We can tell that we are getting closer to the big smoke. Anouk only asks about three times a day, "Are we in the middle of nowhere?" and the road signs that tell you how far it is to the next few towns do not pretend that a petrol station is an entire town. Oh, and also, there are some people about.
 |
They take their bird control pretty
seriously in Dongara. |
Mum stayed in Geraldton about 15 years ago. Its fair to say that she did not enjoy it. The fact that she was there for about 3 weeks with a group of surfing/windsurfing friends who surfed and windsurfed the whole time - and she did not - may have had something to do with it. So we drove on through Geraldton - save to stop for some shopping and a very good playground - and went to Dongara/Port Denison (its really just one town with a river that goes through the middle of it and ends up wtih two names). The tourist brochures would describe it as a "sleepy sea-side town". Comatose may be more apt although to give it some credit, the bakery there did produce a chicken satay pie that Dad described as the best pie he has eaten. High praise indeed because he has eaten a few pies in his time.
We did precious little in Dongara. Sure, Nana and Pa caught and flight out to the Abrolhos Islands where they snorkled in the coral and saw the part of the reef where the Batavia ran aground in the 1600;s. (They are pretty fond of the Batavia - and shipwrecks generally around these parts. Seems that the boats that could actually get through the reef were pretty well forgotten while those that were wrecked are celebrated.) So they had the greatest day of their lives again - which was only partly due to the fact tha they got to spend time without three screaming children (and two screaming adults). But it does not really count because the rest of us were not there.
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When dad told Isaac to "Go fly
a kite" he did not expect this.... |
One evening in Dongara Dad made an early entry to win Father of Year 2012. Consisistent wtih his desire to exhibit "challenging" behaviour Isaac decided to see how far he could push the boundaries. He was saying some "naughty words" for about the tenth time in the day. The comes a time when you can only threaten to wash out his mouth with soap so many times before you actually have to do it. Dad reached that stage. What followed next was Isaac's fault for (a) being a turd and (b) not opening his mouth properly. The mouth washing was to be done with liquid soap. Its easier to get in than the traditional stuff. Dad swears he only put in a tiny amount but however much he put in Isaac swallowed yet. This was Isaac's third mistake. Anouk always just spat it out. Anyway. once he swallowed it, we were in real strife and the inevitable occurred - in the van and on the mat outside. It was a bit of a mess.
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Imagine what he would have been like
if we actually did things in Dongara. |
On the positive side of parenting, Yvette did take her first few staggering steps in Dongara. Which excited Anouk and Isaac no end. Which is nice.
We did make a trip into Geraldton and while there are some nice new sections on the foreshore area, a little back from the foreshore is a city that really struggles. You can walk through street after street, and arcade after arcade where all the shops are closed or are closing. It may not just have been the windsurfing that gave Mum a bad impression of Geraldton all those years ago. Although the museum is pretty good - as noted, they do like a good shipwreck around here.
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Its difficult to know what is
more remarkable - the amount
of weed on the beach at Cervantes
or the fact that a photo was being
taken and Anouk chose not to be in
it. |
Anyway, we then moved on Cervantes - about 200 kms north of Perth - and gateway to the "Pinnacles" (yeah, I don't really know what they are either). There has been record wet conditions in south west WA this year. We thought we would turn that around. We did not and all we have seen in Cervantes is rain and a beach that is absolutely covered in seaweed. It had to happen eventually (the rain more so that then seaweed...) Dad is starting to remember why he hates camping.
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