Australia Trip 2019 - Part 5 - Geraldton to Albany
- Wayne Webster
- Sep 28, 2021
- 7 min read
Updated: Oct 6, 2021
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Sunday November 3rd, 2019 - At Sea Bound for Geraldton - Sunny and Cool - Very Windy
Quiet sea day today. Seas and winds high. Did sit out on the promenade all morning (found the cupboard for the chair mats open) Went to hear Dr Martin Cohen talk about Wild About Wildlife at 2 pm - sort of an autobiography - quite interesting. Then Kay talked about our upcoming ports: Geraldton and Freemantle/Perth. Only walked four rounds - the winds are brutal. Sort of lost my momentum and never got to the gym. Not a great dinner: ok starter chose veal parmesan - just a veal schnitzel with some mozzarella - no parmesan and some not good spaghetti and tomato sauce. Lovely cherry crisp for dessert. Should have had the swordfish!
Monday, November 4th, 2019 - Geraldton - Sunny and Cool - Calm Seas
An excellent day in the town of Geraldton. Because of the cool, we could walk everywhere (did about 7 km) so we had no transit hassles. Did the three things we really wanted to do. First the foreshore walk (about 2 km of wonderful waterfront with parks, beaches, splash pads - all nicely landscaped.
Then on to the Memorial to the HMS Sydney which went down with all hands in 1942, fighting a German ship Kormoran. They lost 645 men, the Nazis only 81 and the rest became prisoners of war.
The memorial was intensely moving. High on a hill is an open dome. The dome is actually 645 metal seagulls. Inside is the ship's propeller. There are granite walls with explanations, pictures and the names of the 645 dead. There is a pool of remembrance, and a lovely statue of the "Waiting Woman". Inside the dome, just below the seagulls is the eternal flame which can be seen all over the tow at night. I cried!
Then walked down the hill to the Geraldton Museum which was terrific! Saw a very moving short movie about the HMS Sydney. Talked to the docent who was choking up, which started me again. The movie juxtaposed the ship (as found in early 2000 lying in 2.5 km of water) with pictures of the men and ship alive.
Then we went on a great tour of the shipwreck gallery. The most significant was the Batavia in 1688 - what a story! Shipwreck, mutiny, Jeronimus Cornelisz (a psychopath who killed for fun), heroism by some of the officers and crew, a longboat with forty people that sailed all the way to Java (33 days and hundreds of kilometres) and brought back a rescue ship which captured and eexecuted the mutineers. One hundred of the 325 survived. The rest died of thirst, starvation, drowning or at the hands of the psychopath.
Two other shipwrecks were interesting too. In one, almost everyone survived. They used the broken ship and her cargo and lived off the land for months until they were found.
We walked back along the foreshore and picked up wine at Woolies. Got wifi at the museum. Everything else was free. Love Geraldton!
Tuesday November 5th, 2019 - Fremantle/Perth - Sunny and Warm
Chose the eight hour ship's tour today - turned out to be very good value - eight hours for $100 each. Good guide - Kristina. Drove the 22 km from Fremantle to Perth.
Stopped at the beach for a brief walk. Then went to this amazing place, King's Park, the largest, by far, urban park in the world.
Our guide, who really knows her stuff, gave us a half hour tour, then we continued on for another three quarters of an hour on our own through the Western Australia Botanic Garden and Australian Forest and Bush Lands.
Then we did a city drive around Perth - 2 million people - very new - green and prosperous (mining) and great architecture. Then we had two hours of free time. The only disappointment today was that the Art Gallery is closed on Tuesdays. Spent our time getting wifi, lunch, wine and got a few nice souvenirs. Then a great boat trip - about an hour on the river Swan back to Fremantle where we saw all the major city sites including the notorious prison. Ship leaves at 1 pm tomorrow.
Wednesday, November 6th, 2019 - Fremantle and at Sea Bound for Albany - Sunny and Warm - Calm Seas
Had a bad night last night - started with memories of the stories of the prisoners, followed by caffeine jitters, culminating with my noise machine going dead. Only slept for 3-4 hours so very tired this morning. Wifi in the port crashed, so we did a walk into town to get it (thank you Hotel Australia!} Picked up a couple of bottles of white - we are well stocked now! Spent the rest of the morning on Promenade reading and puzzling. Got an early lunch I wasn't too hungry at breakfast. We left Fremantle at 1 p,. Scandalous story: Fremantle Jr was sent by his father in disgrace from England - he was a pedophile! He was head of this town and apparently well though of, so they never changed the name.
At 2 pm very good talk by Karina on coral reefs and the threats to them - from habitat destruction of the mangroves due to farm run off, climate change, ocean too hot - no recovery time from hot years and more serious storms. Next a talk by Kay on Albany, our next port. Can she think of anything interesting to say about Albany? She did! Had a brief nap - I never nap, then a good dinner with great companions who recommended some websites for booking excursions.
Thursday, November 7th, 2012 - Albany - Cloudy and Cool
Some rough seas last night, and we passed the point where the Indian Ocean meets the Great Southern Ocean. Though of the book Light Between Oceans. It was set here! Seas calmed as soon as we turned the corner. The trip into St George's Sound and past Vancouver Peninsula was magnificent and a hard job for the captain. A couple of places we had to go through didn't look big enough for our ship!
He was going about 2 mph. There are channel markers barely as wide as the ship - like the old Panama Canal. Scenery is gorgeous.
Albany is a pretty town, but way bigger than I anticipated. We had planned to walk everywhere - no way! Went on the free shuttle bus to Tourist Information and got advice and a decent map. Then walked down to the foreshore, where there is a lovely park. Went over to the Brig Amity, which is a replica of the first ship to arrive in 1826, carrying settlers, soldiers and convicts. It is tiny. Forty people, a load of animals and all the provisions were stuffed into an area the size of our living room. For $5 we got the audio tour, and clambered over hatches, up and down ladders, etc. It was a bit scary, but I did fine. The huge lists of provisions, tools, animals, seeds, etc. was interesting! Loved this. The replica was built to commemorate the 150th anniversary.
Then on to the museum - a sweet and interesting one in a heritage building - all about history as well as the flora and fauna. Albany was the staging ground for all Australia and New Zealand troops bound for WWI, and an important port which sheltered American submarines during WWII. It lost out to Perth for the capital of Western Australia in the early days.
It was way too far (about an hour each way) for us to walk to the ANZAC Centre, and uphill (there are two small mountains behind the town) so we too a cab for $11.80. The huge complex (at the top of a hill overlooking the sound) is very impressive and beautiful. The main museum, very new and modern - had a lot of good features. You get a card of your soldier - I got Lieutenant Leslie Newton, and you can touch a keypad that follows him through the war. My guy lived, wounded a couple of times, served at Gallipoli, Egypt and the Western Front. Wrote is regimental history. Died at age 63. However, the gallery was a little too technological for me. Very lengthy stories on the audio guide.
Some good features though, a viewing hall with enormous windows overlooking the sound, a magnificent sculpture of a man and horse (entitled Anzac Spirit). You wouldn't believe the number of horses that were shipping to war - poor horses!
We walked to Discover Point overlooking the sound, where you could watch all the convoys leaving, and also down to the memorial to the submariners who lost their lives in WWII - American mostly, more than 3,500 lives lost and 52 submarines. Then cabbed back with the walkers from North Carolina, Laurie and Michael, who had walked all the way up!
Friday November 8th, 2019 - At Sea Bound For Adelaide - Sun, Cloud and Windy
Lost an hour last night. Did our six rounds this morning. Went to a good talk by Dr Cohen on kangaroos. Their reproductive system is amazing! They can have one in the womb, one in the pouch and one running around, but coming back to the pouch to nurse, and they produce two different kinds of milk. They can "freeze" a pregnancy when times are hard.
Went to Kay's talk on Adelaide, just to see what she would say. I'm glad we saw Adelaide on our own. Everyone thought we would be docking at Port Adelaide, 8 km away, but we are in the Outer Harbour, 20 km away - you have to take a train - 45 minutes. Didn't realize that Adelaide was a totally planned community, all free settlers given land grants, no convicts or indentured people. That explains the grid system and the wide streets. We were happy with our time in Adelaide where we could walk everywhere.
Went to a talk by Chris Cook - a photographer naturalist. Not a great speaker, but great photos - he was very aspy. My camera died in the heat on Komodo Island. Wayne has been taking photos on Suse's iphone. I will have to replace my camera. Chris Cook recommended the Olympus TK6.
Too cold and windy to sit out on deck. Tonight was a gala night: scallops were a bit of a disappointment - three very small, heavily breaded, but the rack of lamb and the mango-blueberry crisp were great.
Go on to Australia Trip 2019 - Part 6
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