In the Valley of Good Taste
We spent just one day in Geraldton which seems to owe its existence to the fact that it is quite a large port and also to the lobster fishing industry. We went for a short walk near the campsite and all of a sudden we saw what looked like two ospreys sitting on a log by the beach – and they were ospreys! They had a nest up a big pole with a chick looking out of it. Apparently they stay there all year round and don’t migrate like our ospreys. Then we went to the museum where the main attraction was a large display about shipwrecks, mainly of Dutch East India Company ships in the 17th century. They used to go to Cape Town and then sail across to the west coast of Australia before turning north for Indonesia to collect spices. Sometimes they misjudged it and ran onto the many reefs along the coast. One of the wrecks (The Batavia) was the subject of a particularly gruesome film which we watched. Many of the survivors including women and children were murdered by some of the crew who had mutinied and then when the remaining people were eventually rescued there were rather brutal executions. Two mutineers were however marooned on the coast of Australia and could have become the first settlers but nobody knows what became of them.
We also visited a very moving memorial for the HMAS Sydney which went down with 645 crew duriing WW2. It consists of a metal dome made out of 645 flying seagulls and there is a bronze of a woman looking anxiously out to sea.
The next day (Weds 15th) we set off from Geraldton but only drove for about 20 mins before stopping near Greenough for a walk along the river, about 17km. We nearly tripped over a snake on the path – only the second one we have seen so far. Then on to Cervantes where we had quite a lot of rain in the evening which put a bit of a damper on our swimming plans. I had to get my thick fleece out! The thing to see near Cervantes are the Pinnacles. There are thousands of limestone pinnacles in the desert, all shapes and sizes. They reminded me of stone circles like we have at Avebury etc but of course they are entirely natural. We arrived in the Swan Valley later that afternoon.
The Swan Valley calls itself the valley of good taste and is primarily a wine producing area, although there other nice goodies on offer such as nougat, beer, cheese, chocolate etc. As I mentioned previously It was Katie’s idea that we should go on a wine tour so I had to go along to keep an eye on her. We booked a tour for Saturday through the tourist information office. Many of the places round here have very English names – Guildford, Caversham, and even High Wycombe!
Friday: Off to Perth today. We started off in the museum which, in common with most of the others we have visited is very good indeed. Museums have really improved a lot in recent years I think. The best bit was a display called “From diamonds to dinasaurs” which traced the history of the universe from the Big Bang through to the present day (and all before lunch too). I learned a lot that I didn’t know about meteorites and it was interesting to relate the displays to places we have actually visited in Oz.
We have walked such a long way in 4 months that I had to buy some new sandals! They threw away my old ones at the shop – most embarassing.
Then we went to King’s Park, which overlooks the city and has great displays of native flowers ( it is Spring here) including lots of everlasting flowers.
The wine tour was a great success. We visited 5 wineries and had tastings at each one. In this area the main wines seem to be Shiraz and Chenin Blanc, although we had a very acceptable Grenache at one of the wineries as well as a wine called Voignier that I had never heard of before. Also Verdelho is popular here but we weren’t impressed. Included in the tour was an excellent lunch of bread, cheese, cold meats and salad with a glass of sparkling wine. Then we sampled the nougat and chocolate before finishing up with the beer which was unfortunately German lager, the only down side of the day. We were dropped off at the campsite and didn’t really need any dinner that evening! Just a lie down.
We met a rather nice Canadian couple at the campsite. They are going to travel up the west coast reversing our trip so we gave them our map and pointed out the best places to go for snorkelling.
Fremantle is apparently the place to go on Sundays so we followed the trend and went there on the train. Katie had a wish to visit the prison which is now a tourist attraction. It originally housed convicts until they stopped sending them in the 1860s and then it was a maximum security prison until 1991. Some of the cells were displayed as they would have been set up for convicts and I think they had a better deal than the modern day prisoners. Even when the prison closed there was no plumbing in the cells and conditions were appalling. They were even worse for the women prisoners who were housed there until 1970. They only got one cold bath a week and had to spend 8 hours a day in cages in the yard if they weren’t washing sheets or darning socks, the only occupations which were thought to be appropriate for them in those days. It really was very depressing. We also heard about all the escapes and attempted escapes. Not many people succeeded in getting out and then most of them were recaptured. Unfortunately, the next morning I realised that I had left my camera in Fremantle, probably on a bench outside the prison where we had lunch. All my photos of our trip down the coast! So I reported it to the police (about as useless as they are back home) and then phoned the prison as soon as they opened. And somebody had handed it in! So off I went to Fremantle to retrieve it – what a relief! In the afternoon we had a great walk of about 10km in a national park not far from the campsite. There were lots of lovely wild flowers and more kangarooos than you could shake a stick at. Very tame ones who posed for photos.
Today we should have gone to Rottnest Island but they messed up our transport to the ferry so we are going tomorrow instead. It is about 45 mins by boat from Perth and has some lovely beaches and wildlife. So instead we are in Perth again this time for a tour round the WACA. We even got to stand on the pitch! This will I know only be of interest to cricket lovers but they have a museum there with lots of cricket memorabilia (signed bats and lots of photos etc). And they still have an old-fashioned scoreboard (not an electronic one) and no big screens so it is like stepping back in time.
After lunch we went to the art gallery and joined a tour on Aboriginal Art. This included dot paintings on bark but also “Western” style paintings. And lastly we attended a lecture on Tutankhamun. So we are feeling very well-educated and cultured at the moment. Oh, and I didn’t mention the display of wildlife photography, rather like the Wildlife Photographer of the Year that we have at home.
kt_m_white
October 26th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
I so enjoy your blog. well written.