Good Morning Nanga Bay!
Low 7°c (45°F) – High 20°c
(68°F)
We are both a little sad to leave this place and it made it to the list
of “what would you spend some lotto win money on” after I went for a walk to
take a few photos before we hooked up the van this morning. I hate seeing lost potential in things that
are unique and creative. This “resort”
falls into that category for me. In the
course of taking a few photos of the park I got to talking with the partner of
the manager who said apparently the park is for sale (a mere $2mil) and I expressed
my thoughts to her about how we’ve seen a couple of places like this where it
was someone’s vision to create something unique but then it falls into the
hands of people who really don’t have a passion for it. She agreed.
She said she and her partner love the place, but their hands are tied to
spend only what the owner is happy to pay for repairs etc which is minimal. I do hope someone buys it and has that
passion. We would definitely come back
here if we ever make this way again.
Back on the road around 9.00am and heading for Geraldton this morning
we again passed the only other place I would have loved to have seen in this
part of the trip – that being Steep Point which is the western-most point of
Australia. Unfortunately most of the
road is 4WD only and we’ve had our share of 4wd tracks this trip so we concede
to making it ALMOST to the western-most point.
It was a difficult journey today as poor Kitty was really unsettled and
had worked herself up to panting heavily despite the day being quite cool and
me putting the air-conditioner on high (and having to periodically turn it off
so Shane and I could thaw out). We made
a couple of toilet stops for her and she was quite happy out of the car, tail
wagging etc, but as soon as she got back in the car she was clearly
unhappy. We stopped for a break around
lunch time, but again as soon as she was back in the car it was the same
scenario. We tried with Shane sitting in
the back seat with her for a short while, but even though she settled a little
bit, she was still unhappy. In the end
Shane got back in the front seat and had her sitting on his knees on a
cushion. It took about another half an
hour but she finally settled down enough to rest her head on his arm and snooze
a little which was good news, but with still over 6,000kms to get home I am not
sure that it’s sustainable for him to have a 14kg dog sitting on his knee.
Throughout all of this we reached another milestone in the trip which
was in truth quite sad for us. About
100km north of Geraldton, all of a sudden we were out of the stubbly growth of
dead trees, rocks and saltbushes and into green crops and farmland virtually in
the blink of an eye. As sad as we were
to no longer be able to have that “outback” feel to the surroundings – the land
here was stunning with gorgeous vistas over almost every hill. Unfortunately due to the bundle on his lap,
Shane wasn’t able to photograph anything, but as we passed through the township
of Northampton which is obviously steeped in history and offered many
photographic opportunities, we hope to return before we leave the area either
on a day trip or to perhaps even backtrack to spend a night and take in what it
has to offer.
On our arrival in Geraldton staying at a caravan park which fronts the
ocean, there was some difficulty in getting onto the site thanks to an
unfortunately placed tree and the fact that the park sent us down the wrong way
to get onto the site in the first place.
We finally got ourselves in place and immediately out came the washing
machine. Originally I planned to bath
Kitty but we figured a rest for the afternoon would do her more good than a
bath even though she really needs one.
Mind you, once her pen was in place and she could sit out on her
blankets she was happy as a pig in mud.
Still more washing to do tomorrow, but there was no more room to hang
anything and with lower temperatures nothing is going to dry as quickly as it
did in the north.
It was a tiring and fairly stressful day worrying about our little four
legged family member so a lack of enthusiasm for cooking resulted in takeaway
for dinner. Another sad milestone
tonight being it was so cold by 8.00pm we ended up having to turn the heater on
in the van. Welcome to the south!
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