On Monday morning we set off north from Perth. Our ultimate destination was Monkey Mia but since this was 600 miles away we had arranged to stop at Geraldton, self-styled “Capital of the Mid West”. I remember Steve Craft telling me he’d stopped there and wished he hadn’t bothered. He described it as “like Lowestoft in the 1970s”. I think probably the 1950s would be more accurate. We arrived on Monday afternoon at about 5pm and it appeared to be closed. There seems to be a lot of development going on down by the waterfront but very few people. The settlements in Western Australia seem to be either Perth or very very small towns, almost villages.
On Tuesday we drove to Monkey Mia. Although the road from Perth north is single carriageway, there is so little traffic that it’s as good as a motorway. You can keep to the speed limit of 110 km per hour continuously with only slight interruptions as you pause to overtake “road trains”. These are trucks pulling three trailers. Judging by the carnage at the road side the main threat to kangaroos and wallabies is the motorcar. We haven’t yet seen a live one!
At Monkey Mia we stayed in Dolphin Lodge – pretty basic “upmarket backpacker” accommodation but perfectly adequate. We were there for two nights and saw some wonderful sights. On Tuesday morning we went down to the beach first thing and saw the wild dolphins coming into the shallows to be fed. They’ve been doing this for forty years and understandably have become a major tourist attraction. In the afternoon we took a trip on the Shotover, a sailing catamaran, and saw dugongs (Australian cousins of the manatee) and a humpback whale with its calf (first time in two years that whales have been in Shark Bay). It was a beautiful day. A day in the Australian sunshine on a sailing boat or teaching Economics at The Denes on a (probably) cold wet October day? Hmm it’s a close run thing!
Speaking of Economics, the world financial crisis is creating a small but much valued personal benefit. As a result of the threat from recession in the Far East to the Australian commodities market, the Australian dollar has depreciated by about 20% in the last fortnight – which is good news when you’re using a British credit card!
We’re now on our way back to Perth. A visit to Fremantle on Saturday with Jill and Lynn, Sue’s Australian cousins, and then off to Margaret River!
It’s a hard life but somebody has to live it!
PS The Remy Martin is going down well.
2 comments:
Hello, you seem to be having a good time downunder. Have you noticed the water going down the plughole the opposite way, or have you been too busy for that. Great picture of the dolphins.
Pam and Terry
Pleased that you are having such a good time. It sounds really interesting. Never even heard of a dugong let alone seen one!
Hope that you're bringing some Remy Martin back for when we come round!
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