Day 50...to Perenjori

Here's an update of where we were last night...at Geraldton.

Today we left Geraldton and headed east towards wildflower country...to me the whole of WA has been wildflower territory....the flowers have changed as we've gone through each area.

The above flower is a wreath flower....apparently it's the prized flower you must see!!

We called at a wildflower exhibition at the town hall in Mallewa. There was a wreath flower there, so I photographed it in case we didn't see one in the wild!

After a picnic lunch, we went for a wildflower walk along this track...it was about 2 1/2 kms walk through the bush. There were lots of yellow, white and pink flowers, and some purple creepers. Not all the flowers are out yet...however it was a lovely walk.

Our setup at Perenjori at the end of the day...a nice, quiet, bushy park, and a glass of white!

Day 49...Geraldton

Dave caught this pee-wee sitting on its nest in the gum tree beside our caravan....

the nest is amazing...it's made of mud.

We went and had a look in the museum. It's pretty new and very well organised.

There's a great display about the Batavia, that was shipwrecked in the 1600s off the coast of WA.

This cool lighthouse is just around from the caravan park we were staing at.

This afternoon we went to the art gallery. There was a great display of ceramics, plus aboriginal paintings from several artists of WA.

Day 48...Geraldton via Hutt River Principality

This morning we left Hamelin Pool and headed for Geraldton. The wildflowers at the sides of the road were just beautiful....the colours were continually changing.

As we drove south, Dave saw the turn-off to Hutt River Principality. I'd heard about Prince Leonard years ago, but didn't realise his principality was in this area. We drove about 40kms along a dirt road to get there.

Herer is HRH Prince Leonard!....in his Post Office. He just turned 80. He seceded from Australia in 1970. He's quite a character....seems to know his stuff as far as laws and governments go.

These everlasting daisies are growing in his garden.

In his post office, you can see examples of his money, stamps....if you have your passport with you he'll stamp it with his Hutt River stamp! Have a look online for more info, it's fascinating!!!

www.principality-hutt-river.com

As we got closer to Geraldton, the countryside became much more agricultural...

the main crops seem to be canola and wheat.

Geraldton is a nice town...quite big. It has a busy port....major exported for grains in WA...

also iron ore and talcum powder.

Day 47...Denham

This restaurant in Denham is made from shell bricks that were cut at the shell quarry in Hamelin Pool. There is also a church in Denham made from these shell bricks. The bricks can only be quarried  now for repairs to the few existing buildings in the area.

Today we went for a trip for the day up to Denham, which is on Shark Bay. When we arrived, we had morning tea along the foreshores...beautiful views.

This is the font inside the Anglican church.

We stopped for a look at an aquatic centre on the way back to Hamelin Pool. As we looked out over the water we saw lots of sharks....in Shark Bay!

This boardwalk is at Eagle Bluff. It looks out over the coastline and across to a couple of islands where cormorants breed. This boardwalk, and a couple of others we have seen, is made using recycled plastic. We've seen it in other colours as well....pretty neat, and no problems with white ants.

Day 46...Hamelin Pool

Today we had a quiet day around camp. After breakfast, we went and had a look at the museum at the old telegraph station. The caravan park is situated on the old telegraph station site.

 It played a major role in communication during the moon landing, back in 1969.

There are heaps of these beautiful daisies growing everywhere through the bush.

This afternoon we went for a long walk through the bush...we saw an emu and a red kangaroo. After a while we headed back towards the coast, and came out where early shell brick-cutters had their camp. There were still bits and pieces of stuff lying around.

It's not sand in the above photo, but small white shells.

Day 45...Hamelin Pool

The wildflowers were spectacular as we travelled down to our next stop,

 Hamelin Pool, near Shark bay.

After we had set up Rosie, we went for a walk up the hill behind the shop. The view was spectacular...also fascinating. The quarry above is made up of tiny shells. They're joined together in a solid mass...some sort of chemical reaction over time.

 In the past, bricks were cut from them and used for construction in the area. Instead of sand on the beaches, there are millions of these tiny white shells.

Another major feature of this area are the stromatolites. The water in the area is extremely salty, so not much lives in it.....cyanobacteria do survive and they build these structures, and in the process give off oxygen into the atmosphere.

This is Rosie's campsite at Hamelin Pool. Instead os sand , or the red dirt we've seen so much of, it's crushed shells underfoot. There are so many of them in the area, that they are mined on one of the beaches and used in gardens and for pathways.

Day 44...Carnarvon

On our way out to The  Blowhole today, we saw these emus at the side of the road.

Further along, we saw more salt production....Rio Tinto Dampier Salt mines.

Towards the top of several telegraph poles, were old wheel rims attached to them,

 and birds had built nests in them.

This is one of the blow-holes in action....they actually went up a fair bit higher than this.

It's really rugged coastline here....the water a beautiful deep blue,

 and the rocks you walk over to get a closer look are very rugged.

While we were watching the blow-hole, a couple of whales came past....they were amazing, they came right out of the water, and were hanging around for ages.

The wildflowers are beautiful over here, we've seen many different ones already.

Dave had a fish off the beach while we were out there, but didn't have any luck....but what a spot!!

This is One Mile Jetty. We started walking out along it late this afternoon. It was quite breezy, and very rough, so I went back to the car, and Dave walked the whole distance. When he got to the end, there were people fishing. One bloke had cought a huge fish.

Dave photographed this cute little bird this afternoon. It's really cute and quite friendly. We saw some the same the other day up at Onslow, they were flying down and looking at us through the windscreen when we stopped the car to look at something. I don't know what sort it is, we'll have to look it up in the bird book when we get home.