And so we got very little sleep while the gale force winds shook the on-site-van we were staying in at Jurien Bay.
Even though most of the clouds had cleared by morning, the wind held steady and followed us to Green Head where we stopped for morning tea. Andrew braved the elements to video a wind surfer on the water at Green Head.
Cold and wind-blown at Dongara, we lunched at the Dongara Hotel (heritage listed and built in 1867). Our yummy burgers were so huge that we were happy to have toasty cheese melts for tea.
Attempts at doing beach-walks were hopeless so if we couldn't drive to the lookout/location, then we didn't go at all.
Around three o'clock this afternoon, we rolled into Geraldton, (about four hundred and thirty kilometres north of Perth, population of around thirty thousand).
Geraldton has an impressive port and there are many signs of modernisation of the buildings all around. Geraldton's trees are pretty impressive too...some are buffeted so constantly by the salty wind that new growth is burnt off on the windward side so that they grow with a lean.
In Geraldton, the wind had eased a little so we meandered along the foreshore and enjoyed afternoon coffee (well Andrew had espresso, and I had a Margaret River Citron Presse) at the new Dome Cafe which only opened in Geraldton yesterday to much media fanfare.
At dusk we drove up the hill to the HMAS Sydney II Memorial and witnessed yet another glorious sunset over the ocean and dodged a sun shower.
Then off to Drummond Cove for another night in a small cabin to avoid the gale force winds predicted for most of the west coast.
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