28th - 29th September
 
Bloody School Holidays! Today we departed Shark Bay towards a well known WA coastal holiday area, Kalbarri and the Kalbarri NP, and enroute Evi phoned ahead to enquire re caravan sites in town as there are no free-camps in the vicinity. Nope, the town is full of families, not all that appealing to a cranky old couple, how dare they! So, we defiantly drove past the turn-off as if we had a choice! Geraldton here we come.

In Geraldton we were hoping to catch up with an old business associate and friend, John Luscombe, but alas, he recently went to Spain for a short holiday and got wrecked in Ibiza, that happens! A reconfiguration of schedules and we decide to spend 2 nights here and take the opportunity to have a look around this interesting township. 
 
 Geraldton is a hub for a large area of pastoral, agriculture, tourism and mining, a busy place and very nice. A walk down the old main street reveals quirky shops of crafts and art, trendy rustic cafés, boutiques, the first surf shop we have encountered since the GC, and a wonderful Mens Shed in an old retail shop which is about 3 shopfronts wide and probably 80 metres to the rear loading docks. We spent an enjoyable hour with one of the guys in the retail section then a tour of the "workshop" which was well equipped by the blokes and donations from the local community and businesses including Bunnings who contributed anything discontinued in their store such as different brands of sanding discs, drill bits, screws and any 2nd's of timber etc. Even the shop, that is privately owned, is on loan to the group until it is redeveloped at some time! 
 
Geraldton has an interesting blend of old and new, maritime and pastoral, industrial and tourist. New marinas are flanked by upmarket waterfront villas, nearby a fishing harbour full of working trawlers, a massive cruise-ship swings at anchor outside a container and bulk goods wharf, and a lovely wide park full of school holiday families lines the foreshore, along with cafés and shops.
 
The town is big on the wreck of the HMAS Sydney which in 1941 was engaged in a sea battle with the German auxiliary cruiser, HSK Kormoran. Both vessels were sunk during the engagement with the loss of all 645 crew on the Sydney. All but 80 of the Kormorant's crew were rescued, and it was not until 2008 that the wreck of the Sydney was discovered. It is an interesting read: http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/fact-sheets/fs111.aspx
Geraldton has erected an impressive memorial to the crew on a hill overlooking the township and harbour, and here we wandered for an hour in the late afternoon, a very moving experience.
 
The only task in town was to have a wheel balance done on the Patrol. After several thousand kilometres of 4WD tracks, gravel roads and the Gibb River Road we were surprised when the outcome was only a small adjustment, obviously a testament to Roscoe's driving?