Didn’t sleep too well, bed was very soft and the fridge in the room kept buzzing every so often and woke me up through the night.
Woke up at around 06:40 and tried to sleep more but gave up and got up at 07:00.
Had a shower and breakfast and went for a walk on the beach. It was warm but overcast and then started raining so sheltered under a tree. A guy in his yard asked if we wanted to shelter under his house which was nice of him, but the rain wasn’t too bad so we thanked him but didn’t bother.
It stopped after about 5 minutes and we went back, packed up and drove off towards Hutt Lagoon about an hour away. It’s a pink lake, and if you’ve seen the new Qantas ad, it’s where the kids are singing.
Roads in WA are really good, probably spent some of the mining money – all in good condition and no potholes, not like our trip to Sydney.
Not much traffic again, and we noticed most vehicles are white (probably because it gets so hot here), and are mostly Utes, camper vans, caravans and trucks. The weather was what we were getting used to – overcast, sometimes sunny, sometimes raining.
Arrived at the lake, there was a lookout with a few people, but it wasn’t very high and the lake didn’t look particularly pink.
We got back in the car and drove up the road to a toilet and got chatting to a retired couple who had a caravan and spent about 20 minutes talking about travel, camper vans and cruises, a very nice couple.
Back to the lake and there were a few more people there, including an “influencer” in a bikini with her boyfriend taking photos, because of course there was.
The lake looked more pink now, I think it depends on how sunny it is, the time of day and the cloud cover.
We walked around a bit, spoke to a guy who had a drone and his photos really showed how pink it was from a high vantage point.
Song took loads of photos, it really looked amazing, quite unusual. We’re now thinking of getting a drone.
Back in the car, back to Geraldton for lunch. Seemed to be quicker getting back, pulled in to search for a place to eat and found somewhere that looked decent.
Turned out to be a great find. I had beef cheeks in a ginger and soy sauce with black rice and asian slaw, Song had Brussel Sprouts with aioli, prosciutto and pomegranate. Both were excellent.
Went for a quick walk and Song found a jewellers, I waited outside and wandered about, waiting for her to come out with a big grin and a few bags, but she didn’t buy anything and my wallet breathed a sigh of relief.
Back in the car, a 2 hour drive to Cervantes – we need to drop the car back to Perth by 11 so the closer we can get, the better.
It was an easy drive again, not a lot of traffic and I think I went about an hour without seeing a car going in the same direction, just put cruise control on and followed the road.
Got to the motel just as it was getting dark and starting to rain at around 17:30, checked in and looked on Google for something to eat. The good news was that there was a restaurant just opposite the motel that did a nice looking seafood platter which we decided we would share. The bad news was that it was closed even though Google said it was open. Looked at Google again and most places were shut or back in a town we’d passed 30 minutes ago, but a lot of them were also closed because it was a Monday.
Asked at reception and she said there were 2 options – a burger / pizza / kebab place or the service station that sold burgers / pizzas / kebabs. Not feeling like any of these, but bereft of choice, we headed in the pouring rain to the cafe, only to spot a grocery store that was open but about to close, so decided to do it ourselves. Grabbed some sausages and veg, then I spotted some cans of soup and Song found some instant noodles so decided that was good enough. Lucky for us we didn’t pick the sausages because when we got back to the room we discovered it only had a microwave. So a bit of a low-rent dinner but that’s the risk when you stay in a small town off-season. The room was also a bit basic, even though it was the best in the area. I can see why most people around here have a campervan or a caravan, the accomodation options are limited.
Checked on the cat – we left the cat at home and the neighbour kindly agreed to go in twice a day to feed her and keep er company for a while – we’d set up a couple of webcams so we could see what she was up to, plus I’d bought a gadget that allowed me to turn the reverse-cycle AC on and off remotely, and I could also VPN into my PC and play videos for her to watch. I think she was having a better time of it than us.
We need to get up early tomorrow to make sure we get to Perth in time to drop off the car, so would try to get a decent night’s sleep.