We left Gator at the campsite and were in town by 8am to
drop Izzy of. To our delight they gave us a car to use for the day. It was an
old Nissan Pulsar or similar and it felt veery strange to be sitting so low to
the ground after having spent the last 109 days perched in our 4WD.
We headed for the nearest Hungry Jacks where school was
convened while I got on the phone and started to research and book places for
the middle few weeks of April, which is the WA school holidays. It wasn’t to
long before I got the call from the mechanics telling me it wasn’t the breaks
but in fact there was a 6mm hole in the CV boot which was spurting the grease
out. Only problem was is they they, as the dealer...., didn’t have one in stock
and it would be 2 – 3 days before they could get one in....grrrr.....I made a
few more calls and found a mechanic in Kalbarri, where we were going to be in a
couple of days who was happy to do it and it would be about $200 less...SOLD
De booked herself in for a haircut while the boys and I
headed for the Sydney II Memorial. The memorial is perched atop the highest
hill in Geraldton and is a magnificent area that is a tribute, not only to the
645 brave men who perished at the hands of a German ship, the Kormoran, that
was disguised trickily as a merchant vessel, but also to the people who fought so hard
to have the memorial made even before the Sydney II was discovered. We had a
1hr tour of the sight by a great volunteer, Trevor, who kept our group of 10,
including the boys, hanging of his every word. The proof of his impact was that
they boys explained the memorial to De later in the day and the detail they
remembered was amazing.
In the afternoon we visitied the WA Mueseum that was full of
great displays one of them being about that Batavia, which added to the
information I had gained in Fremantle, and also a big one on the finding of the
Sydney II.
The local Catholic Cathederal was interesting as it wasn’t the usual
tall spire set up, but rather a big round dome. Inside it was even stranger as
all of the pillars and arch ways were painted in large bright orange and white
stripes making it look more like a lolly shop that an church.
The boys both lit
a candle with Sam, having never lit a match before (deprived child), dropping
it before he managed to light that candle. I’m note sure what his prayer was
for but mine was that we get out of there before he lights the place on fire!
We stocked up, with Geraldton being the last decent sized
town for the next 3 weeks, and headed back to camp spending the rest of the
afternoon hanging around doing very little.
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