Around Oz the First Time - Chapter 69 - Carnarvon to Geraldton

One might suggest, because this was a 474 kilometre drive it was going to be uneventful. OK yes we rose early to be on the road by 8.30am and yes we had to refuel, and yes we had to wait for Silver Leader and Rosalie, but the trip today augured to be one of the more scenic of the trip.

We were heading into wildflower country. Geraldton is renown for it, but first there was Carnarvon’s outskirts. Deja vous for Forbsy and us as we head down past the Astronomy Museum and the turn off back onto town, that we did yesterday. A little further on there are a couple of young eagles on a piece of roadkill. The landscape goes quickly from the lush irrigated land of Carnarvon market gardens back to the arid, almost lifeless land we have been seeing.

It takes a while for the vegetation to go from the lushness, through simply green bush obscuring the bush behind to road verges devoid of anything. All the way along there are small pockets of newer vegetation as a water course, generally dry, cuts through the red dirt.

Midway is the Billabong Roadhouse. The madness of the large fuel companies, and their ignorance of the simplest of economic theories – economies of scale – in one of the worst examples I have seen. The Billabong is a roadhouse selling fuel and food (among other things), the price of fuel here is $1.52 per litre. Next door there is a Shell roadhouse, doing exactly the same thing  but the fuel price is $1.68.

You want to know which roadhouse had the customers. The Billabong was not only, the only one with selling fuel, the Shell had Billabong food customers parked in its grounds, who had walked the short distance to the Billabong. The food here is quick, and we buy an early lunch. Just as we sit down, a bus arrives and the passengers flood in. The line is long and actually bends around towards the door via the end of the bay marae. The time to get to the end is about 20 minutes.

Whilst this group are being dealt with another bus arrives. I get a chance to ask one of the staff is this usual, and she suggests it’s a quiet day. We decide to get out on our way before this place really starts to get cranking. Still the Shell is empty, when will the big guys learn?

Until we get to the Murchison River the outlook remains pretty similar except for an area where the trees and bushes disappear. In the distance we can see what look like man made hills, but as we get closer it is evident, they are natural. There is however a gravel quarry here and the piles of conical mounds of gravel are extensive.

Soon we pass the turnoff to Kalbarri, a place Robyn initially had shown lots of interest in investigating but because of the non-availability of camp sites during the school holidays, we are not going there today. We might do a day trip, we might not, I am not overly enamoured with crowds.

Now we are past the Murchison, the wildflowers start becoming more prolific. There are carpets of yellow. Gum trees, I like to call South Sydney Trees, as they have green leaves and very red branches lose to the leaves. They are quite spectacular to see along the road.

Now and again there are flashes of different colours, grevilleas with silver green leaves from which stalks emanate a couple of metres with bottle brush type flowers of white, yellow or red. Then the yellow carpet starts having purple blobs inside. All of a sudden, conifers line the road, these have to be human planted. They also allow us to see by the bush behind the road coverage.

Much of the land is still arid. It would seem the bushes and trees manage to stop the water getting to the ground in amounts suitable for ground cover growth, then out of nowhere there are crops of wheat. The wheat belt has thrust itself upon us. The crops are not startlingly productive looking and look very short for mature crops. I don’t think the tonnes per acre will be high this year.

The green bushes again are vivid green to dirty brown, still with the grevilleas dotted here and there with the stalks of colour emerging. The road behind us is littered with several vans and quite a few cars. We are in a 110kph area, but there are no overtaking zones and we cannot legally do more than 100kph. The can and trailer behind me is well back making the odd overtaking lane useless for them to get past, and with that the others are stuck back there as well.

Into Geraldton, Silver Leader needs a toilet break, the Kranske sausage for lunch has done a Kranske on him. The roadhouse he picks is actually part of the detour though Geraldton to our destination. We decide to follow the GPS is now taking us along this road. It takes us down through a picturesque part of this town, towards the van park.

Along the road we listen to the local grain storage facility on the UHF. They are talking about having sent 10,000 tonnes of grain today to a grain ship. They are also talking about a leak in the conveyor on the sixth floor which has leaked about two wheelbarrow loads of grain. There are questions around a fitter and turner being available to repair the leak, but its close to closing time and they decide tomorrow is good enough given the right person is not immediately available. These are not the only people on Channel 18 at this time. Silver Leader mentions something and almost immediately, there is a retort about meeting at a chicken place, they will be the largest van in the car park.

If we were all there, there would be difficulty in distinguishing the right van.

Into the van park and we have great difficulty in getting into our spot. There is very little room to manoeuvre and I am back and forth not seeming to make any difference. The next door neighbour offers to assist and I take it, ruffling Robyn’s feathers up the wrong way.

Set up, and I lay down with my foot up. It has blown up during the day. 90 minutes seems to bring it down somewhat, then its time for the team meeting at Silver Leader Beer Garden. We discuss the possibilities around Forbsy putting his Cruiser into the local Toyota dealer for a service. This we can do by 8.30am, even though the service is booked in for 12.30pm, then head off for a day trip, which is going to include a stop at a classic pub at Northampton for lunch, meaning we will have that as our last stop to ensure we are back for the pick-up of the Cruiser.

We are all tired from the 474 kilometre drive today and eating in our own vans tonight.