We continue our journey with two vehicles.
Our first free campsite is just slightly north of Cervantes. A perfect spot for
Pieter to look for finds on the beach, for Jolmer to take the boat out on the
water, to play on the beach, try our hand at night fishing while a full moon
rises over the dunes. It’s a wonderfully quiet little spot and it sets the tone
for many lovely spots to come on our way from Perth to Broome, our family
extended by the presence of Pieter and Els.
We pass through many beautiful places
towards Geraldton. The WA museum is of special interest to us because of the
Batavia exhibition. Opa Pieter is just reading a book to the children about the
‘Scheepsjongens of Bontekoe’, It has been translated into English under the
title” Java Ho!: The adventures of four boys amid fire, stor and shipwreck. It
is about a journey of Captain Bontekoe and his ship The New Hoorn to the East
Indies, in the Golden Century around 1618, with on board three ship-boys. The
travels to Batavia, now Jakarta, are anything but easy and we are all sucked in
to the story. The display in Geraldton fuels our imagination and we just love
strolling through the museum reading all the signs, and trying to think what is
must have been like. The ship The Batavia of course found a sad ending on
Australia’s West Coast in 1628 and the survivors suffered an even sadder ending
on two of the Abrolhos Islands with mutiny and murder galore. A most
fascinating part of history where the Dutch and Australian ancestors meet.
The HMASII Sydney memorial is also a very
impressive site well worth visiting.
Kalbarri is pretty. More Dutch history: the
Zuytdorp, another VOC ship ran a shore around this area in 1712. Sir George
Grey who was shipwrecked in 1839 at the river mouth names the Murchison River
after Sir Frederick Murchison and walked back to Perth with his crew, which all
but one successfully managed. An incredible feat.
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