Day 21 - Kalbarri to Geraldton
Short day of riding as I explore the coastline in a bit more depth.
Quick Stats
- 3 hours on bike
- 230 km
- 8486 km total
Lazy morning on the Kalbarri coast, I get up and go for a walk to get some morning coffee. The town is at the mouth of the Murchison River as it flows in to the Indian Ocean.
Pretty relaxed town. The wind is still there, but nowhere the strength of yesterday.
Coffee achieved, I pack up the bike and head off. I get about a kilometre down the road to the first lookout and realise I've made a mistake and should have stayed another night.
Between the sandstone red cliffs, ocean beaches and river inlet, it seems a pretty good spot to relax. There's some surfers hitting the massive swell, including a hydrofoiler getting towed in at the river mouth.
I've got the bike booked in for a service in Perth on Monday, so I have a few days to kill before Perth - and its not far now. Too late now, I don't believe in backtracking.
I spend the next three hours travelling around 30 kilometres, stopping at every brown sign along the coast as the views just keep getting better.
I probably walk a good five kilometres in this time, which wouldn't ordinarily be a problem, except I'm doing it in motorcycle boots. I finally call it quites on the detours after Natures Bridge.
We've regained the limestone top layer somewhere along the way here. So I leave the sandstone behind and power on to Port Gregory.
Hutt Lagoon is a massive salt lake separated from the ocean by a narrow piece of coastal dunes.
Do you know that pink salt you can buy at Woolies? .. yeah nothing to do with that, thats just a marketing sham by Big Salt to make you pay too much for Indian salt. The pink hue is caused by algae. Carotenoid (the stuff that causes colour in all sorts of animals and plants) producing Dunaliella Salina.
The interesting part here is they've created a number if man made ponds next to the lagoon for the farming of this algae. Its used as a food colouring agent and for its vitamin A. Its the largest microalgae production plant in the world.
Alas to get the Insta shot you need an extremely sunny day and a small plane. Maybe another time. On to Horrocks for a late lunch.
This is the first of, I'm told quite a few, towns on the way to Perth that have decided to build themselves on top of and behind the sand dunes.
Nice little village, it has a calm bay due to the protection from rocky outcroppings offshore.
On to Geraldton, just a quick hour and a bit down the road. I finally rejoin the N.W.C. Hwy at Northampton. Home to the now disbanded micronation of the Principality of the Hutt River.
Leaving the sandy coast, we are getting back to that pastureland I briefly saw yesterday. Then it starts to get really colourful.
Its Canola. And its flowering. I see a brown sign suggesting a scenic route to Geraldton and I take it.
For the next hour I see fields of bright green and bright yellow. With stark contrasts of red rock hills. Splendid.
Arriving in Geraldton, I check-in and take a walk. There's an interesting dome up on the hill so I head for that.
It's a memorial for the HMAS Sydney. Sunk off the coast in 1941 during battle with the German Kormoran, it is the most grievous loss of life the Australian Navy has suffered, with all 645 servicemen lost.
It wasn't until 2008, when it was located at some 2000 metres depth, that they discovered its final resting place, along with that of the Kormoran.
I walk back along the waterfront to my hotel. The historical trail tells me all about Geraldton City's start as a port for the gold rush, transitioning to a more generic mining port.
They did a massive reclamation in the early 2000s to relocate the railyard from the waterfront and recover it for residents to enjoy. s It feels weird to be in an actual city again, its been a lot of small, medium and large towns since I left Rockhampton.
My minibar is free, and I have a few drink vouchers to use at the bar downstairs, so I think I'll settle in and have another slow morning as I shuffle my way to Perth.