Cervantes, 30 30 S, 115 04 E, 3867 km
Woke at dawn to huge flocks of galahs (the local pest, a lovely grey-pink cockatoo) screeching and cavorting in the tamarisk trees and overhead wires, great clowns as they hang upside down and hop around clumsily around the campsite water taps..... Then on to the morning ritual of feeding the pelicans on the beach just opposite the campsite, yet another circus as 6 pelicans fight with the gulls to catch the small fish being thrown by the gathered onlookers. After breakfast, yet more birds as we visit Rainbow Jungle, with the largest parrot and lorrikeet aviary in Australia, hundreds and hundreds of local and foreign birds in amazing varieties of colours. Then the sea-horse aquarium, a real touristy morning! Before heading off along the impressive coastal cliffs in the same old sandstone, with arches and natural bridges, all totally unspoiled by any form of human development.
Then ever southwards for over 300 km along or just behind the massive coastal dunes fringing the pristine beaches with the Indian Ocean’s waves crashing in. Here and there salt pans developed in the lagoons behind the dunes, one of them the famous “Pink Lagoon” , coloured crimson by some strange algae, contrasting with the blindingly white saltpan. Past the buildings of an historic convict colony from 1853 ( I knew Botany Bay – Sydney – was first settled as a convict colony in 1788, but didn’t realise they continued to transport convicts from Britain for so long – now find out they only stopped in 1868). All the time now we were passing into steadily more "civilised" countryside, now farms with grasslands, wheat and flax fields and no longer remote cattle stations. Then Geraldton - the first “real” town with over 20,000 population, that David has seen in the last 8,000 km and 5 weeks – a very strange feeling to be back in urban reality!
On through undisturbed heathland covering the coastal dunes and to Cervantes, with the Pinnacles National Park, arriving just before sunset, a perfect time as the thousands of up to 5m high pillars and needles and monoliths are highlighted by their long shadows in the moon-like landscape of the golden desert floor, accentuated by the white sand of the dunes behind them. Unworldly!!! Then back to a definitely urban camping site, the caravans built on to make little houses, with boats parked beside them and tractors to tow the boats over the beach to the sea besides them again... A good working class escape from Perth, contrasting with the millionaire holiday mansions just over the road.....
Our last camping night? Very cool as the temperature in the camper dropped to a chilly 16 degrees - how oh how will we manage Norway?
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