Lockdown easing a little in WA

With almost no new cases of Covid-19 in the state, WA is easing restrictions a little.  We are now allowed to travel a little more and also the two person rule in any gathering has been extended to 10 people,  The second easing of restrictions on social isolation is of little benefit to us as we don't know anybody to socialise with.   But lifting the ban on all unnecessary travel is welcome news.  We can now drive around a little bit more and see some sights.

Sunset Beach where people go to windsurf and kite surf.  Unfortunately they are hard to photograph.

Just near the beach with the windsurfers is Nazareth House, the aged care facility where Joke Halford now lives, after her stroke.  Joke is Andrew's ex-sister-in-law.  She was married to Andrew's first wife's brother David and Joke is Dutch as is Andrew.  They have always got on and kept in touch.  Andrew and I visited and stayed with Joke a few years ago in Carnarvon where she lived.  Unfortunately, we are not able to physically visit Joke at the moment due to the Covid-19 restrictions.  The complex looks very beautiful from the outside and Joke is happy there.

Double Beach further back down the coast.

Bench just up from the beach.  Nice sea carvings and metal crustaceans,

The Greenough River.  Andrew hopes to drive out here sometime soon and go for a long walk of about 17 kms.  While the vegetation is quite different, the view here reminds me of the Danube Bend area around Budapest in Hungary

Another view of the river.

Yet another view of the wonderful Town Beach.  We go around there to have a dip but also to grab a nice cup of coffee just around the corner at Skeetas Restaurant and Cafe.  They do a very nice takeaway coffee which we drink just sitting on the embankment outside the cafe.  We also sometimes indulge in their breakfast special of a bacon and egg wrap with Hollandaise sauce.  Yummie!

Just after enjoying the coffee, we came across a young boy, Henry, who is an absolute whiz on a monocycle.  It was breathtaking watching him cycle on the raised thin concrete strip including right angle turns.

He was fabulous.  Could have stayed and watched him for hours.

A fine Geraldton building on the corner of Marine Terrace and Durlacher Street.  It is the Freemasons Hotel.

Geraldton sights

As we settle in more we go looking at various sites around town.  St Francis Xavier Cathedral is probably the foremost attraction in the town.  It is not currently open to the public due to the
Covid-19 restrictions.  It architect was John Hawes who was an architect before he took up the priesthood.  Construction began in 1916 and was completed in 1926.

View from the front.

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The Right Reverend Monsignor John Hawes was an architect and a priest.  He was known for designing and constructing church buildings in England, Western Australia and the Bahamas.  He served as a priest in the Church of England before converting to Roman Catholicism and being ordained as a priest.   After he retired he lived as a hermit in the Bahamas.

The Memorial of National Significance in Geraldton commemorates the tragic loss of the HMAS Sydney II in 1941.  The loss of the 645 crew members of the ship sunk by the German cruiser Kormoran remains the greatest single tragedy in Australian naval history. The memorial dome comprises 645 gulls.

The Pool of Remembrance.

The Stele which is based on the concept of ancient standing stones found throughout the world were used as markers of graves since time immemorial.  It is here also expressed in the form of the prow of the HMAS Sydney II.  Front and to the side is the bronze sculpture of the Waiting Woman" grieving for lost father, husband, brother or son.

Queens Park Theatre in town.  Closed of course.

Active red and white candy striped Point Moore Lightouse stands 34 m high.  The first all steel tower built on the mainland of Australia in 1878.  It is the oldest surviving Western Australian lighthouse under Commonwealth control.

Settling more and more and enjoying life in Geraldton

Life is definitely improving for us.  A second computer has arrived by post, very kindly donated by our friends from Hervey Bay, Mattie and Marcel.  They upgraded their lap top and not only gave us, but sent their outdated but still very functional lap top, by courier.  They said they were very happy that the laptop will have a second life.  We are very grateful and now, with two computers and two mobile phones we will both be able to play bridge online.  We have already dipped our toes in but only one of us at any one time.

Also, the weather is so beautiful at the moment that trips to the beach are almost a daily occurrence.

This is the Town Beach.

It is popular but not too popular so that social distancing can't be practised.  This is not like Bondi in Sydney with people cheek by jowl.  The water is just a beautiful temperature.

We ask ourselves, where would we rather be?  Here enjoying this or back home putting on the central heating?  It is a no brainer.

There is a pontoon that you can swim out to and jump or dive off.

A replica of a longboat from the Batavia, which was famously shipwrecked in 1628 along the coastal regions of Western Australia.

The Museum of Geraldton along the foreshore, now closed like all public buildings and can only be admired from outside.

The Courthouse which reminds one a little of the White House in Washington across the green lawn.

A closer view.

The old railway station.

Another swim at the small cove around the corner from Town Beach;

Somehow I only managed to bring one bathing costume with me?  Duh?????

Had to go shopping for an extra costume but difficult to find with most shops closed.  Managed to score an end of sale one for $5 at  Target and it is quite a decent pair of swimmers.

We came across these beautiful purple cauliflowers at the local Coles supermarket.  I have never seen them and I took this photo and sent them around the various friends who are interested in flora.  I hope they don't think I photo shopped them :-).  I rather regret that I did not buy one to try how it tasted.  I imagine it loses its purple colour when you cook it, just as those nice purple potatoes.

Settling into life in Geraldton

We have been in the Geraldton house for just over a week and we are slowly establishing our lifestyle here.  We don't know a single soul in this town and the usual means of socialising and entertainment are all closed to us.  But this is the same all over Australia. 

Shot of Geraldton from the road above our house.

Our home in Glass Crescent.  It is a very ordinary house but delightfully cool which in this climate is a great bonus.  One can get quite hot after a walk to the beach and it is lovely coming back home to a cool house.

Andrew on the sand dunes followed by Maxi.  She is not so keen on deep sand and we sometimes have to pick her up as she struggles along the dunes.





The vast distance between our friends back home and us is a big psychological barrier but being here at the coast is a big consolation.  We intend to treat our stay here as a lovely beach holiday and enjoy what is on offer.

This is Back Beach, which is within walking distance of the house.  It is a surfing beach rather than a swimming beach.

A lot of sea weed collects and we are told that there is a horrible creature called a sea hare or sea slug which is rather like a brown blob  of jelly which hides in the sea weed.  Not harmful to humans but poisonous to dogs if they lick or eat them as they have a toxic slime.  We have not seen one so far.

Nikki swimming at Champion Beach which is a delightful small cove just off Town Beach which is in the centre of Geraldton.  We have to drive there.

It remains to be seen how often we will feel like swimming during the Geraldton winter.  Speaking to locals, opinions differ as to the temperature.  Many locals find the water too cold then but they say people from the eastern states still find the water quite acceptable for dips.

A nicely tended garden in our street with lots of frangipanis.

A beautiful tree in another street on the way to Back Beach.  It is our daily walk and I have always admired it without knowing what kind it is .

Another frangipani.  I love these and I tried to grow them in Canberra but they are not fond of frost.

Not only is this playground deserted but thick tape surrounds it.  The WA government is very strong on social isolation measures.

Found temporary safe haven in WA at time of Covid-19

Western Australia is the largest state in Australia in terms of geographic area.  It is difficult for people from the eastern side to fully appreciate how big this state is.  Especially in the north where the distances between roadhouses can be 300 kms.

After speaking to Andrew's eldest son Michael and his wife, also from Canberra and also travelling around WA separately from us, we had big decisions to make.  Driving around WA as we had planned, was fast disappearing as a viable thing to do.  Restrictions on travel were rising around us with some remoter areas closing their local boundaries, and also we did not relish the prospect of either or both of us falling ill in the middle of nowhere. So, do we turn around and go back home?After making this mad dash to cross into WA, not realising how the world would change further in the next few days????  The other possibility was to drive up to the west coast and rent a house in one of the coastal cities north of Perth.  Maybe Carnarvon which we had visited and liked.  Or maybe Geraldton, a much bigger place with better health facilities and possibly more prospect of something furnished being available to rent?

Michael and Jen decided to head back to Canberra.  They had seen and enjoyed the south-west area for a few weeks but their hopes to visit Ningaloo Reef (closed now) and Dirk Hartog Island (also closed) had disappeared.  They also have a son at home and a daughter at uni, so that decision made good sense.  We have no-one directly dependent on us, being the oldies we are and used to travelling each winter.  So, we decided to head north as quickly as possible before it was actually expressly forbidden to do unnecessary travel.

We did not have time to enjoy much along the way by way of sightseeing for two reasons.  One, that time was of the essence in getting there and we were driving along the inland route, partly along the wheatbelts of WA, not the most scenically exciting.  These are the few interesting things we saw along the way.

A dog cemetery near one of the towns.

A statue of a digger in Moora.  Albany in WA was the last point of departure for the Australian troops leaving for WW1.

A beyond blue tree in a field.

The sign accompanying it.







We arrived in Geraldton.  Apart from holiday rentals which are very expensive, there were only two furnished houses available for rent at short notice.  Maybe we should have gone on to Carnarvon?  The one that was 5 minutes walk to the nice town beach turned out to have complications with the tenants being late moving out and would not be available for a fortnight.  The house we are renting is very ordinary and driving distance to a much inferior beach.  But it was immediately available so that decided us.

This is our temporary safe haven.  I think longingly of my nice comfortable house back in Canberra, with Netflix available, all my as yet unread collection of books, all my creature comforts around me and I feel a bit sad.  Stranded in this strange city, one of the windiest in the world, probably after Chicago and Wellington.  Not knowing anyone and with no prospect of making friends through socialising or playing bridge.  Bridge clubs closing all over Australia is one of the biggest disappointments for all of us keen bridge players.

But, as I remind myself, we are lucky.  There is a lot of social unrest out there with people losing their livelihoods, the economy spiraling out of control, people contracting the virus.  We are currently of good health, we have each other for company, unlike some of our friends who live alone and have to socially isolate with no other person for company, and we are feeling safe again under a roof.

Travel in WA under the Covid-19 restrictions

We are starting to feel like fugitives, running, running running - just one step ahead of the law.  In order to try to grapple with the virus spreading, it is very likely that the state government in WA is going to try to keep people at home and to restrict people travelling needlessly.  But for people like us, away from our domicile, the motor home is our home.  Like snails with their home on the back, we are more or less isolating ourselves. Certainly socially isolating as we are the only touching each other and the dog :-)  We do shopping but that is all.

Now that restaurants, cafes, wineries and most importantly for us, bridge clubs, all closing their doors, our dream of wining and dining around the fabulous Margaret River region we experienced all those years ago is not available, we don't want to be stuck down here where winter is almost as bad as back home.  We want to be locked into the northern part of this huge state where at least we will be warm.  So, we will leave Esperance today and head north along the inland back roads.  This will be safer for us contamination wise and hopefully we will not be stopped as it is off the main tourist track.

Statue of a whale in Esperance.

One of the many beautiful beaches along the great ocean drive.

Another beach.

Panorama view of the same beach.

Our minor disaster was a broken door lock on the motor home.  For a couple of days we had to clamber over the front two cab seats in order to get in and out.  We manged to get it fixed in Esperance to my great delight and relief