Geraldton to Mount Magnet

 On Sunday morning we left Kalbarri for Geraldton with a stop at Port Gregory to see the pink lake.

The pink colour is caused by beta carotene
(the same stuff that makes carrots orange).

 We spent three nights (2 days) in Geraldton which turned out to be more of a housekeeping stop than a sightseeing one.

Upon arrival we set up the camper and headed into town for lunch, a look around and a stop in at the visitor's centre. 

The next morning Mike took the car in for a service that he had booked in.  The service took all day due to having to replace a leaking water pump, which left us without transport.  The day was spent catching up on emails, doing laundry and pretty much  bumming around.   Once we got the car back we went into town for dinner and called it a night.

The following day we were eager to see a bit of Geraldton.  In particular, the war memorial  in town and the winery in the Chapman Valley.  We drove to the winery only to find that it was closed on Tuesdays - a situation  even sadder than a pub with no beer.

The war memorial honored the fallen men of the HMAS Sydney.  The memorial features a silver dome comprised of 645 seagulls representing each of the fallen sailors.

The names of the lost men are inscribed on two walls of Western Australian Granite.

Views over Geraldton from the war memorial

We left Geraldton this morning for the 340km drive to Mount Magnet for a quick overnight stop.  On the way we saw more wildflowers.

We also stopped for diesel (at an unattended pump) at Yalgoo, a tiny historic outback town, that we couldn't figure out how to work at first.  How sad would it be to be stuck just outside a small town in the middle of nowhere with no diesel - right next to the pump! 

I was famished so we drove into the town center in search of lunch.  The only thing we could find was the pub which held an interesting bunch of characters.  All friendly, some who clearly had nothing more pressing to do on a hot wednesday afternoon than spend the day drinking in the pub.

Speaking of characters, the rest of the day was spent setting up the camper here in Mount Magnet, chatting with a man who ran over to talk to us because he remembered our "weird camper" from Denham.  (We still don't remember him!), and having a long conversation with an older Scottish gentleman who is camping on his own on a prospecting adventure.  Talk about characters!  He had some funny stories to share about his experience prospecting.

As I write this we're in the (only) caravan park in Mount Magnet listening to the road trains rattle by as they zoom past on the main road about 10 meters away.  We are hoping they take a break as the evening wears on so we can all get some sleep (damn - there goes another one!)

When we arrived at the park we were given a pamphlet with things to do in the area.  I think we'll just be continuing on toward Leonora, stopping for the night when the mood strikes.

We have a decision to make in Leonora.  I'll tell you a more about it when I next post.

Kalbarri Wildflowers

This, believe it or not, is just a small selection of wildflower photos from the many we've taken. If you have no interest in flowers, you'll probably want to give this entry a miss. If you are a fan, and all goes to plan you should be able to click on the images to see the full sized version. Enjoy!

Kalbarri

Kalbarri is a beautiful spot where the Murchison river meets the sea.  We initially planned on spending three nights here, but have been having such a good time seeing the sites, boating and swimming that we extended for a few more days and when we leave tomorrow we will have spent a week here.

One morning we went to see the pelican feeding on the foreshore.  It was started in the 70's by a local, Cliff Ross, who owned a shop opposite the beach and used to feed the birds his scraps after taking his boat out fishing in the mornings.  The pelicans became used to their morning treat, and on days that he didn't fish they would walk across the road to his shop that he owned looking for him, interrupting traffic and causing pelican pandemonium.

To alleviate the problem, local volunteers began feeding the pelicans on the days that Cliff didn't fish.  Sadly Cliff passed away several years ago, but the volunteers continue feeding the pelicans every morning and it's become a tourist attraction.  There was no charge to view the feeding, but donations toward the purchase of fish are appreciated.

In keeping with the ritual, Mike and I fed our left over bait to the pelicans after boating one morning.

Unfortunately the seagulls got most of it!

The cliffs overlooking the ocean are spectacular, and we spent an afternoon walking the trails to some beautiful views.

Natural Bridge

Island Rock

Rainbow jungle is another area attraction.  They have hundreds of parrots from all over the world.  They were also hosting an art exhibit set amongst the parrot enclosures and gardens.

This is one of my favorites.

The bird below's name is Hot Tuna.  As the sign on his enclosure states, he can say "Hello Hot Tuna", and "How ya going?".  He also whistles Jingle Bells and Waltzing Matilda and wolf whistles at "hot chicks".

My favourite part of Rainbow Jungle was the area where the parrots fly free.  The area is beautifully landscaped with trees, perches, birdhouses, ponds and waterfalls.

Anyone home?

Best of all was when Mike would hold out his arm and a parrot would come out of nowhere and land on it.  This, of course got the attention of other visitors "Look at that Man!  He's holding a parrot!".

A few kids came over to Mike to watch and Mike explained his "technique" to them, whereby he rubs his fingers together while holding out his arm.  One kid went off to try, but didn't have much luck.  Before long more and more people were imitating Mike's method without success.  Mike would then walk over and stick out his arm and again a bird would quickly land on it.

We had such a laugh when we looked around at one point and saw just about everyone in the place sticking out their arms and rubbing their fingers together.  It was SO funny. :)  He's always been a bit of a Dr. Doolittle!

Dr. Doolittle demonstrates his secret bird calling technique

This is an Eclectus parrot.  They're not endangered, but in the past many of their nesting sites were destroyed by poachers.

It was originally thought that there were two varieties of Eclectus parrot, a red and a green.  It took a long time before it was realised that one is the male and the other the female.  As you can imagine, early breeding efforts were not very successful.

Hello there, I'm the female.

What does bigfoot wear to the beach?  My favourite piece of art of the day.

Yesterday we went to Kalbarri National Park to see Nature's Window, a rock formation with a large hole in the center which was carved by the winds.  The result is a "window frame" rock.

The walk was only about 1 kilometer return.  What should have been a nice stroll became grueling in the intense heat.  Add a lot of climbing and a couple of million bush flies to the mix, and we were not happy campers.  Until we got there of course.  Then all was well...  until we had to make the return trip.

Keep climbing...

It's a long way down!

We made it!  Nature's Window

We've seen and photographed plenty of wildflowers in Kalbarri.  I've had a lot of trouble with our internet connection over the past couple of days, but if Telstra cooperates I'll upload some of them after this post.  Otherwise, I'll share them with you when we reach a larger town where there should be a better connection.

Oh - before I go I must tell you about the fabulous crumbed fish dinner we had last night using fresh red emperor. We're going to make it again tonight with coral trout.  I found a recipe on Epicurious which we improvised.  The crumb mixture we used was:

1.5 cups Panko breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 teaspoons course kosher salt
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 large egg whites
1/4 cup dark ale (we used guinness)
3 tablespoons (or more as needed) olive oil

Whisk the egg whites and ale in one bowl and mix the dry ingredients in another.  Dip each piece of fish in the egg white mixture, shake off the excess and then turn fish in the panko mixture to cover all sides.  Add oil to a large nonstick skillet and cook until golden and just opaque in the center. It just takes a couple of minutes per side.

We couldn't find fresh Italian parsley so we used dried, and we also used 1 teaspoon of table salt in place of the course salt.  It still came out melt-in-your-mouth delicious, and healthier than fish and chips too.  Add a salad and you've got a meal. Give it a try! :)