Cervantes to Geraldton

Cervantes takes its name from an American whaling ship which was wrecked off the coast in 1844, but we immediately think of the famous Spanish writer.

Just about every street in town has a Spanish name; I saw Mallorca St and Talavera St as I went out for an early morning walk down to the beach.

I was awake early. Motel rooms have a big advantage in that you can park your car right outside the door, but they have an enormous disadvantage in their paper thin walls. There were some hyper-active children awake before 6.30 am. The beach was calling:

Lots of boats were being launched. The caravan site was packed and threatening to overflow onto the sports oval.

I spent a bit of time sorting out my belongings before I hit the road again. In my haste to depart Perth, I had somehow put in 10 tops and only one bottom, no shorts, few items of underwear and no sleepwear. I decided to remedy this in Geraldton at Target and/or the local charity shop. I stopped in Dongara to visit the bakery with the best pies and treated myself to a chicken and veg one, which I ate sitting under a tree in the park.

I received a text from the hotel in Geraldton telling me my room was ready so I could check in early. Good news, since I was pretty tired after yesterday’s excitement and the stress of trying to get away and beat the lockdown. People from Perth are supposed to wear a mask and a kind man checking into the hotel at the same time as me offered to buy me one as he was stocking up for his family.

I had a long siesta and only woke up just in time to do my regular walk along the promenade as the sun was going down:

Today's paper about the lockdown.