With much sadness, we packed our belongings into the trusty loyal Ford Mondeo and bid farewell to the beautiful Kalbarri.
We thank the management of #Blueoceanvillas for their professional and friendly approach to accommodation management, and for one of the most fun, well located, clean, comfortable, and well equipped holiday stays we have experienced in all our travels over the years. Can't recommend this place highly enough!
As we drove along the main road we took our last glimpse of the magnificent waterfront where the Murchison river meets the sea, those large crashing waves with their white caps and frothing breaks, the little boats bobbing up and down and the sea birds gliding through the air. We passed the visitor centre with the sad stuffed toy turtle that Hobbit hoped got adopted so he could look happy, the Hotel with its merry go round, and the row of shops - especially Angies Cafe which we enjoyed an amazing array of meals and take aways from, thanks #AngiesCafe
We drove around the corner and passed Blue Holes snorkeling spot, Pot Alley, Mushroom rock, Eagle Bluff, and all the magnificent sights that had us mesmerized on our sight seeing adventures.
Out of Kalbarri, we started to wonder what our next stop, Geraldton would behold. Our original accommodation plans had fallen through so we decided to just find a place by the sea somewhere in a budget park. It is not like us to 'wing it' we are normally all pre-booked and organised. This was rather exciting!
Having seen everything already from Kalbarri to Gregory, and seen Horrocks Beach a few times prior in the past, we decided to take the inland route through Hickety, Nanson, and Narra Tarra which starts at Northampton. We did have a little stop and walk down the main street of Northampton as it is a pretty little town that is teeny, blink and you miss it. But the little shops are all so cute with their handcrafts and home made goods and the second hand shops sometimes have some little treasures that I have found in previous visits. Most of all, I love that the main street is decorated with beautiful blooms of colourful petunias and statues of sheep which are all colourfully decorated and so pretty.
This drive was lovely. Chapman Valley road is a beautiful winding road through rural farmland which is surrounded by pastures of sheep, cattle, horses, and fields. If you have not driven through the Geraldton area before, it is a gorgeous drive that is surrounded by impressive plateaus which can reach some glorious heights, they are like perfect hills that someone decapitated and gave a flat top to. I don't know how that formation came about, but Geraldton is very well known for its extremely windy conditions so my guess is many centuries of wind erosion. Speaking of winds, the quirkiest part of Geraldton is the bendy trees! As year near the town (no matter which way you come from) you will see the trees growing on right angles, some flat to the ground, because as they grew the wind constantly beat up against their trunks till they just grew on the angle the wind sent them. Really fascinating!
We stopped at a place called Waggrakine Lookout which is a dirt track halfway up the driveway of a private property where there is a car park atop a hill where you can get a lovely view of the whole area. It is very pretty and we took our time in enjoying the sight and snapped a few photos.
About 10km down the road from there, we entered the Geraldton townsite. The first place we came to was the Big 4 Sunset Beach Caravan Park which was the place I had googled as worth checking out for accommodation. It is pretty cheap, right at the beach, and in the same end of town as the friend I was hoping to visit during my stay. Having read some pretty bad reviews on tripadvisor, I thought I would look at the rooms before committing to paying for one. The lovely girl at the desk gave us the key to family cabin 22 and motel suite 9. The motel suite was really clean and well set up. Just a little room with a bed, kitchenette, table and 2 chairs, and a bathroom. We looked at the family cabin and it was a bit older, more run down, but a beautiful location right opposite the beach. It seemed clean and presentable and roomier than the motel room and was only $20 more a night so we took that one. When we started unloading the car I decided to open the windows to freshen up the room and noticed all the window sills were packed with really fine sand, like dust. Thought it odd, but figured it is the beach and this is Gerro so it is just a bit of build up.
We googled sights and noted that just up the road where we came in was a place we saw only as Lavender Farm which google also listed as Copperhead Road Rum Distillery. It closed at 4 so seeing as it was 1.30 we decided to go straight there, hoping it might have a cafe for lunch. The distillery was on magnificent grounds, the Lavender Reception Centre, a place that overlooked rolling hills and green farmlands. The gardens were stunning with many colourful well manicured flowers (native and non native) and velvet green lawns, a lovely outdoor gazebo area and a huge barbecue area. If I lived around here I would surely utilise this space for a function, would definitely create some beautiful memorable photos.
John greeted us at the gate and between coughs, sneezes and sniffs (he told us he was fighting off a cold but I told him he was losing the battle lols!) he kindly went through the process of how he makes his rums and liqueurs and showed us his distillery. We then got to the good part of taste testing.
YUM!
Here is what we tried:
Rum
Spiced Rum
Absinthe
Liqueur in these flavours: Chocolate, Coffee, Honey, Mandarin, Cherry, Raspberry, and Peppermint.
Oh my gosh! SO good.
We bought a bottle of a very special brew of rum (numbered 49 of 100, an aged lot) for my Dad who loves his rum, and got ourselves some Absinthe, Chocolate, and Coffee. John threw in a little shot glass for free, awesome! If you pass through Gerro, make sure you go to this place!
With grumbling tummies and the hangries coming on, we decided to go into town for a late lunch. We walked down the main street and found the Freemasons Hotel. The menu looked bloody amazing. It took us so long to order because both of us had many things we wanted to order and couldn't narrow it down. In the end, I got nachos and Hobbit got a beautiful Pork Belly with rice and chinese vegetables with Thai Coconut sauce. The hotel is stunning, quite an old building.
After lunch we walked around and despite it only being around 4pm, we found most of the shops either already closed or in the process of closing. Not sure if it was the winds that were really picking up, or the streets which were rather empty, but we thought a Thursday might be late night trading like in Perth, nope!
The Geraldton shore front is a gorgeous landscaped area with a fantastic kids park where there is a separate fenced off area for the smaller toddlers etc and then an open park with more adventurous swings for the bigger kids, very well thought out. There is a water fountain area and lots of beautiful lawn and seating areas. From here you can look out to see the large cargo ships coming and going and we also saw a big fancy cruise ship leaving dock and wished we could one day be on one. Looks like a really fun way to spend a vacation. Didn't take long to walk from one end to the other, but it was a lovely walk regardless. With a few splatters of rain threatening and the wind getting really strong we went back to our chalet.
Our chalet was now a bit different to how we left it.
Due to the wind picking right up, everything was now covered in a fine layer of white sand. Under each window (which was closed tight) was a little mound of sand that had made its way through the most microscopic of cracks. Everything felt like sandpaper. Just great. Not much we could do, this was not a fault of the park, just a result of the strong winds and really really fine sands, we just worked our way around it. I wasn't looking forward to being sprinkled in sand in my sleep tho! hahaha.
Seeing as it is Halloween night, there is a TV showing of the movie 'IT', so we snuggled under a rug on the lounge (partly to get warm and partly to provide shelter from the sand lols!!!!) and enjoyed some October 31 frights delivered Steven King style.
Wishing you all a great Allhallowtide, remembering the saints, the martyrs, and the faithful departed. This day was traditionally celebrated by Christians as the first of three days of remembrance and it was a day of abstinence from meats. I didn't know that till I just googled it.
#Geraldton #WARoadTrip #RoadTrip #Kalbarri #CopperheadRoadDistllery #TheFreemasonsHotel #Northampton #WATourism
