Day 95: 1 September – First day of spring…

Author: Mrs A

Location: Cervantes

Distance cycled: 12km

A blustery, showery day met us as we awoke this morning, making it very hard to muster the energy to get out of bed and greet the world. But we did, jumped on our bikes and explored Cervantes, heading first to Lake Thetis home to more ancient stromatolites. 


A 3,500 year old stomatolite in the rain:


From there we cycled back to the coast to the Lobster Shack. This is home to a multi million dollar business, fishing for and processing Western Rock Lobster (known locally as ‘crayfish’) – most of which are exported live overseas. They also have a very basic restaurant where their chefs cook up the locally caught lobsters for visitors. We had to try it out.


Verdict: delicious! I’m looking forward to cooking the one in our freezer soon…

The sunshine disappeared after lunch, replaced by ever strengthening wind and increasing showers. We decided to give up our cycle exploration and retired to the mobile apartment for an afternoon holed up with chocolate and binge watching some of the Netflix we downloaded in Geraldton! 

Day 94: 31 August – A recovery day…

Author: Mr A

From: Geraldton

To: Cervantes

Distance: 230km

Dusty…very dusty…after last night’s wonderful dinner with the Sivrights. We stopped by their lovely home (incidentally its for sale if anyone looking for a cliff top, ocean views property in a gorgeous beach suburb of Geraldton – long shot I know!) and showed them round the Zone. Well it does show itself off rather well :). We left with the addition of a frozen crayfish for a future dinner!

We continued south past a ‘famous’ leaning gum tree, practically horizontal from the strong southerly winds they get in summertime in these parts. It was a good metaphor for how we both felt after the alcoholic excesses of last night!


We stopped in Dongara for some hangover food – fish and chips – they were awful! Fussy Poms, I know. Back on the road we followed the very scenic Indian Ocean Drive down the coast, pulling up for a quick nap right on the beach. Well an hour and 40 mins later we were up and at them.


Arrived in Cervantes and set up quickly at the RAC park there. Pretty ordinary.  Cervantes is named after a shipwrecked whaling ship of the same name, and these days is more famous for its cray fishing, stunning beaches, islands and natural beauty.


So we forced ourselves out for a late afternoon walk along the beach, that blew the cobwebs away finally. Back at the van I’m contemplating a beer 🙂