Coral Bay to Busselton
Coral Bay, south
Friday saw us leave Coral Bay for Carnarvan, a big thank you to Kelly and Jeff for their great hospitality.
Entering Carnarvan we saw the first of many orchards, bananas, mango’s, vege gardens to name but a few, lovely lush and green. The caravan park seemed to cater well to the older set, still very comfortable, and still long walk to brush your teeth.
Once settled in, we ventured into Carnarvan township, very extensive, and we duly topped up our larder. We walked the one mile jetty, which unfortunately had a fire a few years ago, and has burnt out a section, they are trying to raise moneys to have this repaired
Saturday saw as the farmers markets, lots of nice produce, and fashions, Lorraine was in her element. We bought some nice fresh veges, and that night she cooked up a veritable feast, she is a good cook.
Carnarvon has a rather LARGE radio telescope, now not in use, but is been left for all of us to see, it’s a pity that this wasn’t the attitude of the Governments of the day following the WWll, we kill off our history without thinking of those who will be following in our footsteps, ( that’s my major gripe over)
Sunday saw us doing a short run to Denham, a World Listed Heritage area, unfortunately enroute, we saw some of the most horrific numbers of cattle and kangaroo deaths we have ever seen, one area in particular was extremely bad. Cattle roam free and despite many signs of no fences, cattle are still being killed, we probably saw more dead cattle than kangaroos, a real shame.
Denham is a lovely little town, the entrance to Shark Bay Marine Park and Monkey Mia, our caravan park was on top of a hill overlooking the township, and this was a first place of some cooler weather, it was rather brisk that night.
Monday saw us out at Monkey Mia, and we got there just before the Dolphin feeding. Shirley, one of the guides, had these Dolphins nudging her legs as she was explaining their, the Dolphins life style, they all had names, and only the female dolphins were fed at these sessions, the males had to fend for themselves. Yours truly was asked to be involved in this feeding session, autographed photos can be obtained from the War Office!!
9th June was a long haul, from Denham to Jurien Bay, about 680 kl’s. Jurien Bay had one caravan park, and the township is encouraging more people to move there, there is a huge mariner, and great beaches, and its pretty close to major cities. Cervantes is about 25kl’s from Jurien Bay, Cervantes being the entrance to the Pinnacles Desert. The Pinnacles are single rock formations standing on their ends that have their sand coverings blown away by the winds, such that you have a scene somewhat similar to a cemetery, where thousands of headstones are coming into view. We walked around them and then we drove through them, truly remarkable
Now, if you ever wanted a relaxing venue, New Norcia is the place. I have taken the liberty of copying some of the history of this place into this session. Never have we felt so comfortable, we even left the caravan and moved into the hotel for the night, met some lovely people and had a ball. Please read the following.
New Norcia - Pre-history
The historical ‘accident’ that led to the founding of New Norcia was the closure by an anti-clerical government and its confiscation of the property of all men’s monasteries in Spain in 1835. Next to the famous Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia was the venerable Benedictine monastery of San Martín Pinario. There, a little earlier, two young men had made monastic profession, promising to live a fully monastic and obedient life in stability with the community there, for life. Dom José Benito Serra, the senior of the two, went almost immediately in 1835 to continue monastic life in the renowned Abbey of the Most Holy Trinity of Cava, near Salerno in Italy. After a few disappointing years of waiting for his own monastery to re-open, Dom Rosendo Salvado followed Dom Serra to Cava, where he made his solemn profession in 1838 and was ordained priest early the next year. In 1844, fired by missionary zeal, the two monks applied to the authorities in Rome to be sent as missionaries wherever they decided, and were assigned to the newly appointed first Bishop of Perth, Rt Rev John Brady.
When Brady’s large missionary party reached Perth in January 1846, the two Spanish Benedictines, an English Benedictine sub-deacon, Br Denis Tutell, and a French Benedictine novice, Dom Leander Fonteinne, together with an Irish catechist, John Gorman, were entrusted with the only one of three missions to the Aboriginal people that survived more than a few months. Tutell was ill and did not accompany the mission party, Gorman was accidentally shot dead in June that year, and Fonteinne was so mentally distraught following the accident that he had to abandon the mission and return to France. So it was the two Spaniards who were jointly responsible for the foundation of the mission that in time grew into New Norcia. Although, as its inaugural superior, Serra had responsibility for the mission, his appointment in 1849 as Co-adjutor Bishop of Perth diverted his missionary energy. After ten very active but fairly troubled years there, he left for Europe in 1859, never to return. So the first period of New Norcia’s history is usually known as
The Salvado era 1846 - 1900
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The first fifty years of New Norcia's history are dominated by the towering figure of Bishop Rosendo Salvado (1814 - 1900). With fellow-Benedictine, Dom Joseph Serra, he founded New Norcia in 1846, spending the rest of his life making it one of the most progressive and successful missions in Australian history.
Salvado's original vision was to create, among the indigenous peoples of the Victoria Plains, a Christian, largely self-sufficient village based on agriculture. However, after the decimation of the local populations by introduced diseases in the 1860's, he concentrated his activity on giving a practical education to the indigenous children who were brought to New Norcia from all over the state. Like other missionaries of the nineteenth century, his aim was to 'civilise' and evangelise according to the European ideals of the time, but he did so with a sympathy for indigenous culture that was rare in his day.
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Salvado led a monastic community which, at its height, numbered nearly eighty men, most of whom were Spaniards and lay brothers. His frequent fundraising trips to Europe provided him with the means to acquire land, to construct buildings and to purchase books, vestments, art works and ritual objects as well as stock and equipment.
Practical success and his own personal charm combined to make Salvado both a notable Western Australian and an international figure in the Benedictine world. While on a trip to Rome in 1900, he died at the age of eighty-six. His body was brought back to New Norcia by the Community and interred in the Abbey Church.
The 12th to the 16th of June was spent at Safety Bay, with our hosts, Bob and Paulette. Now if anyone wants a lesson in hospitality, catering and just good fun, give me a ring and I’ll put you in touch. Lorraine an I are both going to AA, his home brew was beautiful, and then there was all the red wine.
Bob and Paulette really put themselves out, drove us to Freemantle for the markets, showed us all over Freemantle, and we even found time to play a game of golf, local knowledge is worth about 10 strokes.
Thank you Bob and Paulette for your beautiful hospitality
From Safety Bay to Collie, to see the ‘waif’and I’ll spell it correctly, its Kirsti, aka bitc….
Kirsti, Travis and family live at a winery, and when we arrived even before the van was set, there was beer and wines passed around. It was good to catch up with them, plenty of stories, and Travis, being a qualified chef excelled, again we were well catered for.
From Collie down to Busselton, and rain, heaps of rain, but we believe they need it. The caravan park is virtually empty, winter, rain and all. Again we met up with Kirsti and Travis, more stories more fun.
From here we travel to Warpole..
