Geraldton district

We had anticipated taking two days to travel from Exmouth to Carnarvon however as we had left early and Rob was feeling fit and well we kept going on.
Carnarvon has a pretty (short) main street with limited but adequate shopping facilities. The area has large banana and mango plantations. Roadside stalls sell tomatoes for $1 for 1 Kg bag as well as egg plant and beans.

On the touristy side we visited the OTC dish which was the first one to receive TV transmissions from the UK in the sixties. We also visited the one mile pier and walked the mile over the ocean as we watched the "Coffee Pot" steam train carrying those tourists who were disinclined to walk over the uneven planks. This area is also expanding its building operations along the sea front. It was here that we had our first drops of rain (lasting about 5 minutes) since we had left Alice Springs 3.1/2 months ago.

After spending two nights at Carnarvon we had thought to stop at the Overlander Roadhouse but this was so uninviting and the road conditions so good that we went on to Geraldton which is the second largest city outside of Perth ( so the brochures say) with a population of 26,000 or thereabouts. There are several separate shopping "Centro"s with other retailers spread out over quite a large area. There is a Woolworths, Coles and IGA but shops here are closed on Sundays.

There are many walking tracks, some paved, some sand, along the seashore. The water is surprisingly clear despite the fact that this is an active port for shipping of grain and some ore.
There is a fishermen's co-op which sells the catch of the day with prawns selling for $16 per kg.

Last Friday we drove a loop of 250km covering one of the wildflower trails. We had thought that there would be wide open field of colour but instead found that much of the colour was along the 10 m road edges - swathes of pink, white, yellow, pale blue and the purple of patterson's curse. At Mullewa we visited the "Our Lady of Mt Carmel Church" designed by Monsignor John Hawes who apparently was an architect of some renown.

From Mullewa we drove down to the Coalseam Conservation Park which has a seam of coal visible in the open hillside. The road from Mullewa to Walkaway which was about 70km was alive with different shades of colour appearing without warning. We stopped about 20 times to jump out, look and photograph. We thoroughly enjoyed the day.