29^th August: Geraldton

Both cars were serviced today. Glen supplied his own oil and the guy doing the service spilt 2 litres of it (at $20 a litre) and then charged him for the 30 minutes labour it took to clean it up! Glen was not happy! He would have done it himself except he has nothing to drain the oil into and no where to dispose of the oil.

When ours was finished,we all took off for a day's driving. We went north to Northampton, calling in to look at Coronation Beach which has nothing but a little beach and a small number of caravans bush camping. Of course, we had to have a cup of coffee. I walked up the beach as I have no need of coffee every 2 hours! (We run on “Stomach time!”)

Northampton is an historic town, full of listed buildings. It was, and still is, the regional centre of a wheat area but because it is so close to Geraldton and since the railway was closed a long time ago, it has declined in prosperty to become a sleepy, country town. But, amongst other historic stone buildings, there are the catholic church,St Mary's in Ara Coeli and the Sacred Heart Convent,both designed by Monsignor Hawes and built in 1930's. (He was originally an Anglican architect who became a Catholic priest and designed and had built churches and convents throughout the mid-west. This includes St Francis Xavier Cathedral here in Geraldton.) The church in Northampton is still in use and the convent is a boarding house in front of a now enlarged and modernised school.

While we were there, we found a drapery and out the back she had  a collection of sewikng machines, mostly old singers, going back to the hand machines of the 1890's.  But there in the middle was my old Bernina 700 Record!  (An old machine? Well, I often forget that I bought it in 1969!)

 

We decided to go the long way to Mullewa – and it was a long way through wheat fields and scrub. By the time we got there, the two ladies in the back seat were food and coffee deprived! First stop, lunch! There was a Wildflower Show on which is why we were there. Glen was tired and stayed at the car, April and Gail breezed through and went to look at another Hawes church (which was very ornate in style) but I had a thorugh browse, despite the fact that I was disappointed there were only a few names on the flowers. There were a couple of massed displays which were lovely but the individual flowers in vases and bottles were mostly not identified. Apparently, they usually are but of the three old ladies who used to do it, one has died, one has Alziemers, and the other has moved away! So, I didn't actually learn more of the wildflowers and we didn't see many by the road either. But I did see Wreath Flowers which are scarce this year and grow 40 kms further west.

We came home by 4.30 so that Gail could pick up her car. (It was the90,000 service and it required a longer stay than ours!)