only after a comedy of errors in Fremantle involving the ships carpenter, (who drilled holes in the ships hull), was to sink in Shark Bay.
Foss, Denham’s local magistrate chap, salvaged and took possession of the ship’s beautiful bowsprit maiden and placed it in his front garden. Later, the Berry family of Carnarvon bought the wooden lassie and finally in 1967 Eric Berry gifted her to the WA Museum.
More reminiscing, it was over 50 years ago that I stayed at the Denham pub, then totally a corrugated iron structure which included single rooms clad in the galvanised building material.
Also today was the initiating of our new barbie and tomorrow Isabel celebrates another historic birthday milestone. Lots of historical moments.
And we’ve got 3 days in which to explore more of the big ‘D’ together with Hamelin Bay, Shell Beach and Monkey Mia.
Question:
Who was the parliamentary representative fjor Gascoyne 1974 until 1988?

Geraldton has produced its share of famous folk; Edith Cowan (first woman elected to an Australian parliament), Geoff Gallop, Lt.Gen John Sanderson 29th Governor of WA, Chris Mainwaring, writer Xavier Herbert and even Rove McManus’ wife Tasma all hail from this mid-west capital of 35,000 people.
But our afternoon in this busy port city belonged to the memory of 645 WWII Aussies sailors on the HMAS Sydney sunk by the German ship Kormoran off this coast in 1941, with all lives lost.
The Sydney memorial is a tribute to the original proponents who drove the vision and the designers who conceived the commemoratory structure.
A hilltop set of iconic monuments that gel into a powerfully simple tribute to the entombed sailors.
And tonight the sky is once again adorned with crimson tones while the gentle sea breeze whispers thru the sheoak trees. Red sky at night caravaners’ delight.
Sounds idyllic, but BOM says we are in for a possible thunderstorm tomorrow, so we plan to see Helen Mirren in Woman of Gold (?) at the local flicks.