LOVELY GERALDTON

At the beautiful and historic Visitor Centre we decided to set up at Sunset Beach C/park for 8 nights thereby providing a base with good television reception for John to watch Bathurst next weekend.
The rain pelted down that night providing the opportunity to realise that our van is still watertight, and gradually receded through the next day.
We took an early opportunity to visit the Hutt River Province when it dried up on Tuesday, turned off onto a red gravel road, passing farms of wheat, cattle and some dorper meat sheep.  After driving past the check point Prince Leonard himself saw us at the 'Post Office' issuing us with visas to enter - and the exit one at the same time. 
We learned that West Australian Government brought in wheat quotas in 1969 and gave the Casleys a quota for100 acres of wheat, when in fact they had grown 13,000 acres each year.  Leonard Casley was told that there would be no compensation and no appeals allowed, even though he had 13,000 acres growing at that time.   Leonard Casley investigated the legislation and found that in fact the bill had not been passed in the WA Parliament.
Nevertheless Leonard protested and was told firmly by the Governer of WA Maj Gen Sir Douglas Kendrew "No alteration to the Casley Quota would be allowed".  After further investigation of the laws Leonard decided secession was the only way to keep his land safe from resumption by the Government.
This occured on 21 April 1970 and became known as The Principality of Hutt River.
There were several brick buildings to be explored containing framed copies of official documents, artecfacts, collections of items, beautiful paintings.  P Leondard had connections all over the world and our cameras clicked away.
Prince Leonard is now 84 and his family manage the farm but he is still very active.
As the day was progressing we called in to Northampton took a few photos of some beautiful old buildings and had lunch.
Throughout the rest of our stay we explored beautiful Geraldton City which had the Chapman River flowing through it, it was a real return to civilisation, prices were as we expected them to be in major centres instead of being affected by freightage costs.  A lot of Geraldton is built up the hill and often as you turn a corner you can be confronted by the scene of beautiful blue/turquoise waters breaking spectacularly over the reef.
On one peak was a memorial erected to the memory of the 645 souls who died aboard the HMAS Sydney in 1941, very moving and beautiful including a statue depicting the many women who waited and looked in vain for their loved one.
We visited the RSL to view more memorabilia and were befriended by some of the members and advised about some drives to take around the area and some of the sights to look out for, invited to a barbeque the next night, very pleasant.
On Sunday - race day - I set off to visit a craft and quilting fair and enjoyed poking around in an area which I find very interesting - had been advised that there was Dragon Boat racing organised by the Geraldton Yacht Club, so drove around the foreshore again, on hearing the sound of the horn for the beginning of a race I hurried over to the beach and watched a few races.
The boats were all made of metal as were so many I had seen here on the mainland in the past, I learned that it was a once a year event and that explained to me the lack of discipline of the crew who admittedly were splashing around a lot and jumped into the water before the boat hit the beach - in other words a good time was being had.
I loved Geraldton, despite the 'pong' of the seaweed on the beach at the c/park, it was cosmopolitan in one way and also friendly, I could have stayed a lot longer.