This morning was a late get away, we chatted to the couple in the Wicked Camper next to us.  They are from Taupo in New Zealand & come to Australia on a regular basis to tour, we had a good chat.  We set a leisurely pace, trying to spot any decent wildflower displays but I think we are around two weeks early judging by the state of the buds on all the plants.  The wattles are just starting & not yet at their best, it makes for a colourful display on the sides of the road.  We passed a very pink lake, we took some photos, but of course the brilliant pink doesn’t come up that well.  The lake is actually a salt mine drying dams & the pink is caused by the algae in such brackish warm water.  It does look unbelievable.  We also passed through lots of very green wheat & yellow canola fields & a few happy fat sheep grazing as well as lots of yellow & blue wildflower strewn paddocks. It is unusual seeing all this rich green so close to the coastal sand dunes & the sea.

We started the historical building part of the day when we passed the old convict sign-on buildings  just before Northampton where we refuelled.  The old stone church & the convent next door in Northampton are credit to the craftsmanship of the stonemasons.  The church in particular is stunning.  Northampton is a very old town & there are a lot of beautiful old stone buildings scattered throughout.

We stopped in Geraldton for some groceries & parked in the grounds of the old Victoria Hospital, built in 1887, now the visitor centre.  The stone buildings have been very well restored.  After lunch we went through the old Geraldton Jail & spent some time looking at the great rock collection in there & reading the history of some of the people that were in there, either working or prisoners. Todays prisoners are on holiday compared to those poor souls.  We took the scenic route through the port where ships were loading wheat & past the old red & white striped lighthouse.

Next stop was at the old town of Greenough.  The trees here are famous for the way that they grow with a permanent bend because the prevailing southerly winds are usually so strong.  The wind keeps breaking branches & burning leaves on the windward side so the downwind side is the only part that can grow, so all of the trees have a very distinctive lean & growth away from the southerly wind direction. The old town of Greenough is a collection of old stone buildings reclaimed & restored by the National Trust.  It is a fine collection of the important buildings in town, such as the two churches, police station & attached jail, hall, convent & a couple of houses used by monks & priests.  We went inside most of the buildings & they have been furnished with photos from the early days of Greenough as well as period furniture.  Tereza was reminded of her school days in the old schoolhouse with the slate used to learn writing skills.  The inside of one of the churches was particularly nice.

We headed south & turned off onto the coast road where we found the rest area at Cliff Head, 275km for the day.  Six other campers were already set up.  This place is around 400m off the road & right on the beach.  We set up the Karavan & took our chairs, coffee, cheese & bikkies down to the beach & watched the sunset on an absolutely still ocean. It is unbelievable how calm it is after all the strong winds of the last few days.  The sunset was absolutely stunning, very rich golden colours & a superb reflection off the ocean.

Tereza did a great job with some curry puffs for dinner & a glass of red washed it down nicely.