Week Five days Twenty Nine to Thirty One

A fish cut out "fence panel" overlooking the marina


We are still in Geraldton WA and have found out our car suffered a severe case of Crank Sensor malfunction so not being mechanically minded, we Googled this item. It appears that it is the computer chip that pretty much looks after everything and makes sure everything works in a precise manner on today's electronic vehicles. Sounds as if our breakdown is going to be expensive!!!!!!!

We booked out of the B&B and into the Batavia Backpackers which is part full of Asians, all heading for local work in a factory, for the rock lobster season. Any way as we are stuck here we may as well check the place out.

But wait we also have an unexplained heatwave to contend with apparently the driest hottest spell in 40 years. It has been above 40 degrees since we got here. Well what else can go wrong????????.........We have just heard that bush fires are raging South and North of Geraldton and the roads are closed to Monkey Mia and Coral Bay .................. Some Japanese Chaps were stopped on the road and have also booked in the Backpackers due to the bushfire's.

Any way having sat in the shopping centre on several occasions to cool down in the air-conditioning (we only have a fan in the room) we were getting funny looks from the security guard so we ventured out. Actually Geraldton is a very nice place pretty much everywhere you go the drain covers and sidewalk covers have ornate emblems or cut outs of sea creatures. We came across an unusual sundial and weather vane in the city square and watched large fish
swimming around the marina.

The unusual sundial

We had a lovely Italian Meal in "Topolinis Caffe" with ice cold Sauvignon Blanc. We have had ice cold beer in the "Freemasons Hotel", swam in the warm Indian Ocean and blistering heat of the beach, and strolled around a lovely cool museum which hosts a very interesting Shipwreck section. Geraldton also hosts an ice cream parlour that is all home made fayre and proudly adorning the walls are the prizes that have been won by the owner. Yes of course we sampled and it was beautiful Hope said it was the best Chocolate ice cream she had ever tasted. Two more days to go before we get our car back................................


Hope digging for clams at Geraldton beach

Hope's Blog............. We dug for clams at the waters edge, it was fun watching them dig themselves into the sand again. We put them on our hands with some sand and watched them trying to dig into our hand. it was ticklish. It wasn't fun when we dug a crab up.... that was funny because I screamed as I got a fright.