Day 100 - Cottesloe - Northam, WA 07 May, 2024
Saying goodbye to our Perth family after having a good travel rest, it was time to continue our journey north.
With another housesit arranged starting on the following Monday in Chittering Valley, we needed to fill in some days until then, so headed in that general direction.
The drive was only around 100 km, so we took our time, finding some things to do along the way. After recovering roads we'd travelled on going to Yanchep NP and Forrestfield, our first stop was at the former Swan View railway tunnel, which was constructed in the late 1800s. The tunnel is 340 metres long and dark enough that we had to take a torch with us for the walk through. Once through, we had sweeping views of the Swan Valley, then we took the secondary road back to the carpark, that had been constructed as an alternative to the tunnel when train employees started dying from the fumes in the poorly-ventilated tunnel.
Driving along picturesque tree-lined roads we passed through Parkerville, where we stopped briefly to take a photo of the old Parkerville Tavern, that was established in 1902.
Our next stop was at Lake Leschenaultia, a former railway dam that is now a recreational lake. The lake was constructed around 1897 to provide water for the many steam trains working the area at the time.
The lake is very picturesque and has a number of walks around it. We chose to do the 3 km loop around the lake, on well-formed paths with plenty of tree-cover to provide shade.
A short drive from the lake we stopped at the Chidlow Tavern for lunch, a beautiful old pub that was originally built in the 1880s, and was rebuilt after a fire in 1908. The seafood platter we shared for lunch was one of the better pub meals we've had while travelling.
On our way to our camping spot for the night in Northam, we stopped in historic York to check out the suspension bridge over the Avon River and admire the many beautiful old buildings in the main street.
In Northam we went straight to the free RV campground just out of town, to make sure we didn't miss out on a spot, and got setup for the night. With good internet, and TV reception also for a change, we were set for the rest of the day.
Day 101 - Northam, WA 08 May, 2024
We spent today exploring Northam.
Driving back into town, we parked at the Northam Visitor Information Centre and checked out the river and suspension bridge while waiting for the centre to open at 9 A.M. Once armed up with brochures and maps of things we wanted to see, we set out on foot to do a self-guided walking tour of the town's street art.
While quite good, the street art wasn't as impressive as many others we'd seen on our travels.
Finding ourselves back at a little shopping centre we took the opportunity to stock up on supplies before heading back to the visitor information centre, where we spent some time looking around their excellent "Migrants" exhibition.
The exhibition focused on the period after WW2 when Australia needed labour, and Eastern Europeans wanted to get the hell out of their countries before the Iron Curtain descended. The stories were harrowing and uplifting at the same time, telling of the hardships of living in an outback town in the late 1940s and 1950s. The people had to deal with harsh conditions such as heat, cold, rain, spiders, scorpions, lizards etc., while dealing with bringing up children, trying to learn a new language, being used as forced labour and being homesick. I would rate this exhibition highly in comparison with many other similar exhibitions we've seen.
Next door to the information centre is the Bilya Koort Boodja Aboriginal Centre for Nyoongar culture and environmental knowledge. The centre graphically and audibly tells the story of the Nyoongar people, from their arrival in Australia up to the current day.
This is not a big centre, but it is extremely well done, providing a wealth of information in many forms. The Stolen Generations was obviously a focus of the Nyoongar's story, and while not new to us, it still made for disturbing reading and viewing, particularly the stories of the people who lived through that period.
After a visit to a bakery where we bought lunch, we did a self-drive tour of Northam's historic buildings, that included many impressive buildings, mostly from the early 1990s.
All tuckered out after a hard day of touristing, we returned to the free RV camp for another night.
Day 102 - Northam - Toodyay, WA 09 May, 2024
We had an extremely short driving day today, of only 25 km, to Toodyay.
After a relaxed start to the day we left Northam, stopping only briefly outside town to admire the silo art, then continued on to Toodyay, where our first stop was the Pelham Lookout.
The lookout gave us views of the valley that Toodyay sits in, and did have a 2.2 km walk around the lookout that we chose not to do, because it appeared to involve walking up and down hills.
Not far from the lookout, our next stop was the Newcastle Gaol Museum, which was built by convicts in 1865. Each of the gaol cells displays individual themes.
These include the history of the gaol, a war tragedy memorial, domestic and childhood memories, as well as the tale of the infamous bushranger Moondyne Joe, a serial escapee.
The main building also contains many stories and historical items from that era, all showcased and with information explaining each item.
Across the road from the gaol, we visited the stables and associated buildings, including a shearing shed that had been transported from a nearby farm.
With nothing else left to see, we drove out to the Toodyay Caravan Park and setup on an unpowered site for the night.
Day 103 - Toodyay - Brockman River, WA 10 May, 2024
While our drive today was twice as long as the previous day's drive, it was still only about 50 km, with not much to look at on the way.
With this in mind we decided to have a drive through the Julimar State Forest where there was a walk we could do on the Djidi-Djidi (pronounced 'Chitty Chitty') Ridge Trail. The drive on mostly back roads was quite pleasant, but not spectacular.
At the entrance to the trail car park there was a large metal sculpture of a grass tree, which seemed a bit unnecessary because there were thousands of grass trees everywhere we'd been in WA.
As soon as we stepped out of Mata in the trail car park, we were greeted by thunder, lightning and light rain. We read the information boards anyway to see how far the trail walk was, 1.5 km, then decided to seek out a cafe to ride out the storm.
The Bindoon Bakehouse and Cafe wasn't too far away, so we drove there and enjoyed coffees and a sticky bun to share. Thankfully the rain has mostly stopped by then so drove back to the Djidi-Djidi Ridge Trail carpark and got suited up for a walk. As the name suggests, the trail takes you up and over a ridge, with nice views of the surrounding valley.
We missed most of the views however, because millions of ants tried to carry us away any time we stopped to take photos or read the information boards. We spent most of the walk watching where we were walking on the rough trail, and brushing off the hundreds of ants that climbed up and into our shoes, and up our legs, biting us along the way.
We were pleased to get back to the carpark where there weren't so many ants, and hurried off in Mata to the free camp, at the Brockman River Rest Area, where we'd be staying for the night. We didn't setup for the night though because we were meeting the people we'd be housesitting for at 3 P.M.
After lunch we caught up with our chores to kill some time until our meeting.
Around 3 P.M. we drove the short distance to the housesit place and met the owners Penelope and Graham. They gave us the rundown of what would be required of us for the following week, which was mainly taking care of their very energetic 4-year old dog, Kojo. Apart from that it would just be a matter of keeping an eye on the cattle to make sure they have water and food.
To finish off the day we drove back to the Brockman River Rest Area for the night.
Day 104/105 - Brockman River - Lower Chittering, WA 11/12 May, 2024
Our second-last day of killing time before the housesit started, we had only one major objective, lunch at the Stringybark Winery.
We hung around for ages in the rest area campsite, then, to use up some more time, we drove back into Bindoon, where we'd been the day before, to visit the dump point, IGA, bakery and bottle shop.
It was still too early to go to lunch, so we parked up near the Bindoon Museum for an hour or so, before heading out to the Stringybark Winery, in Lower Chittering.
The restaurant is housed in a beautiful old building that used to be a house, and which has highly polished stone block floors, exposed timber beams, and a huge fireplace that we sat beside.
As would be expected in such a place, lunch was delicious, as were the wines we chose to accompany the meals. After the main meal, we rashly decided to share a dessert, which was probably a step too far, considering the large-sized mains we had eaten.
Thankfully our campsite at the Lower Chittering Village Green was only 5 km away.
The rest of the day was spent working off the food coma!
Our last day before the housesit was spent relaxing, with nothing else in the area worth exploring.
Day 106 - Lower Chittering Housesit, WA 13 May, 2024
We only had 1.5 km to drive to get to the housesit, so we were there before 9:00 A.M.
The property is 50 acres of hilly country, and looks over Chittering Valley.
Our primary focus would be looking after their very energetic 4-year old Kelpie, called Kojo, and also ensuring their 30 or so cattle had enough water and food over the next week.
When we were starting to setup we could hear Kojo barking at us from out the back of the house, so we let him out to greet us very excitedly, before continuing to setup with him supervising us and inviting himself into Mata for a good sniff.
Our parking spot became reasonably level after using the levelling ramps, and we had the bonus of mains water and power to hook up to.
Later in the morning we went for a walk with Kojo, down the steep hill to the main gate, and established that we wouldn't be able to take Kojo anywhere near the cattle unrestrained. He started doing the inbred Kelpie thing of trying to round up the cattle, even though there was a fence between them, and although he had no training to know what to do if he had to.
We spent the rest of the day settling into the routine that would serve us for the next week.
Day 107 - 113 - Lower Chittering Housesit, WA 14 - 20 May, 2024
Our days doing the housesit were not taxing at all and we had a lot of downtime during the day, which we were thankful for because Kojo wasn't liking sleeping out the back of the house and would bark a lot during the night. He normally slept inside on his owner's bed.
We would go for a walk in the morning to give Kojo enough exercise so that he wouldn't bother us for the rest of the morning, and he would sleep mostly in the Kubota forever hopeful that someone would drive it somewhere.
Once he came to life again, which was usually after lunch, he liked to play fetch with his soft toys, but he wasn't good at giving them up to be thrown again after he'd fetched them.
The cattle didn't really need any day-to-day tending, apart from a daily check to make sure they had enough water. However, by the middle of the week the cows and calves had run out of hay and anytime we went anywhere near them they became quite vocal. After checking with owners we gave them a bale of hay every two days for the rest of our stay. The first we did this I pretty much got monstered by the cows and found it hard to spread the hay out sufficiently, so I learnt quickly to throw them a bit of hay first, then spread the rest out while they were distracted.
At the end of the week we needed a few supplies, which necessitated packing up and driving about 20 km into Bullsbrook. Once stocked up we fancied a pie for lunch, but we couldn't see a bakery in Bullsbrook, so we drove a bit further than planned to Aveley to get our pies, then drove part way back to Muchea (pronounced "Mewshay") to a park to eat them.
Back on the farm we continued on with the same routine for the next few days until the owners returned, doing odd jobs here and there to break the boredom.
Day 114 - Lower Chittering - Wanerie, WA 21 May, 2024
With the housesit finished, it was time to say goodbye to Kojo and get back to touristing.
Our first day back on the road turned out be "the day of the churches".
On the way out of Lower Chittering we stopped to look at the impressive Divine Mercy Shrine church, that also had an associated school. The church building itself was impressive, and was just as impressive inside.
Heading into Bindoon to do some shopping, we stopped outside the town at the All Saints Anglican church and wandered around the small graveyard for a while.
In Bindoon we visited the dump point, filled an empty gas bottle and did some shopping before continuing our drive to New Norcia, our main tourist spot for the day.
New Norcia was founded in 1847 by Spanish Benedictine monks as an Aboriginal mission, and included a monastery, a convent, a church, boys and girls schools, and education centre and many other buildings that make up the only monastic town in WA.
We spent a lot of time looking through the museum, which is housed in what was St Joseph's School for girls, and which also houses the visitor centre, gift shop and a number of exhibitions.
The museum takes visitors through the first 50 years of mission history, with many displays covering the lives of the monks, teachers and children, some of whom were part of the 'Stolen Generations'. As well as the usual museum exhibits, another two floors contained related exhibitions that included modern art, paintings that were copies of artworks originally done around the 1500-1600s, memorabilia from the bishops who ran the mission and also a collection of Charles Austin Gardner's botanical drawings.
After a drive around some of the other buildings, we stopped in at the roadhouse for a sandwich lunch.
Having seen all we wanted to see in New Norcia, we started driving towards The Pinnacles, which we would be exploring the next day, but at that point we didn't have any idea where we would stay the night.
Eventually we found a campground in Wanerie, about 100 km short of The Pinnacles, and decided to stop there for the night.
The unpowered sites at the campground were fairly basic, not very level, had annoying small flies, and sandy underfoot, so we didn't bother setting up outside.
The bonus was that we did have good internet though, so that kept us amused for the rest of the day.
Day 115 - Wanerie - Cervantes, WA 22 May, 2024
After a cool start to the day, we headed towards our major attraction for the day, The Pinnacles Desert, about 100 km north.
Along the way we stopped at the Nilgen Lookout for views of the Indian Ocean and to do the short 600 metre walk through dense bush, reading the information signs along the way to try and identify the plants we were looking at, which were mostly Banksias. As we pulled into the carpark we were greeted by the raucous noise of dozens of Black Cockatoos feeding in the bush. As we got further into the bush walk we got closer to the Cockatoos, which made them take off into the air, an impressive sight.
At The Pinnacles we had to first park in the car park and check in with our NP pass to gain entry to the park, during which time we were mobbed by hundreds of flies. That prompted us to dig out the flynets that we hadn't used since Rawlinna before we set off on the drive through The Pinnacles.
The Pinnacle drive is mostly on a narrow, sandy track, 4.5 km long, that winds its way through and past thousands of the limestone stone pillars. To date, scientists haven't been able to agree on exactly how they formed, but the consensus is that they are around 500,000 years old. We stopped a few times to take photos and marvel at the pillars up close, thankful that we had the flynets as the flies were even worse out there.
Once we'd done the loop road it was back to the car park, then a short walk to the discovery centre to learn what we could about the pillars and the desert environment they're in.
It was only a 20 km drive from there to Cervantes, where we planned to stay the night.
In Cervantes we visited the information centre to see what there is to do in town, before driving out to Lake Thetis for lunch and to take a look at the Stromatolites. The short walk to the Stromatolites was very easy, on concrete and boardwalk, but they were nowhere near as impressive as the Stromatolites we'd seen weeks earlier at Lake Clifton.
That was all the tourist stuff done for the day, so we drove back into town and checked into the RAC Cervantes Holiday Park for the night.
After finishing setting up, we went for a walk to the adjacent beach to check out the local area and possibilities for watching the sunset later in the day.
Later in the afternoon, on the way back to Mata from a bin run, I spotted another Explorer in the row next to ours. I had a chat with the owner Steve for a while, and he came to have a look at Mata to compare the different models. His was a second-hand Spirit. It was good to catch up with another Explorer owner, the first since Leona Dawson in Hopetoun, months earlier.
About half an hour before sunset we took some wine and ourselves along to a little park on the waterfront to watch the sunset.
The sunset was absolutely spectacular. We chatted with a guy from Perth while waiting for the sun to set, and also some other travellers as the sun was setting.
Day 116 - Cervantes - Eganu, WA 23 May, 2024
We had no idea where we would end up today, only that we would be heading in the direction of Meekatharra, nearly 700 km north-east of Cervantes.
Our original plan for the day included staying in Cervantes long enough to have lunch at the iconic Lobster Shack.
After a visit to the pharmacy to stock up on our med's, and a quick stop at the Thirsty Point Lookout, we drove back past the campground to the Lobster Shack. However it was far too early for lunch, and barely even morning tea time, so we decided to skip the lobster lunch plan and head to Jurien Bay about 20 km north.
In Jurien Bay we stopped at the waterfront to take a look at the remains of the old jetty, walk along the beach to the new jetty, then walk out the new jetty.
On our way out of Jurien Bay we pulled into the bakery to get some filled rolls for lunch, before continuing our drive to the Lesueur NP.
The drive into the NP was billed as a "scenic drive", but it wasn't really scenic at all. Partway around the loop drive we stopped at a recreation area that was the starting point of some walks around the area. From our previous brief stop at the NP entrance, we knew that the flies would be rabid, so we donned hats and flynets, shoes and also took the backpack that contains our first aid kit, snake bite bandage and 'Tick Off' spray, to remove any ticks we may pick up along the way. We'd read many reports of people having issues with ticks in the NP and surrounding areas.
We chose to do the shorter 1.8 km loop track that took us around a large hill on a very narrow gravel, rocky path. There were many information boards along the track detailing the wide variety of plants we walked past. However, with the rough surface of the track, the potential for snakes and ticks, and the ever-present flies, we didn't get to appreciate our surroundings as much as we perhaps should have.
Pleased to be back in Mata away from the flies, we drove further around the loop road to the Cockleshell Gully picnic area where we stopped to eat lunch, in Mata because of the flies.
After lunch we completed the drive back out to the turnoff, then continued travelling north-east, looking for a place to stay for the night.
The first place we looked at as a potential stop for the night was a roadhouse that was a bit rundown and didn't look very appealing, so we carried on.
Our second choice to stop at was a large gravelled parking area, just off the road. We found a level spot and set up for the night, but we didn't bother setting up outside because the flies had followed us all the way from the NP!
There was very little traffic on the road, and nobody else in the parking area, so we had a quiet night. And, we also had the bonus of a mostly clear sky for the full moon, which we took some photos of after the flies had gone to bed.
Day 117 - Eganu - Paynes Find, WA 24 May, 2024
Continuing our journey towards Meekatharra, today was going to be mostly a driving day, with very little to see along the way.
We had one brief stop in Waddy Forest to check out the metal sculpture beside the community hall, before stopping late in the morning at Buntine Rocks for morning tea, and to climb up to the top of the rocks for a 360 degree view of the area. The rocks are the only geological feature that stand out for kilometres around the otherwise flat and boring landscape.
With nothing else to see on the way, we drove directly to Paynes Find, an old gold mining town, where we booked into the campsite behind the roadhouse for the night and ordered lunch.
Lunch was pretty much a typical pub feed, but we enjoyed it all the same as we were quite hungry by then.
With lunch out of the way we went out the back of the roadhouse to find a camping spot, and were greeted by a large gravelled area with single men's quarters, trucks, trailers and other assorted machinery being used for the roadworks that were taking place in front of the roadhouse. Also, there was a very loud generator nearby that runs 24/7. Not ideal, but we'd already paid for it so set up anyway, but not outside because of the average surroundings and the ever-present rabid flies.
Day 118 - Paynes Find - Meekatharra, WA 25 May, 2024
Today was going to be another mostly driving day of about 350 km to Meekatharra.
The first part of the drive was about 140 km to Mount Magnet, where we stopped off to pick up a few supplies, then set out on the town's tourist drive, which ended back out on the highway in the direction we were going.
What we thought would be a standard tourist drive turned into a 4WD adventure!
The tourist route started off to be fairly boring, going past mine sites then up to the lookout on quite rough roads. The lookout wasn't particularly spectacular, looking out over a mine site and the surrounding countryside. There was an additional walking track up to the very top of the lookout, from the carpark, but we decided to skip that because the flies were too annoying.
Continuing on we were directed off the rough gravel track at times to view some old mother and child graves, an old cemetery that appeared to have only grave left and a natural amphitheatre that was quite impressive.
All that we needed to do from that point was to drive out to the highway to continue our journey north. The gravel track became rougher and rougher, until eventually we came to a part that had been washed out completely, and piles of gravel had been used to block it off. Not wanting to have to retrace our steps, we decided to do some bush bashing to get back out to the road, which involved taking a route around a huge hill of mine tailings, around trees and over rocks and smaller washouts, until we came to another gravel road that led to the highway.
However, between us and the gravel road there was a deep ditch to navigate, otherwise we'd have to turn around and go back the way we'd come. In for a penny, in for a pound, Meg got out and directed me through the ditch onto the gravel road. Whew!
The next stop was Cue, where we stopped for lunch and to have a look at their many information boards on the town's history, and dozens of metal sculptures, as well as the old gaol that was built in the late 1800s.
After another 110 km drive we arrived at our final destination for the day of Meekatharra, filled up with diesel and checked into the 'rustic' caravan park for the night.
Once again we didn't setup outside because the flies that threatened to carry us away.
Day 119 - Meekatharra - Melangata Station, WA 26 May, 2024
We started the day by hanging around Meekatharra, waiting for the shop to open at 10:00 A.M. so we could grab a few bits and pieces to get us through the next couple of days on a remote station stay. After a while we got sick of waiting and left camp. Before leaving town, we drove up to the lookout, but only had an underwhelming view of a disused mine pit and area surrounding Meekatharra.
The day’s journey started with a drive back to Cue, where we called into the roadhouse to get the things we wanted. Leaving Cue, we left the highway and got onto the back roads that we love, not realising we wouldn’t see tarseal again for the rest of the day.
We had about a 200 km drive in front of us to get to Melangata Station from Cue, on sometimes challenging roads, with a few stops planned along the way.
Our first stop was the old gold mining town of Big Bell, which was established in the mid-1930s when gold was found nearby, and was done and dusted before the end of the 1950s. It’s now a ghost town with the skeletons of a few buildings left to show what was a once prosperous town. The main relic is the Big Bell Hotel, which would have been an impressive building in the day, and which purported at the time to have the longest bar in Australia. The only other building worth noting was the church, that had some impressive graffiti on the inside walls of the sad building.
Travelling on some more rough, unsealed roads, our next stop was Walga Rock, the second largest monolith in Australia after Uluru. At the base of one side of the rock is a cave that contains the largest Aboriginal art site in WA. Although fading and a little hard to make out, the art was very impressive, stretching over a couple of hundred metres. Weirdly, one of the more easily recognisable pieces of art is of a two-masted sailing ship with square portholes, which some people say maybe a depiction of the Batavia. After lunch, we then drove the loop track around the rock to the northern end, where we had read it was possible to climb up on the rock. We couldn’t find that access point, so I put the drone up to get a video of the top of the rock instead.
Our last tourist spot for the day was the Dalgaranga meteorite site, which required more driving on challenging roads. The meteorite site was a little underwhelming, being one the smallest in Australia at 25 metres diameter, and the youngest at 3,000 old.
Our last challenge for the day was to get to Melangata with no internet, therefore no Google Maps to guide us. We had to go old school and break out the Hema map book for navigation, crossing fingers at the start that we were actually going in the right direction. The roads we travelled on that part of the day’s journey were by far the worst, with many badly corrugated sections, interspersed with reasonable patches that allowed us to travel at up to 70 km/h.
We made it into Melangata Station around 4:00 P.M. and got set up for the next two nights.
It was still 28 degrees by that time, so we set up outside too, thinking that we would just have to deal with the flies to be comfortable out in the breeze.
We were met by our hosts Ken and Jo not long later, and they invited us over to the camp kitchen area to sit around a fire and chat with the hosts and other campers. We were also met by their three huge Maremma dogs, and a couple of other sheep dogs, all of whom were very friendly.
At 5:00 P.M. we wandered over to the adjacent camp kitchen area where the hosts Jo and Ken had a roaring fire going. We had a drink while chatting to them and were eventually joined by two other couples, who we also swapped war stories with until the sun was long gone and it was dinner time.
Day 120 - Melangata Station, WA 27 May, 2024
After a cold start to the morning we went for a short walk, on the shorter of the two marked walks around the station. There wasn’t much to see however apart from red dirt, She-Oak trees and dry creek beds. We did see flocks of dozens of Red-Tailed Black Cockatoos, with their brilliantly-coloured tails flashing in the morning light as they flew away from us.
The walk turned into a mini adventure though, when I realised I’d lost my fly net that had been hanging loosely on top of my hat. We had to retrace our steps by tracking our footsteps in the sandy dirt, until we got to the point where my fly net was stuck in tree branches that we’d passed under.
At 10:00 A.M. we went up to the homestead for a tour conducted by hostess Jo. The homestead is a heritage-listed building designed by the famous architect/Anglican priest/Catholic priest/builder/diarist John Hawes, who had designed many other buildings around the region from Geraldton to New Norcia.
The story of John Hawes was fascinating in itself, and the house, that was completed in 1917, was just as impressive. Hawes apparently had a fascination with the number 7, and many features of the house incorporated this number, like the seven arches and the seven blocks used at the top of each arch.
One very unusual design feature of the house is the complete lack of doors! Standing at the main entrance, you look through three arches into the house, none of which have doors. The house is completely open to the elements and any wildlife that chooses to go in. Thankfully it very rarely rains there.
After the tour we were treated to coffee and freshly-baked scones with jam and cream, which we ate outside the turret, another unusual design feature of the house, chatting some more with Jo and Ken.
We took the opportunity to relax for the rest of the day, until it was time for the 5:00 P.M. get-together around the campfire, chatting with other campers again and watching the beautiful sunset.
Day 121 - Melangata Station - Mullewa, WA 27 May, 2024
During the night we were woken several times by the dogs barking, which we had been told usually indicated that there was a Dingo close to the sheep, and the dogs would bark to scare it off. This could also be caused by Kangaroos and Emus we were told.
We were woken again later in the morning by the strident screeching of the Red-Tailed Black Cockatoos, flying around in large flocks of dozens of birds.
After saying goodbye to our hosts, and scrounging some fresh eggs, we started the drive out of Melangata Station, heading initially for Yalgoo. The unsealed roads started out very good, but did deteriorate after the first turnoff. Still, they were much better than the roads into Melangata.
In Yalgoo, we stopped briefly at the Saint Hyacinth's Chapel, perched on a hill overlooking the small town, to read the information boards about how the chapel was designed by John Hawes.
Continuing on the drive we stopped in Pindar to look at some of the old buildings, then drove out on the wildflower trail, hoping to see some out-of-season flowers, but the road condition was really bad so we gave up on that idea.
Our last stop for the day was Mullewa, where our first stop was a site where
Hawes would provide church services to the local Aboriginal people. He had cut a rough altar out of a rock and encouraged the local people to decorate it before the services.
In Mullewa, we visited the John Hawes designed and built Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church church. The building is quite impressive considering that Hawes did much of the building single-handed. Unfortunately the church was locked so we didn't get to see inside it.
We drove out of town to a free camp to see if it would be suitable for the night, but because there was no internet, and our last two nights had been internet-free, we just had lunch there, then drove back into town to the council-run caravan park for the night.
We lost ourselves in the interwebs for most of the rest of the day, catching up with stuff we'd missed out on in the past two days.
Day 122 - Mullewa - Geraldton, WA 29 May, 2024
After some light rain overnight, we woke to a very strong cold wind this morning, something we'd been warned to expect in WA, but hadn't really encountered to this point.
Continuing on with our John Hawes pilgrimage, our first stop for the day was St James Chapel in Kojarena, a quaint small church that opened in 1935.
Not far from the chapel, across the other side of the highway, we checked out the ADF Satellite Communications Station. We thought it a little strange that a supposedly sensitive installation like the comm's station would have a public lookout!
Next up was our final destination for the day, Geraldton, where our first stop was the Monsignor Hawes Heritage Centre, which is adjacent to one of Hawes' finest achievements, the Saint Francis Xavier Cathedral.
The cathedral was open and we spent some time walking through it, marvelling at the architecture and sometimes odd features of the building, like the orange and white striped arches. I was surprised that the cathedral also includes two large pipe organs.
The heritage centre contained very detailed information on the entire life of John Hawes, from his birth to strict Anglican parents, to his death in Florida, after spending his final years in the Bahamas as a Franciscan monk.
We drew out the visit to the heritage centre until the restaurant next door opened, and had extremely tasty Middle Eastern meals for lunch.
Geraldton is one of the progressive WA towns that has a free RV park for a small number of vehicles. We planned to stay there and didn't want to miss out on a free spot, so we drove there straight after lunch and grabbed one of the last spots.
Once we were setup we walked out the Esplanade next to the RV park, reading all the information boards on the history of Geraldton, and particularly on the jetties that used to be there from the time Geraldton was settled by Europeans in 1840.
We continued our walk along the waterfront, reading more information boards, then went into the town to have a look at the art gallery, which is located in the visitor information centre. Unfortunately, the visitor centre was closing just as we arrived so we missed out on the art gallery.
Wandering back to the RV park we checked out a lot more art works. There was wall art, bollard art, footpath art and rubbish bin art. In fact anything that didn't move quickly was covered in artworks.
Back at the RV park we sheltered inside for the rest of the day to avoid the strong and cool wind.
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