After a half decent sleep, it is never the greatest sleep when you are not in your own bed, we awoke early and went for a quick scenic drive around Geraldton before breakfast and hitting the road to Shark Bay.
Geraldton is one of WA’s water sports hotspots, particularly for yachting, windsurfing, surfing, diving and fishing. With consistent summer winds Geraldton has earned its title as Australia’s windsurfing capital.
Standing 34 metres high Point Moore Lighthouse was the first all steel tower built on the mainland of Australia, back in 1878.
The memorial of HMAS Sydney II in Geraldton has become the country’s premier site for honouring the 645 Australian sailors who were lost off the Western Australian coast during a World War II battle with a German raider in November 1941.
The memorial features five elements steeped in symbolism:
A silver dome of 645 seagulls to represent each of the lost Sydney sailors.
The wall of remembrance shows photographs of the ship and the names of the Sydney crew.
A bronze statue of a woman gazes desperately out to sea as she awaits news of the ill-fated Sydney.
The stele – a single, dramatic shape representing the bow of the ship.
The pool of remembrance ‘Closing the Circle’. 644 Seagulls are lining the base of the pool, the 645th, standing 2 metres tall above the pool, its wing indicating the spot where the wreck lies together with longitude and latitude coordinates.
The combination of these five elements results in an extremely moving and fitting memorial. I have to admit, I have never been so moved by a memorial as I was here.
Heading north towards Kalbarri National Park, with me in the drivers seat, I took the turn off to Horrocks. Bad mistake, beautiful little town and bay but no road out except the one we came in on. Looking down the hill at Horrocks, we were surprised to see luxury homes built on the sand dunes. From this viewpoint, it looked like there was nothing in front of the houses except the ocean. With retirement in mind, I couldn’t think of a better location.
We were now on the North West Coastal highway which is the main link between regional centres at Geraldton, Carnarvon, Karratha and Port Hedland. There are no towns along the highway however several roadhouses are available for re-fuelling, refreshments and taking a break. To visit the coastal towns there are turnoff’s along the highway. It makes for a very long trip when the towns can be anything from 5kms to 150kms off the beaten track and then you have to drive back the same way to get back on the highway.
Diverting of the highway onto the coastal road to Kalbarri, there was another turn off to Port Gregory. At the time, the name rang a bell but I couldn’t remember why. 5kms up the road I remembered, “The Pink Lake” and yes it is truly pink. It is however best seen at sundown. The pink hue is created by bacteria which becomes trapped in the salt granules. It provides a rich source of Beta Carotene, which is harvested from small ponds.
Renowned for stunning rugged scenery, Kalbarri is a fishing, surfing, kayaking and diving hotspot.
The rugged coast of Kalbarri.
A rare photo of me trying to tell Tony not to take a photo of me walking.
Driving inland through the Kalbarri National Park the road seemed to go forever. I never realised when I took this photo that there is a dead kangaroo and a scavenging crow on the left side of the road. Maybe I didn’t notice it because it is such a common sight on these roads.
I had wanted to visit Kalbarri National park as there is a couple of lookouts that are really quite spectacular. Unfortunately, the park had a number of road closures, so I didn’t get to see either of the lookouts that I had wanted to see. It was a real disappointment.
Then there was the general landscape as we drove along. People have asked what did you see, my answer is simple, a lot of nothing. Red earth and bush with lots’ of dead kangaroos, crows and eagles.
The Overlander roadhouse is positioned well, at the turnoff to Shark Bay. With another 130 kms to go before another fuelling stop at Denham in Shark Bay, it is for most the perfect place to do just that, re-fuel. We didn’t and with warning lights flashing at us 30km’s from Denham, Tony was amusing himself working out how long it was going to take me to run into Denham for fuel.
It was only another 5kms to Denham, just a short walk if we ran out of fuel now.
There in front of us is an Emu crossing the road. All I could do, as it was happening so fast, was try and capture the shot through the windscreen.
Note the road sign of a Bilby on the left of the road. I have never seen a sign of that kind before.
As the Emu ran into the bush very aware of our car stopped and me trying to take a half decent photo, this was all I managed to capture.
To give you some idea of where I am in Shark Bay. In the next entry we will drive to Money Mia to see the dolphins.
What a fantastic trip, Lots of raod but lots to see.Love the emu and the canyon. The rocky cliff is spectacular. Thanks for taking us along.
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PJ, there lots more to see, so stay on for the ride. The West Coast is so vastly different from the East Coast where most of the Australian population lives.
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I love all those wide open spaces. Reminds me of our southwest where you can see forever it seems. I love how you take us along on the ride. That pink lake is amazing! I can see why it would be better at sunset, when the colors are more saturated. And even if you weren’t able to take perfect photos of the emu and echidna, it was still fun to see them in the wild.
And please tell Tony thanks for indulging your ‘photo sessions’. Otherwise we would never get to see this amazing country!!!!!
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Normally when Tony and I travel, I do most of the driving. I am not a good passenger and I drive a lot faster. This trip I found it easier if Tony drove, that way when I did ask him to stop, I could jump out of the car quickly and get the photo I wanted. I drove only when I wanted to get somewhere faster, or when Tony was tired.
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I’m really enjoying going along with you and Tony on your road trip! Those long roads with not much to see does indeed remind me of our American Southwest. We have a saying here “It’s a fur (far) piece to anywhere”. That seems to pretty well fit the roads on your West Coast area, too. Thanks for the maps. They are very helpful. Can’t wait to see the next installment.
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