Geraldton

Geraldton advertises itself as the windsurfing capital of Australia, and the first few days we were here we could understand why. The windsurfers would definitely have been happy with the gale that was blowing, although they mightn't have been as pleased with the rain and cold. The frequent strong winds from the south are graphically evident in the tree pictured below that is growing virtually sideways. To us golfers, none of this weather was welcome, particularly as Geraldton offered the first grass greens since we left Broome 3 weeks ago. Luckily there were a few days while we were here when a game of golf wasn't out of the question, and we took the opportunity to sample both the courses here. They were certainly worth the trouble, both being terrific courses, with smooth greens and cavernous bunkers.

Geraldton itself is a total contrast to the places we have been for most of this trip. We are now well and truly out of the outback and into civilised climes. The change happened abruptly about 125km north, when all of a sudden instead of scrub and wandering goats and cattle, we were driving through fields of wheat and canola and neat fenced sheep paddocks. Geraldton itself is quite a large town, and while we waited out the bad weather we got the car serviced and Wendy had a dental clean. We also wandered around and checked out a few tourist sites in the town itself, such as the impressive HMAS Sydney memorial pictured above. We also visited Hutt River Province, a sheep property that got a lot of publicity in 1970 when it 'seceded' from Australia, and now makes a reasonable side income from selling stamps, bank notes and other souvenirs.

On Sunday we took a drive up the Chapman Valley, visiting Western Australia's northernmost winery, and our first since long ago Kingston in South Australia. Luckily, the product was good enough for us to stock up, and we had a lovely lunch in their beautiful garden overlooking the vines. The valley also provided some spectacular wildflower viewing, see the photo below.