Phang Nga Bay Surprises

Tuesday morning after Jim had managed to squeeze in an hour massage, we packed up and left our bags at the accommodation.  It was time for the return trip to the dentist.  Fortunately for Jim the second half of the procedure was no where near as traumatic as the first.  He was also supposed to have a tooth pulled, but the dentist in fact wasn't well, so they rebooked this.

Walking back to the guesthouse, we organised a taxi that was nearby and headed to our next destination at Karon Beach.  On the way we asked the taxi driver if he would be able to pick up a fare on the way back.  But we found out that he is not allowed, nor are those who come from Karon Beach allowed to pick up in Patong.  We have heard that cartels have taken over the taxi and tuk tuk trade.  This has put fixed pricing on the major routes.  But some of them are a bit strange.  It's about a 50 minute trip to the airport and that is around 800 baht, but just the 10 - 15 minutes trip to here is 400 baht.

We had a laugh when we arrived as our room is again on the top 4th floor, so we should end up fit by the time we walk all these stairs.  The room is really lovely, quite new and very big with a very comfortable king size bed.  There is a wall of floor to ceiling windows with a lovely outlook.  They have a cafe below and we had lunch here.  After getting settled it was time to hit the beach.  The water temperature here is so lovely.

After returning and showering we headed out for dinner to a nearby place I had picked out during the afternoon.  Lovely cheap meal, with a free salad bar and even a complementary scoop of icecream at the end.  After dinner we started walking along the beach road, all the way to Kata.  By the time we got back it was after 10 pm.

Wednesday was a very big day.  I wanted to do a tour of Phang Nga Bay and researched about all the tours that are available.  In the end I settled on what was a more expensive tour, Phuket Sail Tours  but it got great reviews and the itinerary sounded excellent.  They try and avoid the massive crowds that are out there each day.  So this meant we were picked up by 6.40 in the morning.  The trip took about 50 minutes which gave us quite a good tour of places we hadn't been to.  Once we arrived at the office they had breakfast such as toasted sandwiches ready for us.  It was then time to board our boat.  One of the reasons for picking this trip was that it was by speed boat so we got to see so much more than the other much slower boats.  Even though it is licensed for more, they never take more than twenty on the tour.  Our group this day had ten adults and three kids.

We headed to the Krabi Islands and the first stop was snorkelling.  Not as good as some we have done, but enjoyable none the less.  When we first jumped in there was an enormous school of fish, but we must have scared them away.

Next we ventured into what they call a hong, which means room.  You enter through a narrow opening to a hidden pool.

 After leaving the first hong we went past a camp in the rock where a man collects birds nest.

The second hong didn't have crowds and we stopped here for a swim.

I kept looking at one of the men on the boat, because he looked familiar somehow.  Jim was swimming out further and was talking to him, when suddenly he said - you're Jim aren't you and that's Carolyn.  It was a second cousin that I hadn't seen for years.  When we were first married he moved out from New Zealand and lived with us for the first six months, but I had only seen him intermittently after that as we had left Melbourne.  Such an amazing coincidence to be in another country and choose the same small tour.

Swimming spot

The tour took in some amazing sights with the limestone karst islands rising out of the sea.  We were taken by canoe through a mangrove area, saw sea gypsies and their fish farm, had lunch at a floating Muslim village, saw 1500 year old rock paintings, went past the famous James Bond Island (we didn't stop, part of their policy of avoiding the huge crowds), and finally pulled into a lovely beach that had a huge cave that we were given flash lights and were able to walk into.

Our canoe paddler cut a leaf to take this photo

A young chap from the sea gypsy camp with a small shark 

1500  year old rock paintings high in the cliff

Leaving the floating village

Going past some of the crowds.  This was only a few, there were more on the other side.

Crowded James Bond Island

But it wasn't long before the second speed boat and some of the big boats caught up to us looking to share this great little spot.   There were also some wild monkeys on the beach and although they handed out bananas to feed them Jim and I decided to stay well clear.  One of the children disobeyed the instructions not to touch them and was nearly bitten.  

Our private beach no longer private

Back on the water we flew past the other big boats and long boats back to the port and our mini van ride home. 

Returning home

After dinner we decided to head back for an early night after such a long day.

Thursday morning we had breakfast at the cafe.  The owner, Mark, who sounded English, was at the desk.  We hadn't met him yet as he wasn't there when we arrived and we were out all the day before.  After chatting for a few minutes, he asked was I Carolyn.  When I said yes, he told me that I had got the bargain of the century.  I had only just been telling Jim how after I had booked this place, the price changed dramatically.  It seems something went wrong with the system, and he stopped using Wotif after that.  No wonder we thought this place was such good value.

We went to a nearby optician that I had spoken to the night before, and ordered prescription sunglasses for me.  She had checked and could get the lenses in the next day.  She advertises that she specialises in progressive lenses.  It was then back by taxi to Patong and Jim's dental appointment.  But oops we had messed up and hadn't rechecked the appointment time and when we turned up at 1 discovered it was for midday.  They were nice enough to fit us in at 4, so we contacted my long lost cousin Colin and caught up with him again.  We also spent some time in the huge JungCeylon shopping centre.  We thought we had seen it all, but the taxi in the morning dropped us at the back of it, and we discovered we had only see a tiny bit of it after all.

Cousin Colin with wife Sarah

At four it was time for Jim to face the dentist again to have a rear molar removed.  He had had many fillings in this over the years and the last one fell out when we were in Melbourne.  A dentist there told him it was past having anything done and should be pulled. This wasn't a very pleasant experience for him, and was far more painful than he was expecting.  The dentist had four handmaidens in with her ( so did I when I had my teeth cleaned).  It appears one of these was for holding his hand, while another stroked his arm.

After the trauma of the extraction we took a taxi straight back to our accommodation where we took it easy until dark.  We did some more walking and ended up with food from the street vendors opposite the rooms, just steamed rice for Jim.  We took this back and ate on our verandah.

Patong Beach

It probably wasn't the sort of anniversary we were planning on.  After an hour in the dentist's chair, Jim wasn't a very happy chappy. One side of his face was completely numb and took quite a few hours to come back to life.  The best thing seemed to be to go back to the room for a while for him to recuperate, and we headed out for just a light dinner later in the evening.  The street food is really so good and very cheap.  After walking around for a while we ended up at the one we ate at our first night.  One of the young chaps working there recognised us, which I thought was pretty good considering the numbers of tourists that must go through.

Monday morning it was more walking, walking.  We started at our end of the beach and walked right down to the far end.  Since the morning after we arrived, we have been driven crazy with people on motorbikes stopping us and asking if we speak English and were we Aussies.  I woke up within a few seconds the first time that they are trying to get you into an information session on timeshare apartments.  No thanks.  Jim tried saying Nien when asked if he spoke English, but the AussieWide Caravan hat he is wearing was a bit of a giveaway.  We have bought a new hat this afternoon.  They aren't locals doing this, but expats from varying countries.  After one pair had stopped us three times in the morning, one of them an Australian, we asked them what was in it for them.  It seems that it is hard to get working visas even when they have local partners and if they can get you in the door for the presentation they get $100 which they split.  We spent quite a long time talking to them and they even resorted to almost begging us just to go along and feign interest so they could get paid.  We got caught at one of these things years ago on the Gold Coast, never again.

With all our walking we came across another large market, but alas it was still same same.  We stopped and talked to one of the traders who had excellent English, and he said that everyone gets their goods from the same supplier, so they will all have the same thing or not have the same thing.  We did buy some Tshirts at one of the stalls. a Billabong (no wonder they are going broke, they are the majority of knock offs) Callaway and  a Dolce and Gabbana.

We have come up with some strategies for crossing the busy roads.  We wait until there are a group of people wanting to cross and then go with them, making sure they are between us and the traffic.  We also crossed with a traffic cop as the traffic seemed a little more inclined to stop for him.  Eventually we found ourselves back at the pedestrian crossing.  Jim started talking to a young chap at a stall next to the lights.  He told Jim you have to just walk out and they will stop.  To my horror Jim did exactly this, and they did stop as I raced after him.

After lunch we walked down to the beach for a swim.  There are two cruise ships in today and this morning we could see all the tenders going backwards and forwards.  The beach as usual was quite full, and the lovely flat calm water the day before now had a few waves in it today.  But it is a delightful temperature.

Jim was pretty impressed with the two hour massage he had yesterday and lined up again today.  I opted for an easy time getting some washing done and looking up some things for later in the week.  There is certainly no shortage of massage places of varying types.  Jim reckons they sounds like sea gulls as they call out to you as you walk past.  Where he has been going is just up from our accommodation, she has her credentials on the window as well as a No Sex sign.  We do wonder just how qualified many of them here are.

We did an evening walk before dinner, up along the only part of the beach we hadn't been to.  The cruise ships were all lit up and one was on its way out.  According to my map there was supposed to be street food in that area, but we couldn't find it.  So we went back to the courtyard area with the free entertainment and had lovely bbq'd spare ribs and chicken plus a number of things on sticks that they fry.  We shared this between us with some steamed rice and it was very yummy.

We had been in Bangla Road a number of times at varying times of the day, but never late evening.  So this was quite an eye opener.  You could barely take a step without someone shoving a card in your face advertising a ping pong show.  There were lots of girls (or maybe lady boys) disinterestedly hanging on to poles above the tables.  There were just so many bars and shows you wonder how they can all make a living.  We walked the length of the street laughing at all that was happening around us.  I'm not sure who was holding whose hand the tightest.  The majority of people around however looked to be mostly sticky beak tourists like us.

Phuket

It's been some months since I updated the blog.  After getting the van back from the repairers we continued heading south to our friends at Bridgetown in the South West of Western Australia.  After a few days there we flew to Melbourne where we had about seven weeks catching up with family.

We returned to Bridgetown just before the New Year, helped our friends with some of their house renovations and hooked the van back up for a fortnight stopping at Margaret River, Busselton and Freemantle, with a day trip out to Rottnest Island.

To add a bit of a mix into the travel, we are now in Thailand for a month, celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary.

We left on Friday 27th February.  It was a three hour trip back to Perth and we allowed plenty of time in case of the unexpected.  The only slight hassle was huge roadworks around the airport with the road we wanted to turn into closed off.  It was a long detour around to then take a flyover across the road we had been on to gain access to where we wanted to go.

Our flight left on time, if not a little early.  It was a Virgin flight and when you book you get to choose your seats.  I took a gamble and booked window for me and aisle for Jim, hoping if it wasn't a full flight, no one would want the middle seat.  It worked and we had an empty seat between us.  The flight was direct to Phuket and took around six hours.  We were served quite a nice meal and Virgin have an interesting entertainment system.  You use your own device, download the app before you leave and then hook in via wifi to their system.  It worked very well, and Jim watched a couple of movies.

The flight was mostly uneventful, with just a few big bumps two thirds of the way through.  I think after all the recent crashes everyone is a bit more nervous and Jim admitted to not enjoying that part.  The woman across the aisle from us even threw up.  I didn't think it was that bad.

Getting through the airport was a breeze, and unbelievably our bags were the first ones out.  I had organised a taxi with our accommodation, and with the chaos outside it was wonderful to have someone with a sign and your name and not have to negotiate where to go.  The airport is a fair way from Patong where I had booked our accommodation and even with the quiet roads at that hour, it still took about 3/4 of an hour.

Our accommodation is well situated being in a side street, so away from the noise but still close to everything.  It's a good size room with a king size bed, typically Asian hard but comfortable once you get used to it. There is everything you could want, fridge etc, even a small balcony, so a bargain at just over $30 a night.  The only downside is that we are on the top 4th floor and no elevator so lots of exercise for us. Our room looks out directly onto the rooms of the swanky Novotel.

It was around 9.30 pm when we arrived, which was quite a few hours from the meal on the plane.  So despite the hour, and as we weren't that tired, we headed out for some supper.   At the end of the street we could see lots of roadside eateries on the other side.  The road is oneway, but the streams of traffic are endless, so we started walking down our side instead.  After a while and we couldn't find anything suitable, we took our life in our hands and crossed the road.  We had lovely meals of noodles and seafood and rice and seafood.  They had a choice of serving size, and the small was quite perfect.  We continued walking around for quite a while, just enjoying the hussle and bustle of the night life.

Saturday morning we headed out for breakfast around eight.  It took a while to find somewhere as there isn't much happening at that hour.  We finally found Nicky's Handlebar, which I think never closes, and we had their American Breakfast.

We both had dental appointments at 11.30, so we spent the rest of the morning walking, walking and finding our way around the town.  One of the reasons for choosing Thailand was that we knew that Jim probably needed a fair bit done, and I had researched carefully before choosing a good clinic.  I had booked a clean and a check, and although he found no cavities he did say that I had a numberof exposed roots which should be filled - ten of them!!  I'm a firm believer in don't fix if it isn't broken (as well as a confirmed dental coward), so I chose the option of just the clean please.  He said that in the future they could get sensitive, so I'll worry when that happens.

Unfortunately as expected, Jim didn't fare as well.  He had a badly broken tooth which he had been told in Melbourne couldn't be saved.  However, nothing can be done for that as an implant can't be done for at least six months, as well as a couple of other problem.

We left the dentist with an appointment to return at 5 for Jim's clean and polish, and had lunch and a look around the nearby large shopping centre and many markets.  Unfortunately the markets are just full of the same knock offs of bags and t shirts which got a bit boring after a while.  The shopping centre was also disappointing as we discovered there was little that was cheaper than at home, even those with half price sales.  By the end of the day I had found a few bargains.  So we made our way back to our accommodation for Jim to have a massage nearby before the stress of a return to the dentist.

The return to the dentist was uneventful except that they found some cavities which they suggested filling.  Poor Jim might not have great memories by the time the week is out.  We left the dentist and decided to walk on further down where we hadn't been before.  After a little while I was quite excited to see a pedestrian crossing.  This was where we had our best laugh for the day.  We dutifully pressed the button, the lights changed, and not a single vehicle stopped! We eventually ran between vehicles to get across.  I had to check then that the lights were actually changing.  So we stood on the other side as the next lot of unsuspecting tourists pressed the button, and yes, the light definitely changed to red, and again not one vehicle stopped.

So lots more walking as we made our way back along the other side, and then down the infamous Bangla Road, which was just starting to warm up for the night.  On reaching the beach at the end of the road our breath was taken away at the sight before us.  It was just on sunset and the colours were amazing, one of the most beautiful I have seen, and in the last twelve months we have seen some beauties.

We continued walking along the beach road, just enjoying the atmosphere around us.  We came across a great little area with many food stalls and a central eating area which even had live entertainment.  It was lovely food at a great price and we enjoyed the time there, especially the Thai dancers.  The tip we gave when they walked around later must have been OK as they offered to have a photo taken if we liked.  It was surprisingly late by the time we got back to our room.

playing with fire

Sunday is our 40th wedding anniversary, and of course one of the reasons for coming here.  This time we were prepared for breakfast as we had discovered a nice place just on the corner that we hadn't noticed the morning before.  After that we took the short walk to the beach for a swim.  So many people under umbrellas on the sand, but that didn't interest us.  The water was lovely and after a shower it was time to go exploring for lunch.  We found a very nice, tiny little cafe at the entrance to a hotel in a side street.  Jim is now having a two hour massage at another place in our street while I catch up on this blog, then it's the 1.5 k walk again for his next dental appointment.







.

Goldfields and Wildflowers

Saturday the 4th October, after a little last minute shopping, we left the coast and headed west and inland.  Our first stop was Mullewa, a town we had stopped at three years ago.  We found the town rather sad and forlorn.  Most of the businesses were closed and boarded up, and of the few that remained the majority had "For Sale" signs displayed.  The parks and gardens were well kept, but the general air of the town was one of neglect.  So many of these little towns are struggling to survive.

But money has been pumped into many of them.  As well as the well maintained parks, there was a wonderful paved walkway celebrating the history of Monsigner John Hawes.  He was born in England and studied architecture initially before becoming a clergy in the Anglican Church.  After eight years he then decided to become a Catholic priest. Eventually he ended up in Western Australia where he spent the next 26 years as an architect as well as a parish priest, designing wonderful churches in the middle of nowhere and often doing a lot of the building himself.  He was the parish priest at Mullewa for many years, and this church is one of his most celebrated.  All of his designs are famous for the way they blend into the landscape and have made the most of local materials. 

Original open air church and stone altar built by Monsignor Hawes before his church was completed

Wild flowers nearby

The church at Mullewa

After lunch there, we headed to our night's destination of Yalgoo stopping at some of the heritage sites on the way.  Yalgoo has a population of about 100, but probably has the best caravan park I have stayed in all our travels.  The park only has about 15 sites, but the amenities have just been rebuilt, and are all individual bathrooms.  When I walked into one of them I thought I had walked into the bathroom in a four star motel.  Toilet, handbasin, and a huge walk in shower with glass doors, and everything beautifully tiled.  This was the first time I have opted to use a caravan park shower over my own when water wasn't an issue.

The town of Yalgoo is an old goldfield town and we took the lovely historic walk with the leaflet provided by the caravan park.  One of the highlights was the delightful little chapel, another of Monsignor John Hawes designs. 

The chapel at Yalgoo

Welcome sign at the entrance to town taken from the caravan park at sunset

Joker Tunnel

The next morning we were up early to see the Joker Tunnel before we hooked up.  This is about ten kilometres out of town and was dug through a hillside in the early 1900's.  Very interesting and worth the drive

On the road again we continued on to Mount Magnet.  Being a Sunday, nothing was open, so we opted not to stop as we would be returning through, so continued on to the lovely little town of Cue.  A walk around the beautiful old buildings was in order, then a drive out to the ghost town of Dawn Day and the remaining building of the Fingall Mine Company Office.  

Fingall Mine Office

View from the water tank lookout towards the mining area

Metal sculptures celebrating the Canning Stock Route in Cue

The caravan park here has had a recent upgrade to cater for the new influx of visitors with their metal detectors.  The old gaol is in the grounds, and when the caravan park was first opened in the 60's, it was adapted for the ablutions building.  Fortunately it is now recognized for its historic value and new modern bathrooms have replaced it.

Old gaol

The next morning we repeated our walk around the town when everything was open.  Maybe I shouldn't say everything, as in so many of these towns, very little is left to still open. The council offices had a wonderful photo collection and we spent a lot of time in there.   We then walked around to the Community Centre where the lady was so helpful with local information.  After going back to the park for our car, we stopped on our way out at the old Masonic Lodge.  This two story building is thought to be the largest galvanized iron building in the Southern Hemisphere. 

Masonic Lodge

We then drove out to what is left of the town of Big Bell.  The town was established in 1936 and closed down in 1955.  There is very little left, the most substantial being the ruins of what was obviously a very large hotel. The walls of a couple of the churches remain, but nothing else except the concrete blocks on the house sites and random bits of metal.

Big Bell Hotel ruins

From here we took the dirt road short cut to Walga Rock which has the largest gallery of aboriginal art in Western Australia.  In prominent position is one of the most controversial paintings depicting a four masted ship.  Some have claimed this is proof of early ship wrecks such as the Batavia having the survivors being taken in by the aborigines.  More recent supposition is that it was actually painted by a Malay in 1912 and is of the SS Xantho.

Controversial boat painting

Where the artwork is

After our two interesting nights at Cue, we headed back south to Mount Magnet where we spent most of the day.  We unhooked the caravan and took the 37 kilometre self drive.  This firstly took us through the vast mining areas just outside the town which we were unaware of.  There were also a number of historical sites plus the ghost town of Lennonville.  Last stop was a drive through the Granites, a pretty and popular picnic spot just north of the town.  

Mt Magnet mining area

By the time we had completed this it was lunch time, so after eating, we then headed to the information centre and their museum at the visitor centre.  This ended up much more than we were expecting.  As well as a lot of photos and memorabilia of the area, there were also large outside sheds.  One of these was dedicated to the Rabbit Proof Fence as well as an old murder mystery, recently made into a telemovie.  The house built for this has been moved into the shed and forms a large basis of the display.  Another shed holds a large battery stamp that was dismantled and then reassembled here.  By the time we had finished it was getting onto late afternoon, and we continued down the highway stopping at a rest area between there and Paynes Find.

Rabbit Proof Fence display

The next morning we were early at Paynes Find which now appears to consist of just a roadhouse and an old gold mine turned tourist complex.  This didn't open to ten, and as it was now only 8.30 we kept heading south.  This took us into northern part of the wheatbelt area of WA.  

On our travels it is often the least expected that end up great highlights.  The tiny town of Wubin is one of these.  Established around 1912 as a rail siding for the newly established rail line built for transporting the wheat, this had been a thriving town until the closure of the railway line.  Many roadtrains now pass through the town, which explains the two service stations remaining, but very little else.  However, this little town obviously has a huge heart and dedicated volunteers.  Their museum, which is entry by donation only, is one of the best I have come across.  

You start at the information centre, which is the old railway station.  Here there is a substantial display of rocks.  When you have finished here, a volunteer takes you to the first shed.  This was one of the original bulk holding sheds, and a short video explains how the wheat was originally moved in hessian bags weighing 30 kilos before bulk storage was introduced.  There were many interesting displays in the shed including a hands on working model of how the wheat arrives and is moved around.  Even good fun for big kids.  

When we had finished here, another volunteer took us to the next shed which probably has one of the best vintage car collections I've seen.  A local farmer has donated his collection as well as a lot of early equipment.  The thing that struck us was how neat and clean the whole place was, not easy when you are talking machinery.  A real credit to the volunteer workers here who also work in restoring many of the exhibits.

Some of the displays at Wubin - 1950 Triumph

When we finally left this little town, we turned and headed north, stopping a few kilometres out at Wubin Rock.  There is a free camp area here and already a number of vans were set up.  This wasn't our stop for the night, and we parked the van and took the walk to see the view from the top of the rock.  The demarcation of scrubland and wheatbelt was very obvious.

Our stop for the night was at Latham, an even smaller town with a wheat silo.  Even the last shop here had closed.  But again there is obvious government money going into these communities, as there is a brand new community centre with four nicely maintained tennis courts.  The football oval however looked as if its last game was a long time ago as the trees in the middle were by now quite big.  

The centre only opened a few months ago, and have opened their doors freely for travellers to stop and stay over using their lovely facilities including hot showers.  Only one other caravan arrived that night, and appeared to be someone doing some work locally.  

We were now in the wildflower area, but the displays were pretty infrequent.  This year they had been very early, so not much remaining.  We found the occasional spot that still had a lot of colour, but nothing like our trip three years ago at around the same time.

Leaving Latham we were still driving along the railway line.  We stopped at Caron Dam and marvelled at the ingenuity of early settlers. This dam was needed for water for the steam trains.  It was all dug by hand.   As well as the natural run off, they built a huge bitumized area to catch water.  Apparently the dam water is still used today to assist local farmers and the local council.  The water storage is roofed.

part of the catchment area

What used to be a channel

The next town was Perenjori where we walked around the town reading the history at all the metal sculptures there.  The town also had another church by Monsignor Hawes.  This one was one of his later ones, and I didn't like it as much as his earlier works made from local stones.  

Further up the line we stopped at Morawa where we found another of his churches.  This one I felt had more character, and I particularly liked the small priest's room at the rear.  

Morowa church

The quaint priest's house

It was now time to turn west again, and our stop for the night was the wheat town of Three Springs.  There is no caravan park here, and they have set up a wonderful free camping area.  We made sure to purchase a few things at the local supermarket as putting something back into the community is the best way to support these initiatives.  Although quite a big area, there was only one other van that night, proof that the peak season is well and truly over.  

From this point I decided to head back to the coast, and after a short stop for morning tea at the camping area at Lake Indoon, we arrived at the lovely free camping area at Cliff Head.  There were about six to eight other campers here, but I believe it gets very full in peak time.  We chose the open grassed area, but if you venture further north along the track there are many secluded areas.  Late in the afternoon we took quite a long walk along this track.

The next beach around

Our camp spot on the water

There is a private jetty here, and Jim tried fishing but the only decent bite was a huge stingray that he had trouble dislodging.  Another fisherman mentioned there were cave paintings in the area, so the next morning we went exploring for them.  We did find them, but we aren't too sure just how authentic they are.

Cliff Head was a pleasant spot with some nice people camped near us, and we were happy to stop until mid afternoon on the Sunday.  The van was booked for repairs first thing Monday morning, so we decided to stop over night at Fig Tree Crossing again as it is only a short trip to the repairer.  

Extended Geraldton Stay

When we arrived at Geraldton on the Wednesday, we enjoyed the range of shops available.  We had found Kalbarri to be one of the most expensive places we had been to.  I'm not sure why that is as it is far from the most isolated place we had been to.  Fresh produce was the worst, even though there were two small supermarkets and a dedicated fruit and vegetable outlet in the town.  But green beans at $16 - $26, broccoli at $13 and potatoes at $4.40 a kilo had me reaching to the emergency tinned vegetables.

Geraldton was the furthest point we had travelled north on our previous trip to WA nearly three years ago.  As we had seen quite a bit on the previous visit, I originally only booked two nights.  Then I checked the weather forecast and it was looking like being as terrible a weekend as the previous one.  Adding to this the fact that the weekend was a long weekend and the start of the school holidays, we ended up opting to stay over the long weekend until the Monday morning.

As it turned out, the weather forecast wasn't anywhere near as bad as originally forecast,

Apart from Jim trying unsuccessfully to do some fishing, we also headed out to some areas we hadn't been to before.  We went south to the mouth of the Greenough River, although were a bit put out to discover the mouth was closed and there were signs warning about any contact with the water.  The ocean side was a bit rough so also not Jim's idea for fishing.

Osprey nest the the caravan park

Monday morning we finally left Geraldton (or so we thought).   Our idea was to head inland for a little to escape the school holidays with their crowds and inflated prices. We didn't go far the first day,  wanting to stop at Ellendale Pool, about 40 minutes out of Geraldton, a very popular picnic and low cost camping area.  We stopped on the way at Alinta, at a very large wind farm.  There was an arm on display, and it was amazing to see just how big they are.  When you look up at the towers, and see the three arms, your perspective is quite warped.

By the end of the afternoon we discovered just how popular it was at the camping area as it filled up.  We counted 12 vans, a motorhome, a camper trailer, and a tent in the top area where we were and many more in the lower area.  We doubt another camper could have fitted in.  And this wasn't even peak season and we had waited until after the long weekend.

However the next morning didn't go to plan.  Very early on in our travels we had  a mishap with our awning which required an insurance claim of over $6000 as they had to remove all of the side to replace the awing.  The awning arm attaches to the van with a metal plate, and a few weeks ago we had noticed that this seemed to be moving at the bottom.  Then a week or two ago Jim thought that the panels under this did not seem to be attached.  On Monday morning when we put the awing back up, we could see that the plate had now pulled out from the wall.  It wasn't hard to decided that our best option was to head back to Geraldton.

When the repairer looked at it, he felt that the only way to fix it was to again remove all the panels from the side of the van, around $5000 of work.  Contacting the insurance company we were told that the repairer would need to put in a rectification quote, as this was considered ongoing from the original claim.  Understanding that the van was our home, the repairer had the quote in within about an hour, and checking the next morning the insurance booked an assessor to come on the Friday.  Unfortunately I got a phone call early afternoon on Thursday from the assessors to say they did not travel any further north than Perth, so they were going to do the assessment from the photos the repairer had supplied.

But we cannot fault the insurance company.  Friday morning they rang and asked for a few more photos and within an hour we had the approval for the work to proceed.  The fact that we live in the van also made a difference as they understood that there was more urgency for the work to be done.

The repairer originally thought he could do the work by the end of next week, but has now decided to start it Monday week.  That works out OK for us, as we are now pretty much over Geraldton and its frequent strong winds.  Just over a week now gives us time to complete our originals plan and do some discovering of the inland area and its gold mining history.