1 November - Point Moore Lighthouse, HMAS II Sydney Memorial, W.A. Museum, Greenough and Walkaway

1 November 2016 – 193 770

Point Moore Lighthouse, HMAS II Sydney Memorial, W.A. Museum, Greenough and Walkaway

This morning we had a tour of the HMAS II Sydney Memorial in Geraldton – this is a beautiful civilian memorial with loads of symbolism. 

https://www.hmassydneymemorialgeraldton.com.au/ 

There is a board explaining all the symbols, however I think the tour guide did a great job of this and I would have missed noticing some things on my own.  

From here, we headed to the W.A. Museum and had a tour of the Shipwreck Gallery; this included a large section on the dreadful aftermath of the Batavia shipwreck.

http://museum.wa.gov.au/museums/museum-of-geraldton  http://museum.wa.gov.au/museums/geraldton/shipwrecks-gallery-geraldton

There was also a special exhibition – Rough Medicine: Life and Death in the Age of Sail, which I found quite interesting. http://museum.wa.gov.au/museums/geraldton/rough-medicine 

After lunch we went south and looked at the leaning trees in the Greenough area – these are not broken, but grow on these bizarre angles due to the strong and constant winds. https://www.australiascoralcoast.com/destination/greenough https://www.australiascoralcoast.com/destination/greenough/leaning-trees The Central Greenough Historic Settlement was quite interesting as it included most town buildings that were built in the mid nineteenth century – school, churches, police station, store, hall, cottages – in remarkable condition. https://www.nationaltrust.org.au/places/central-greenough/  https://www.centralgreenough.com/ https://www.australiascoralcoast.com/destination/central-greenough-historic-settlement 

The Alinta Wind Farm was our last stop for the day – this was truly amazing and so appropriate for the area.  The average year round wind speed here is 20 to 25km/hour, so a great way of generating power efficiently. https://www.infigenenergy.com/our-assets/owned-renewable-energy-assets/alinta/

7 August - Darwin City Adventures

7 August 2016 – 182 102

Darwin City Adventures

This morning we had a sleep in after our big day yesterday.  Our first adventure for today was the Darwin Esplanade, exploring the various WW2 memorials along the waterfront.  It is hard to imagine such a beautiful spot being the scene of such destruction.  Darwin Esplanade is one of my favourite places. 
http://www.tropicaldarwin.com/The-Esplanade-Darwin.htm Next port of call was the Tourist Information Centre where we were able to get information on the activities and camping in Kakadu.  We spent a couple of hours exploring the city centre – it as certainly changed a lot in the last twenty years; a lot more chain stores and food outlets and a lot less of the individual operators.  After a picnic lunch, we headed to Stokes Hill Wharf.  The tides in Darwin are enormous, about 10m so it is quite interesting to see the wharf at different times of day. https://www.waterfront.nt.gov.au/darwin-waterfront-precinct/stokes-hill-wharf/

We also explored the WW2 Oil Storage Tunnels – these were built of steel and concrete to form large underground tanks to store oil in after the bombing of Darwin, however they were never actually used. 
http://www.ww2tunnelsdarwin.com.au/ 
Last stop for today was the Mindil Beach Sunset Markets.  https://mindil.com.au/The decision making on what to have for dinner was just as hard as I remember.  We opted for Hong Kong Chinese and spring rolls and dim sims.  It is such a pity we can’t have one of everything.