Geralton was a lot prettier than I thought it would be.  There is not much to do though, and the main attraction is the HMAS Sydney II Memorial.  We had a guided tour of it which is free and interesting.  Then we went to the library since they had free wireless internet and both my dad and Hendrik cannot live without internet for too long.  It was an awesome library.  One of the most modern ones I’ve ever been too they had board games and puzzles on top of books and magazines so I could have easily spent the whole day there and was not bored, even though I did not have my laptop with me. In the afternoon, we drove back down to Perth and stayed in a Big4 and had a typical Australian barbecue with shrimp and fish and too much food to finish.

HMAS Sydney II Memorial

The next morning we went to visit the King’s Park and the Botanical Gardens which really impressed me.  I thought they were comparable to Sydney’s, and from them we also had a wonderful view of the city.  After visiting the park we flew back to Melbourne.

Perth from the Botanical Gardens

Hendrik and I woke up early to go back to Monkey Mia to see the dolphins come in for feeding.  I was disappointed that we were not able to swim with them but seeing the crowd it was understandable that they could not let people swim with them or they would chase them away since there were about 100 people lined up along the shore ready for the dolphins.  Nevertheless, we were able to see the dolphins really close-up.

Then we had to start the drive back down south. On the way we stopped at Eagle Bluff which was a spectacular lookout.  We only saw one shark though, which only looked like a tadpole from the distance.  Next we stopped by Shell Beach which is a beach made up entirely of crushed shells, no sand.  It was very white, beautiful and peaceful, seeing as we were the only ones there.  If we had had more time I would not have minded going for a swim.

Alone, except for that guy.

The last stop on the peninsula was for the Hamelin Pool.  It is one of only a few places in the world where living marine stromatolites can be found.  Stromatolites look like rocks and are an example of the earliest record of life on earth.  They were spectacular in their own right, but by then the sun was beating down, and the humidity was rising.  Therefore, I was very happy to go back to the AC of the car and not spend too much time with the stromatolites.  Then we drove to Geraldton where Hendrik and I spent a long time in the Winstersun Motel’s pool, which was very refershing.

stromatolites