North to Shark Bay

We were happy to head out of Geraldton and for the first time head north and not have to retrace our steps. There are beautiful places all along the coast and the trick is to decide which ones you are going to see. Kalbarri is very unusual with cliffs and wild seas that would have been very unwelcoming to the Dutch sailors almost 400 years ago. While we were there we saw a humpback and calf swimming very close to the shore. They were playing together with the associated tail slapping and jumps. The whales are as happy on this coast as they are on ours. Good to know.

Natural Bridge

Island stack

The wild winds mean that the vegetation is small and very resilient

Further north the coastline changed and we saw the start of the beautiful bays that we continued to see right along the coast.

The Kalbarri National Park has the mighty Murchison River running through it - this gorge was at the Ross Graham Lookout

Entering into the Shark Bay World Heritage Area our first sight of the unusual were these stromatolites - these living things are built up by single celled organisms - cynobacteria - which are a very primitive form of life dating back 3.5 billion years. They flourish here because the saltiness of the bay restricts the number of predators they have. This particular group are over 3000 years old.

Little fish live between their shapes

The wool wagons in ther early days were dragged over them to load onto a lighter which then sailed 3km out to sea to reload onto the ships to go south - the wheel ruts are still there after 60 years.

Shell Beach - this was made up of tiny white bivalve molluscs - the shells were over 5m deep in parts.

More of the beach, the beautiful bays and the pristine water

They even use the shells for building as the calcium cabonate exuded from the shells binds then together to make great blocks

In Denham - main town in the area - these boats used to drag up pearl bearing clams in the early days here - we have just read Shark Bay Days so were in tune with how things used to be

Little Lagoon - a breeding ground for many of the fish that abound here

More beautiful bays

We love the sun setting into the ocan so strange for us

We didn't think we would see Denham again after we drove out of it but along the track back to the highway we stopped at a lookout and saw some people we had been talking to earlier were stuck as their car had broken down . So after some manoeuvring we towed them out of the area and then the 40km back to Denham so they could be repaired. Such nice people. We are heading inland to Karijini National Park. We know it is another beautiful place and we may just escape the wind

In and around Geraldton

Greetings bloggers

Great to catch up again. We have been busy but not really in the right place and time for blogging. Mount Magnet provided lots of history and places further to the west were varied and interesting with some unusual things to see. Geraldton is quite a big place-  35000 people-  and all the trimmings-  maccas and other fast food galore, supermarkets, touristy places but the worst part of our travels on this side of the continent has been the wind. One guy we met described it as a lazy wind-  too lazy to go round you just goes right through you! The gold rush was such a big part of the towns in this area and the museum at Mt Magnet didnt disappoint with a variety of displays to conjure up how things were in times past. This stamper crushed the gold bearing rock onto a fine powder and then they extracted the gold from this. 

The hearse would have been quite a sight going down the main street - such style to go out in!!

Kerry always interested in the machinery

Hope you can read this story of tragedy and courage

The open cut at Mt Magnet -above and below - is still working and producing plenty of gold. The workers are all fly in fly out so the town has lost much of its population but is trying to reinvent itself in other ways.

Our first view of the sea - it had taken about  6500km and lots of places in between but we were finally here.

Cant help but put more wildflowers in each blog - each new one seems more beautiful than the last.

Even when the plant is struggling they still flower

Some of the lonely tales of gold rush days - this grave of mother and child felled by typhoid was in the middle of nowhere probably where they perished.

All that was left of the Lennonville Railway Station which was such a busy place in goldrush days. This now ghost town had 6 pubs in its heyday - all the towns were measured in size by the number of pubs they had!!

We loved the churches designed by the architerct priest Monseigneur John Hawes - this little cutie was at Yalgoo - the first of 3 we saw

This beautiful one we saw in Mullewa

And the last of his was this one in Geraldton

The countryside was changing now with so much green - wheat and this field of canola were the first of many

More green countryside and this very loooong train - we weren't sure what it was carting but some sort of brown ore

Geraldton foreshore

The Hmas Sydney Memorial in a park overlooking the harbour was very poignant - the dome over the eternal flame was made of 654 doves to denote the number of men who died when the Sydney went down. There were many survivors of the Kormoran and much debate has gone on over what really happened.

The waiting woman signifying the many who waited and hoped.