Wooramel

The hot pools were a treat, unexpectedly warm and hopefully doing my tired muscles good:

Lots of people were enjoying them in the late afternoon, before making their way to the bar:

Next morning I took this photo as I left

Geraldton to Wooramel

I’ve had trouble getting wifi recently, but it might be my lucky day now.

Here are some pics of the freebies in the Guest Kitchen at the Sails Motel:

This is the Sails pool, but too cold to use it at present:

Sails Motel had a splendid Guest Kitchen, with loads of freebies on two shelves.  You could just help yourself. There was a continental breakfast included in the overnight rate, but it was nothing to write home about. I just had a croissant and some raisin toast and I was on my way. I made a quick stop at Aldi on the outskirts of town. This is the last Aldi I’ll see on this trip - and there is no liquor store there, because BWS is just opposite.

Driving north, I passed many names that I recognised from previous trips:  including Galena Bridge 24 Hour Stopping, Eurardy Station, Nerren Nerren and Overlander Roadhouse. It was a perfect sunny morning for driving, but a little windy from the north-east when stopped. There was hardly any traffic on my side of the road. Everybody seemed to be travelling south. When I pulled in at Billabong Roadhouse, however, the place was jam-packed with grey nomads with their caravans and boats. They were offering free overnight camping, very handy, with nice toilets and a shop.

Wooramel River Retreat is somewhere I’ve never been before, even though I’ve driven along the Great Northern Highway many times. It’s 2km off the main road, along a wide gravel track.  There has been no rain for a while, so I knew I was safe from getting bogged. I’m staying in a very basic ensuite cabin, which has everything I need except wifi. The riverbed is completely dry. The main attraction is the artesian bore which supplies really warm water to four pools. It’s supposed to be good for the skin, but you are advised not to drink any or get it in your mouth accidentally. 

“Naturally warm, mineral-rich water rises from deep below the ground, flowing up from the Birdrong Aquifer - around 240 metres beneath the surface - under its own natural pressure.  It is then piped into free flowing pools where you can sit back, unwind and let the water work its magic.. The water sits at 31 degrees C and contains naturally occurring minerals, including salts, magnesium and iron, which are reputed to have soothing effects on tired muscles.”

The bad news is that I have noisy neighbours next door. Two lads arrived with big bags of ice to cool down their cans of beer. They were enjoying themselves outside till !0.00 pm . Thankfully everything went quiet at around then.

Perth to Geraldton

I had a slow start this morning because of an event at the Stadium. Run For A Reason had caused some road closures around Burswood, plus there was a lot of traffic, dropping off runners or simply confused.

It was good to get away onto Highway One and the open road. I drove at quite a modest speed, as I wasn’t in a hurry and petrol is expensive! 

I had a toilet break at Badgingarra:

Nice murals on the toilets

E had made me some matcha and white chocolate cookies, which will go down well with my coffee:

I was quite tired when I got to Geraldton. I’ve sworn off the Ocean Centre Hotel after last year’s coffee poisoning. I booked into the more modest Sails Motel, which is lovely and quiet, but it’s not near the beach and I don’t feel like driving any further today.

There is a Guest Kitchen, so I will put something from home in the microwave with a glass of SSB.

Broometime

I’m just preparing for my next adventure: another road trip to Broome. I’ve bought a couple of new travel books, to make sure I don’t miss anything on the way. I was keen to get my hands on Broometime:

This is a rather controversial book, published in 2001. The two authors drove across Australia from NSW and established themselves in Broome. They spent their days talking to locals and then published the conversations verbatim. One described the trial of an indecent assault in some detail. There was a big outcry, which led the publishers to withdraw it from sale. They pulped all the copies they retrieved.

By the time I heard about it in 2001, there were no copies in bookshops or libraries. This has been the case for years. There is a copy in our State Library, but you have to make a special request to see it.

Now, there exists Bookgrocer an outlet resembling Amazon selling books online. They advertised 2 copies on their website so I quickly snapped one up.  

I read it from cover to cover. There is an incredibly long list of characters, major and minor: too many to remember. One of them was known to me back then: Alison, who was Librarian at the High School in Broome. They portrayed her as a “jolly hockey sticks” sort of girl, which was more or less correct. She is no longer with us, having died from cancer a few years ago, but not before travelling the length of the Trans Siberian Express.

I found that the book seemed obsessed with race relations, with constant comments about black vs white, as if this was the predominant theme in the town. On all my visits to Broome, this is something that never crossed my mind. Broome is just a multicultural place and more interesting as a result. Perhaps I’ll write more on this aspect when I get there.

I’ve also been reading The Amur River by Colin Thubron.  He is an excellent travel writer and I hoped to pick up some hints! Moreover, at my age, he travelled along this river, from its source to the sea, suffering terrible hardships along the way and still able to tell the tale. Now there’s a role model!

Rocky Bay Bushwalk

We assembled at Tom Perrott Reserve carpark on a beautiful sunny morning. Jack was the leader and we set off in good spirits, enjoying the views down to the river. On a long weekend, it was full of boats coming and going, from the smallest to a large Captain Cook Cruise. Water skiers were getting towed and there were some individual mechanised craft that I’d never seen before.

At this point I sat down for a rest. The others progressed up the hill, turned around and met me on the way back:

There were some very posh houses around this part of the river:

This one had a pool and its own private boat ramp.

On the way, I spotted a lone white heron hiding amongst the reeds:

Chernobyl

This month marks the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. I’ve been watching a series of documentaries on TV, made in different parts of the world, but all showing footage, again and again of the nuclear plant exploding. It was truly shocking. Perhaps the worst thing was the giant cover-up as the Soviet authorities tried to keep it secret from the rest of the world: until they couldn’t. Finally the whole town of Pripyat had to be evacuated: some 4,500 people in an enormous convoy of 1,500 buses.

There were interviews from survivors, including hospital nurses and doctors, firefighters and other first responders, schoolchildren in Pripyat, bewildered local officials who didn’t know what to do. There were photos of many who didn’t survive, as well as horrific footage of radiation burns on the bodies of victims. One documentary relied heavily on this book:

I actually bought this book in 2020. I had been sitting next to someone on a plane who was reading it on the flight. As soon as I got home to Perth, I went out to buy it. The book is detailed and dense, representing years of research.

In 1986, at the time of Chernobyl, I was working at Vienna International School. I’ve been trying to remember how it affected us. I know that our students were not allowed outdoors at lunchtime. I also daren’t pick the herbs growing on our balcony. Apart from that, I remember very little. I suppose we were lucky in that the radioactive dust was blown north-west of Austria, eventually being identified in Scandinavia and even being known as “acid rain” falling in the Welsh mountains.

In order to see what we were doing at the time, I’ve been looking through my photo albums. A few months after the disaster, in June 1986, C and I were on holiday in Venice. This is us feeding the pigeons:

So it seems we were completely unaware of the seriousness of the tragedy. For us, life was going on as normal.

Much later, I was reminded of the repercussions of the nuclear fall-out. JL had a Polish cleaning lady at his house in Quinns Rocks. Her son married a girl who was a recent Polish immigrant. Soon, they had a child. Tragically, it was a hydrocephalus baby.

Hot Walk Through History

Sunday’s bushwalk was around the old quarantine centre at Woodman Point. We are now into the “winter schedule” of late starts, but the weather played tricks on us and we found ourselves walking in 31 degrees. Arriving at Nyyerbup Circle, Coogee for 9.30 am, it was virtually impossible to find a parking spot. There were so many people there, including skuba diving groups. Fortunately I had my secret weapon, in the form of JL’s old disability sticker.

We followed Sue along the disused rail tracks, which had previously been used to carry ammunition to bunkers along this part of the coast:

The quarantine station was established in 1886, to house people arriving by boat at Fremantle who were suffering from contagious diseases. It operated up to 1979. This is what it looks like today, when it is used as a recreation camp:

We observed a monument at the nurses’ graveyard, since many of them succumbed to the diseases:

We also passed the small crematorium, where bodies were disposed of:

 

Three of us decided to take a short cut back to the start, since it was getting really hot and not easy to traverse the sandy tracks.

We all enjoyed lunch in the shade at the end of the walk:

What an interesting excursion, in spite of the heat!

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the destruction of Burswood Park continues: