So, where's the Pestilence?

Some time ago, in a life long forgotten Len once decided that it was necessary to move from Tasmania to Geraldton, in W.A.
Geraldton was chosen because;
1. It had the best year round temperature for anywhere in Australia.
2. It was the furthermost place from Burnie with the best year round temperature in Australia.
3. It was the furthermost place from Burnie and the (then) Mother-In-Law in Australia with the best year round temperature in Australia.

After purchasing tickets etc. He eventually did not go, deciding to face the perils at close quarters instead of long distance.
One result of the last decision was the he always wondered what Geraldton would be like, thinking that it in all probability it was a dump and that it was a very good thing to have not been living in that city for all those intervening years.

It was with some interest and a little dread that we drove into there last week, on Boxing Day.

Well, it is very nice, as it turns out. Everyone loved it, it is bright, warm (not hot or cold) and has great places for family and seems a very friendly place to be.
It would have been OK to live there after all.

It is windy, but the locals consider that an advantage, promoting para-surfing as a sport for Geraldton's trendy people who can still wear small bathers and not make people feel ill.

We saw some Stromatolites in Shark Bay. Actually there are the largest collection on the planet.
Being an algae-rock thing they don't provide any entertainment as all, but we have seen then now.
Jessie nearly expired on the few hundred metre walk into them, it was stinking hot and very bright on the shell walk.
They also mined the shells some time ago, cutting them into bricks for building with. Very strange.
Kikipedia says 'Stromatolites (from Greek στρώμα, strōma, mattress, bed, stratum, and λιθος, lithos, rock) are layered accretionary structures formed in shallow water by the trapping, binding and cementation of sedimentary grains by biofilms of microorganisms, especially cyanobacteria (commonly known as blue-green algae). They include some of the most ancient records of life on Earth.'
So now you know.
In the pictures they look like burnt scones that grandma forgot to watch and then threw into the sea to forget about.

From there we high-tailed it to Perth and this is also a beautiful city, as we were told it would be. It has great gardens, a very 'outdoorsy' feel about it. The King's gardens overlooking the town are magnificent,the Bell Tower is very interesting as well. We paid the price for the tower and went in, where we saw actual bells played by actual bell-ringers. We were told that this is the only place where you can see this happening before your eyes. We think this may be so, as usually the bells are up in a tower, locked away and only share the space with a few dozen soon-to-be-startled pigeons, who also happen to be in various stages of deafness (I assume, given where they live and all). In civilized Perth they have a whole bunch of windows where you can watch the bells tumble when pulled by the somber, rather old fashioned looking people who volunteer to train to pull the chords. The fluffy part of the chord is called 'Sally', which seems appropriate for some reason or another. The bit with no fluff on it is just called the 'Tail'. A set of bells are called......
'A Ring' of bells. How cool is that.
(We were discussing collective nouns as we drove into Coral Bay and came up with a knit of sheep, a neigh of horses etc. We have to make ways to while away the hours spent watching the scenery go by)

So, Perth gets a big thumbs up, we could live here, Fremantle is lovely, Rottnest Island was too dear to travel to, and it has great beaches and some snorkeling we were told. Been there - done that, cheaper. So we gave it a miss.

We were also told we had to have fish and chips on one of the wharves in Freemantle, being home of all things seafood etc.
We did.
We have had better. (Burnie has better fish an chips than anywhere, surprisingly!)

Tonight Len and Sam went to IMax and saw 'Avatar'.
What a pleasant surprise, not the red an green 3D but the better polarized version. It wasn't done to impress with gadgety 3D tricks at all, but was the best 3D We have ever seen.
Well worth the money, go see it, in 3D if you can, and at an iMax if possible.

Pestilence? I hear you ask.
Well, we were coming home from Perth after watching the 20/20 match where we saw three of the best catches ever made, and the sky had a strange dustiness about it.
We later were told that there were fires north of Perth, where we had just driven through.
It seems we are being chased to Leongatha by Moses, or someone who has similar tendencies towards natural disasters etc.
We have had floods and now fire, just leaves pestilence I believe.
That will be interesting to see what happens.
Tomorrow the travel begins again, 5 hours to Albany. Is that ALL bany, or AL bany??
We find out tomorrow.
Until then.