There were a couple of obvious issues with the caravan that they were able to quickly adjust. We took the caravan with us back to Belair Gardens to settle in for the night. Sandra did a major cleanup as it was filthy. Upon closer inspection that evening and in the morning we found a number of deficiencies with the repair work. While the caravan was roadworthy once more many of the repairs were not of great quality. We contacted the caravan place and arranged for them to come to the caravan park to review the outstanding issues.
Friday we did a quick shop and spent much of the day cleaning and organising the caravan. We enjoyed a walk down at the beach around lunch time when the wind had subsided briefly. The caravan park is quite nice but the wind is terrible. Seems to be quiet most mornings but at lunch time it begins blowing from the South and seems to gain strength all day long. We ended up putting the awning down after the first night and left it that way for the remainder of our stay.
Saturday Terry and Di came and visited us from Dongara where they are camping. Great to see them again! They enjoyed a quiet Christmas break while we were gone but I think they will be happy to hit the road together again. Later in the afternoon Hoss, from the caravan place came over and reinstalled the blinds on our door which had been missed. We reviewed our concerns with him and he agreed that some of the work was definitely not up to scratch. He will review with the owner on Monday.
Sunday we decided to take a scenic drive inland around the Chapman Valley. We ended up travelling quite a distance up the Mount Magnet Highway to almost Mullawa. Countryside is quite different than the coast with mostly agriculture featured. We then turned North to Yuna on a narrow but sealed road. Beautiful countryside. We enjoyed a picnic lunch at Yuna.
From there we headed West through Nabawa. Stopped at the Museum which was closed before continuing back to Coastal highway and Coronation Beach. It was blowing a gale when we got there but that only made it more interesting as we reckon there were close to 100 windsurfers at the beach. At least half of them were on the water moving at high speeds. There is a nice camp area at the beach but was quite crowded and I think the wind would be very strong. Drove back home after a quite long but enjoyable drive. Day was lovely but wind of course picked up strongly in the afternoon.
Monday morning we drove up to the caravan place early as both of us have been stressing about the state of the repairs. Met with the owner, Keith and his Second In Charge, Hoss to discuss our concerns. They agreed that some repairs were missed and others not done to the quality they would expect if it was their caravan. They have agreed to address our issues but unfortunately it means we will incur further delays. From there we spent the remainder of the day shopping. Several stops at BCF, Bunnings, BBQ Galore, Rivers, Coles, Liquorland, etc. Did a couple of small repairs/modifications on the caravan in the afternoon. Windy again!
Tuesday morning we headed South to Dongara for the day to have a visit with Di & Terry and to do a bit more touring. We had a nice walk along the beach at Dongara Seaspray Resort where they are staying. It looks like a lovely caravan park with each site having it's own ensuite. The wind was actually bearable today which they assure us is unique. We enjoyed a nice salad lunch with them and a good catch up visit. We have decided to join them on Thursday when they head south to Jurien Bay. We will tour that area before returning the following week to Geraldton for some additional repair work.
From Dongara Sandra and I took the scenic drive through Port Denison back to the highway. The sand dunes are so white along this part of the coast. Denison has a lovely port area and beach.
Once back on the highway we headed back to Geraldton before turning East towards Walkaway and the Ellendale Pools. Saw a large wind farm on route before arriving at the Pools. It is a beautiful location with a cheap campsite. The only downside is they caution against entering the water if over 24 degrees because of a form of Meningitis. From here we took a parallel highway back to Geraldton airport before heading home.
Wednesday morning Sandra and I took a scenic flight to the Abrolhos Islands. We left the Geraldton airport about 9am and flew approximately 60KM West to the Abrolhos Islands. Wow! What an amazing experience. The colours were incredible as you can see from the attached photos. Make sure you check out the rest of our Janurary photos as this is just a small sample of the many great pictures we got. There are four groups of islands of which we flew over three. There are small fishing communities on each of the island groups which are used by the 150 licensed Lobster fisherman that live on the islands between March and June. As you can see the size and quality of the fishing shacks varies but there appears to be some very nice ones. Most of the Island group is actually made up of Coral Reef; not Islands or land. We flew over a number of shipwreck sites as well as the amazing coral formations and fishing communities. The communities are uninhabited except for Lobster season and no camping is allowed on any of the islands. As a result they are truly deserted through much of the year.
After about a 45 minute flight over the island groups we landed on East Wallabi island. We enjoyed a 20 minute walk across the island and along the beach at Turtle Cove to a beach shelter. Lovely shady shelter where we enjoyed morning tea. We then donned our snorkel gear for a 45 minute snorkel around the Coral Reef in Turtle Cove. It was wonderful, although not quite to the quality of Coral Bay to our way of thinking. Still had a lot of brightly coloured Coral and smaller fish. The Coral was very shallow in spots where you could barely swim over without touching. I ventured out toward the edge of the reef once Sandra had enough. The water depth increased rapidly there and the coral formations were quite different. We returned to the beach shelter where we enjoyed a lovely salad lunch. They catered to Sandra's Gluten free diet nicely and there was lots of fresh salad, fruit, etc.
After lunch our pilot led us on a short guided walk of the Northern tip of the island. This is the highest point in the Abrolhos group but is only 50 feet. Saw a number of Wallaby (very small), lizards, and birds. Also found a large number of shells but unfortunately they were all damaged from the birds dropping on the rocks to get to the food inside. Sandra managed to gather a couple that weren't damaged. We returned to the beach shelter for a rest and/or another swim before walking back along the beach and across the island to the air strip. We never saw another plane, boat, or person in our 4+ hours on the island; so you truly do feel like you have this beautiful paradise all to yourselves. Returned home over a couple more islands and the Batavia wreck. Weather was beautiful with sunny blue skies and surprisingly very light winds. Lovely smooth flight over Geraldton before landing at about 3:30pm. A great day and a highly recommended tour activity. At $240/person we thought it was great value as well. Definitely one of the highlights of our journey so far!
We enjoyed happy hour with another 4 couples back at the caravan park and an easy tea. Ready to pack up and head south in the morning.
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