Aaron & Lib's Australian Adventure

Obelisk @ Port Denoson

04/06/2016 Day 8. Well we’ve been on the road for a week now and we are slowly finding our groove. Last night we had torrential rain for all of 10 mins and then steady drizzle after. It’s the first rain we’ve had since leaving Albany.

Sunset @ Oakabella Homestead

We woke late and after breakfast we went for a walk to explore the area. The limestone cliffs in this area are beautiful. The way the erosion makes the coast look is like looking at lots of white exposed tree roots branching in all different directions. It also creates lots of little caves and holes under the cliff.
After lunch I tried installing our new driving light (LED bar) but the wiring harness I bought is too short and doesn’t reach from the battery box to the front of Bess. I supposed it’s designed for the battery being mounted in the engine bay. When we get to Geraldton I’m going to need to find some wire and heat shrink to extended the wiring and install it further up the road.
05/06/2016 Day 9. Today we kept moving north. As we were running low on supplies and needed a couple of specialty stores we drove to Geraldton via Port Denison. It was a lovely place to stop and stretch our legs and snap off a few quick photos.
Geraldton is a big place, though the Info Centre had closed at 1 pm so with modern technology we were able to find our way around easily enough. The grain facility at the port was huge and the children’s playground on the foreshore was new and a very creative use of space. Maybe Albany Council will wake up and do something similar.

Sunset @ Oakabella Homestead

After stocking up on supplies we moved about 30 km’s further north up the highway and have pulled in for the night at Oakabella Homestead. It is circa 1850’s and still has many of the original buildings still standing including the old homestead. The lady that runs the place (Loretta) was very warm, inviting and helpful. It is a beautiful area and highly recommend it. Can’t wait to go for a walk around the property and explore the place tomorrow.
06/06/2016 Day 10. What a lazy morning. I absolutely love being unemployed and touring again. Apparently today is a public holiday but I wouldn’t really know and I don’t really care. To be honest, I am already starting to lose track of the days which is great.

Geraldton Port

We headed back into Geraldton today to buy the paint at Bunnings to complete Bess’ transformation. As we were driving into town it started raining and I went to throw on the wipers but instead the fuel gauge cut out and the battery light came on. We pulled into a car park and after some consideration and inspection I pulled a fuse from the box and voila! Everything worked again. Though it was another Aaron moment, as I realised that last week when we had the electrical issues I had seen a blank fuse spot and had just thrown one in thinking the spot must be for something. Turns out I was right. Putting a fuse there shorted the indicators and the fuel gauge!
We also went for a drive around the port and foreshore and had hot chips for lunch before racing the weather back to Oakabella. A storm has blown in though the rain is on the light side the wind is ferocious. I feel sorry for some of our neighbours out here tonight as they are in tents and this wind is intense. We are expecting a thunderstorm sometime overnight.

Geraldton Foreshore

09/06/2016 Day 13 (Th). So the storm at the homestead was a doozee! And it continued to blow the next day with gusts upwards of 45 km/hr so we decided to sit tight instead of driving our big wind sail down the highway. Instead we had tea and scones for morning tea and watched shows in the afternoon.
Yesterday we continued on up the highway stopping along the way to check out the historical buildings at Northampton and Lynton. We saw the pink lake at Port Gregory where we stopped for lunch overlooking the ocean. We ended up stopping for the evening at Kalbarri where we are catching up on our laundry in a CP. On the way here though we did stop a couple of times to check out the amazing sea cliffs in the area.

Geraldton Foreshore

After checking into the CP we went for a walk along the foreshore to have a look around and check out the fishing possibilities. As we walked out on one of the jetties I saw a fish swim under and lent over to get a better look. That was when my iPhone decided to jump from my shirt pocket and take itself for a swim.
After stripping down to my undies and rescuing the phone we went and found a supermarket to buy rice to try and dry it out but it took a swim in salt water so I reckon its chances of coming out of this one alive are about 15%.
The weather here today is set for sunny and 22C. But I seriously think we brought the cold mornings from Albany with us because they seem to be chasing us up the coast.

Geraldton Foreshore

10/06/2016 Day 14 (Fr). Yesterday was a win and a fail. Lib had a nice chilled day relaxing round the van in the CP while I took Charlie for a ride through town and checked out the jetties and the river. After I returned I then tried installing the new LED bar on the front of Bess but I couldn’t get it to work. I tried everything I could think of but it was all to no avail. I spent 5 hrs stuffing around with it (fail) before I chucked it in and went down to the closest jetty for a fish. The first time in weeks (win) and the first time since we started our next chapter. Even though I caught nothing but 2 inch long tailor.
Today we left the CP and headed to the auto electricians who solved our problem in half an hour. Turns out that the cable you’re supposed to connect to the back of the existing headlight circuit really does need to be connected.

Geraldton Foreshore

Then we went and spent 2 hours walking around Rainbow Jungle which is an Australian Parrot breeding centre. It was very informative and very colourful. They even had a few macaws from South America. They had finches, budgies, parrots, galahs and cockatoos. We had a great time. They had 9 separate areas or aviaries with one being a free flight aviary with plenty to see.
By the time we finished there, had lunch and stocked up on supplies it was 4 pm. But we were determined not to spend the night in a CP and headed back out to the highway to spend the night at a rest area called Galena Bridge which is very popular with the grey nomads. There must be about 50 vans here for the night camped along both sides of the river. We took the dogs for a walk down by the river and saw some swans but there was not much water in the river.