A long lunch in the Barossa, followed by 5 day Abrolhos Islands cruise

[RooFlyer]

When the terminal opened we used to be able to drive up that ramp and passengers were deposited right at the terminal front door but that changed after a couple of years

Oh. I got told once that it was never used.


It was an uneventful 3H 20m flight across to Perth. Then I had a 3 1/2 hr wait in the PER business lounge, before boarding QF1612 to Geraldton on an A320, from Gate17A. Where?? An absurdly long walk to the furthest-most apron point, I think, and boarding by stairs. Economy-only bird, I was in 1C, so plenty of legroom (no bulkhead ).





My first time in GET - decent little airport. Got my AVIS car, as I had a couple of days before the cruise started.

I hadn't been to Geraldton for .... about 35 years!! When I worked at Mt Magnet in the early '80s we used to take the 3 hr drive across for Saturday shopping and a fish-and-chips lunch on the beach, or sometimes a partying weekend, with Sat night in a caravan park. It was funny driving and walking about - some things were very familiar (cathedral), others vaguely so and much was new since I was last there. The foreshore has been completely redeveloped.



Old railway station



Marine Terrace



Foreshore and beaches (there are many). Port in the background







My digs for two nights was the Ocean Centre Hotel, on the waterfront. Currently undergoing some renovations, but not disturbing during the evening/night.

 

[RooFlyer]

A pretty nice place to stay on the waterfront.







And a decent car park view



A further stroll around downtown revealed some gems. In spite of the following, the dining options were pretty dire.



Love a pokey bookshop



Then onto the magnificent memorial to the sinking of HMAS Sydney.










Interestingly, there is no acknowledgement here that the Sydney wreck had been found in 2008, along with the German vessel, the Kormoran.

 

[RooFlyer]

The next day I ventured SE and east to view some weeds wildflowers. I used this map to plan, and decided to do a Geraldton/Mingenew/Mullawa triangle. I meant to go over JohnM's various TRs on wildflowers, but was very tired the previous evening and just hit the road the next morning .

If all went well, I might even drive east to Mt Magnet, where I worked as an underground gold mine geologist 1982-85 (I ended up not doing this)



First, some good, honest wheat. I hadn't driven though the WA wheat field area with the crop in full bloom, so to speak - it was very impressive!

 

[RooFlyer]

I reached Mingenew after a stop at Depot Hill park and after a bit of fossicking around, realised that I had been here several times in my Mt Magnet days, when I was in the volunteer Fire Brigade sporting team. You may not have heard of competitive Volunteer Fire Brigade, but its a National thing. Watch the video from 4 March on the Goldfields Facebook page (just a couple of about 5 'sports'):

Goldfields Volunteer Fire & Rescue Running Competition

Goldfields Volunteer Fire & Rescue Running Competition. 303 likes · 19 talking about this. Why not join your local volunteer Fire & Rescue running team and enjoy the comardery and skills of f

www.facebook.com

That brought back memories!!! Mt Magnet won the WA State Championships twice while I was there (ahem - I was second reserve ... and Secretary). We went to the National Champs in Tasmania one year and from memory, did creditably. I remember sitting by the pay window with our fundraiser raffle book, selling tickets for that .

Mingenew has a great bakery/coffee shop!



More wheat and another Mt Magnet story. I did some geological exploration, as well as underground geology and one project I had was at Marvel Loch, halfway between Kalgoorlie and Perth. We went to do a shallow (5m) drilling survey ('post holes'), across a coughy's wheat paddock (just before planting). We had permission no worries to go onto the ground, so a field assistant and I pegged the holes, 5 m apart over about 300m with wooden stakes. The coughy was good humoured but was a bit concerned when he realised he now had a fence across his paddock until the driller came in a week. But we sorted it out. (Didn't find any worthwhile gold





...and weeds



This reminded me of the Australian 'Who Do You Think You Are' motif



More weeds





Then onwards to Coalseam Park

Nice enough place. A valley with some running water and - to make the whole day worthwhile, fossils!!





This thing is a Permian brachiopod - whoha!

 

[RooFlyer]

But wait, there's more!

Coaliferous beds



And an actual coal mine. Doesn't get much better than this, in these parts



Yeah, yeah ...





I was driving up towards Mullawa on the Geraldton-Mt Magnet road, with eyes peeled for wreath flowers, as highlighted by JohnM in a couple of his TRs. Mullewa:





There was a lot more wheat growing around Mullewa than I remembered. Would the eastwards reach of the cropping areas have expanded much since the 1980s, @JohnM ?



On the hunt for wreath flowers just past Mullewa





Disappointed not to see any wreath flowers. This is where not doing my homework showed. JohnM had pinpointed a site at Pindar, just north of Mullewa, but I missed it . To be fair to me, it wasn't on the wildflower map at Geraldton that I was working off, but I guess they want to keep the site a bit quiet.

 

[JohnM]

There was a lot more wheat growing around Mullewa than I remembered. Would the eastwards reach of the cropping areas have expanded much since the 1980s, @JohnM ?

Disappointed not to see any wreath flowers. This is where not doing my homework showed. JohnM had pinpointed a site at Pindar, just north of Mullewa, but I missed it . To be fair to me, it wasn't on the wildflower map at Geraldton that I was working off, but I guess they want to keep the site a bit quiet.

No expansion of the agricultural area, but a change in land use. Far fewer sheep now and much greater area under grain.

So near, yet so far...

Far from keeping the site quiet, it is very well known and well publicised at the Mullewa visitor centre. Even to the point that a parking road has been made to the W side and it's a short walk through the bush to the flowers. Have you heard of Google?




From my recent trip there (a tad too early for peak flowering):



Geologists - bah!

 

[RooFlyer]

Have you heard of Google?

Yeah, but as I said, I didn't do any homework and just tootled off following that sign in Geraldton (which didn't have Pindar on it )

But good to know my recollection of Mullawa area wasn't too far off the mark - was sheep, now grain.

 

[RooFlyer]

Enough of the weeds already. Returned to Geraldton and frankly the culinary scene is dire. A few Thai/Chinese joints mainly. There's 'Skeetas', undoubtedly the best that I could see, but solidly booked.

So I chose fish & chips from the Sails fish & chips joint on the waterfront. A throwback 35 years!! It was pretty good, actually.



One thing I had to do that evening, the before we boarded was this:



Whew. Brekkie next day was at Dome, again on the waterfront. OK, so judge me ...



I nearly had a visit to the hospital walking back to the hotel. Trip hazard, anyone?



Bloody Avis is only at the airport when Qantas planes land, and I detest returning cars when no-one is there, so I returned it at noon and had the afternoon to kill. Museum, and an extensive exploration of K Mart etc etc.

We boarded the Eco Abrolhos at about 5pm after the RAT test was very closely examined. We weren't to depart Geraldton until 6am the next day, so this was to get everyone on board and ship-shape. All Aussie pax, from all over.

The Eco Abrolhos. 3 decks of cabins, 15 in all and 28 pax on board. Top deck is sun deck, entertainment area (and clothes drying!!). Crew of captain/co-owner, engineer, 2 deckhands/tender drivers, 1 fishing/crayboat driver and 2 snorkel leaders, bar manager, plus a chef. Everyone but the engineer and the chef multi-tasked in being behind the bar, cleaning up etc. They worked hard.

On cradles are two 8-10 pax tenders and two 10 pax glass bottomed boats.



Twin steel hulls



Towed on the way out and back is 'King Diver', an 8-10 pax craft used for fishing / cray retrieval. @JohnM - they've just bought a swish replacement, hopefully to carry all pax if needs be (currently 24).



New boat

 

[RooFlyer]

A bit more on the Eco Abrolhos

About to board



My cabin - bunks, single occupancy.



Hey, great water views (out the single porthole)!!



Toilet/shower was 'compact'



On the main deck, dining area, wuth lounge and bar off to the left



Top deck mainly used for functions and boat stowage, although there were sun lounges if you didn't mind the climb.





One of the 2 tenders



Most important cargo

 

[RooFlyer]

So, where are we off to? The Abrolhos Islands, also known as Houtman Abrolhos. Wikipedia tells us:

... is a chain of 122 islands, and associated coral reefs, in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia, about eighty kilometres west of Geraldton, Western Australia. It is the southernmost true coral reef in the Indian Ocean, and one of the highest latitude reef systems in the world. It is one of the world's most important seabird breeding sites, and is the centre of Western Australia's largest single-species fishery, the western rock lobster fishery. It has a small seasonal population of fishermen, and a limited number of tourists are permitted for day trips [obviously not correct], but most of the land area is off limits as conservation habitat. It is well known as the site of numerous shipwrecks, the most famous being the Dutch ships Batavia, which was wrecked in 1629, and Zeewijk, wrecked in 1727.



We'll cruise amongst the islands over 5 days:



The first day's activities:



We didn't appreciate the significance of the 'Hang on!' bit until a bit later ... All started OK at 6am, when we motored out of Geraldton harbour, towing the King Diver





Looks calm enough, doesn't it? Not for long. It was a VERY rough 4 hour passage out to the shelter of the islands. Many of the pax (including me and one crew member) were green about the gills and took advantage of the thoughtfully placed plastic tubs dotted around the deck and lounge. Captain said that it was a 'typical' crossing; roughness due to the fact that we went diagonally against/over the swells.

We stopped to cast off the tender to lay the cray pots, then carried on to Pelsart Island, where we first saw the curious collections of cabins, shacks and shanties that make up the various 'camps' and villages on the islands. There was formally a substantial residential population of fishermen and families, with schools, stores etc. But when the 'quota system' came in, the fishing fleet was greatly reduced and only a few residents remain - but still plenty of shacks and visiting fishermen.







Out on the reef, the breakers were coming in, and the boiler and other remnants of an old steel-hulled wreck



Some birds

 

[RooFlyer]

We landed on Pelsart Island for a walk and look around, away from the dwellings.

This guy was curious about us and watched us for about 10 mins







Beach here of shells



Lots of these guys ... er gals





Most of the islands are constructed of coral pushed up from the outer reefs

 

[RooFlyer]

There wasn't much more exciting that day, which was basically positioning and settling in. Pax all had name tags, which we all agreed was a good idea All seem a good 'social' bunch
Agenda for day 2 (Edited - I posted the wrong day initially)



So it was up at 6 for me as I had a date with the crayfish pot pull. 8 passengers can go out on the King Diver with the 3 'boaties' (driver and 2 deckhands who pull the craypots) and observe dinner being pulled up.

That early morning glow as we head off . It was a 15-30 minute pretty high-speed trip to the pot location each morning.



They set 12 pots and there is a bag limit of 8 crays per person. Should be enough.

Hook onto the buoys



Winch the pot up



Tip 'em out





and extract crays



We soon learned a few facts of crayfishing life. It was breeding season, so all females with eggs or an attached sperm packet had to be thrown back. Along with the small ones of course - they were scrupulous about that, even tossing back the borderlines. They threw back maybe 4 to 1 kept.

This one with a sperm packet had to go back



The mornings harvest was a bit disappointing. I think it was 12 keepers. One reason given later was that this was their first cray run after being up in the Kimberley. The wood of the pots had dried out and would 'bubble' for a day or so as the water soaked in and the crays don't like the bubbles/noise. Dunno about that, but it was said on the last day, not as an excuse at the time.

 

[RooFlyer]

I found some better ones on my phone

About to hook on









An extra - wobbegong shark. We also pulled up a few octopi - the enemy! They feed on the trapped crays and you'll just have a cray carapace left!!



A few of the catch. We were a bit disappointed in the number, but not bad sizes (for WA crays).

 

[Pushka]

good to see they are scrupulous about cray size and breeding females.

 

[Major]

Also good to see you have resisted (so far) changing your avatar to a cray holding person

 

[RooFlyer]

After breakfast - at 8:30am! - we tendered off to Post Office Island to visit a pearl farm, specialising in 'black pearls'. Not black at all, but various pale shades other than white, and the oysters have a dark lip.





This lady, Jane was a cray boat skipper in her time and one of the toughest operators out there!! She now runs a pearl farm off Post Office Island, and of course there was merch for sale, so we got delayed ...







There were bits of whales all over the place.







And of course birds. Always the birds ...

 

[RooFlyer]

There were some very keen fishers on board, so I didn't attempt the fishing trip on King Diver, so went on board to Woody Island, where there was a great snorkel offered. I'm not a strong snorkeller, so this one, about 30 mins around a point, borne by the current, was perfect. Lots of great fish and coral - but distinct lack of underwater camera. . The boat then relocated to Rat Island (rats introduced by the early arrivals) where there is a substantial settlement.

A few more of the islands and buildings... and more birds











Our captain (and part owner of the Eco Abrolhos) you could describe as a 'knockabout former cray fisherman, surfer and fisher'. He was constantly telling stories about the 'old days' on the Abrolhos - the football teams on the islands, shark attack stories (some gruesome), massive crayfish catches ("they were attached to the line as we winched up the pot"). There were also some old 'videos' of crayfishing and some of the personalities of the islands.

At 5:30 we had the first of the 'wine and seafood' soirees. The wines were Leeuwin Estate





Pre dinner nibbles were the crays we caught this morning. Turns out our Captain is also a bit of a chef of crayfish (not surprisingly) and his garnish was delicious - didn't crowd out the flavour of the cray, but set it off.

 

[RooFlyer]

Oh, we started with a sparkling - didn't catch the origin



More nibbles - scallops. Of course the WA heathens had cut the roe off ...





This lady doubles as one of the snorkel leaders (amongst other things)



things really kicked off - the pours were generous and the tucker top-notch.



And the sunset wasn't bad, as well:

 

[RooFlyer]

Dinner was fish caught that day (mostly pink snapper). Afterwards, as expected, the local dolphins came to play off the back of the boat and catch fish and squid attracted to the ship's lights:









I recall having a couple of these at some stage, then crashed, as it was up early again for the craypots in the morning.




Day 3 schedule



Crays about the same as yesterday

A 'tarry' - throw back



Careful measure

 

[RooFlyer]

The fishing was spectacular. I had never gone out for snapper or the other species they get here and was quickly a convert!!

Again, the King Diver our boat for fishing and cray-ing. 8 pax at a time, 3 crew. The 2 'deckkies' rigged the rods, baited the lines, took care of any snags (regular occurrence with coral at the bottom), netted/gaffed the fish and took the pictures!!



Of course your truly got the biggest catch of the trip. PS can anyone tell what it was? I forgot.



Haul of pink snapper 40-60cm long



Whales seen as we came back to the Eco. Unfortunately I only had my iPhone on this fishing trip



And general island/reef scenery





Afternoon I took the glass bottomed boat option over some of the reefs - pretty good, but not amenable to pictures.

Dinner was snapper and crays!!