9th - 17th September
We left Kalbarri early in fact, just after the electricity had been cut off, most of the town and caravan parks were going to be without power today. On the road south this beautiful morning we could see lots of black smoke in the distance over towards a wind farm! Richard thought it was a bush fire but it looked like it was isolated to a small area, we couldn't work out what it was that was burning.
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| Smoke from the fire |
There wasn't much traffic on our route, I think we saw just one ute and caravan coming from the coast at Horrocks, it seemed so quiet. We enjoyed the scenery, as usual it was ever changing and the flowers continued to amaze us, the colours were stunning. We had continuous views of the sand dunes and sea especially driving through the lovely little town of Drummond Cove, this is where we encountered more traffic than we had seen for ages! We approached a set of traffic lights, our first ones in months! Helen spotted the big Green Shed (Bunnings) and no doubt we will be calling in there to buy something for the caravan! Our sat nav was continually guiding/telling us to take the route through the city centre but, no we didn't. Our chosen caravan park was just a hop, skip and jump from Pages Beach with beautiful white sand. We checked ourselves in and found our pitch which was a double concrete base, we had only had a spot like this once before up in Point Samson, we loved it and manoeuvred the van into place, pulled out the canopy and added the guy ropes as it was quite windy.
We had booked in here for 8 days with the intention of meeting up with Helen's cousin Jacquie, her husband Bob, and hopefully will see their three boys and families.
A visit the next day to the rellies and with our laptop, ipad, phones in hand we could log on to their Wifi and backup everything, needless to say this took hours.
Returning to the van, we had new neighbours who had travelled from Kalbarri ,they told us that the bushfire south of town (so it was a bushfire) had cut off the electricity for another day.
It was great to see our family here and yes we did meet up with all their boys and children. In between time we visited a few places.
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| Pathway to entrance of HMAS Sydney Memorial showing the "Dome of the Souls" |
She made three official visits to Geraldton and the people knew her as an old friend. On the other side of the walls that you can see surrounding the dome are the names of every man who died. The names are in alphabetical order, not in rank, the captain was Joseph Burnett from Victoria.
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| The flag poles set in upside down propellers |
Our guide told us that the people who designed this memorial are a married couple Charles and Joan Walsh-Smith from Gidgegannup.
There are 5 elements, the wall, the dome, the bronze statue of a woman, the stele and finally after the wreck was discovered further funds were raised enabling the fifth element the illuminated Pool of Remembrance.
On November 18th 1998 the site was dedicated and a moment occurred which inspired the sculptures Charles and Joan Walsh-Smith. Just as The Last Post was played, a large formation of silver gulls flew slowly and silently over the crowd. They had already decided on a circular theme as a symbol of eternity and circle of life, these gulls offered yet another strong symbol as they traditionally represents the spirits of those lost at sea.
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| Close up from under the dome "Souls in Flight" also showing the continuously lit flame that was ignited from the unknown soldier memorial at Kings Park, Perth |
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| The "Waiting Woman" who represents all the women who waited in vain for the return of their loved ones. |
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| A better shot of "The Waiting Woman" |
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Towering above every other element of the memorial is the stele. A stele is of great importance used to mark graves, it is always a vertical structure and usually stone.
Based on the symbolism of standing stones as grave markers, this vertical element in steel is a representation of the prow of the HMAS Sydney II. It makes such a dramatic of statement of commemoration and provides a major focal point that is seen from far and wide.
Another tour the same day was down at the old Gaol, again we had a local guide explaining that WA was, at first a free state meaning just like South Australia they didn't want any convicts but they realised that by allowing some to come to WA in certain areas buildings and roads could be built.
We saw three outside exercise areas and tiny cells but most of the cells are being used now as small craft workshops, with people selling their wares, a quaint little place.
Helen and Jacquie took a trip out toward Greenhough and visited a small cottage museum again with lots of history on the area and how floods in the past have affected the local farms. We saw many photographs of families who had lived in this old house/cottage.
We had a lovely morning on the beach with Bob and the two dogs Dusty and Sally.... Richard had an especially good time on the Quad bike, it didn't take him long to master the driving of it and I took my life in my hands and rode pillion with him... great fun.
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| Rich and Bob discussing the finer points of Quad biking |
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| one of the routes take |
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| Sally and Dusty walking with Helen |
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| Dusty in foreground and little Sally having a little rest |
A BBQ with the family and friends enabled us to talk with family and see their wonderful children, Richard had numerous games of snooker and pool with Bob, Damien, Mark and Justin. We had a beautiful time with all of them. See you again this year hopefully Andrews family and have a great wedding Justin and Robyn!!
Next stop looking for wild flowers and the infamous Wreath Flower!!
