No expense spared Geralton 30/10/15

  Awake early today , there seemed to be a lot of cars leaving early this morning .
 We had to have the ute down at Toyota at 8:40am , so we got up and got organised .

 As we drove out of the park , we noticed a cruise ship anchored in the bay , so went to the beach to have a look .

  We delivered the ute and got the bikes off , we headed north along the bike track beside the beach , it got really busy beside the museum and the Batavia Marina - that's where the tender boats were dropping all the passengers from the cruise boat off . Continuing on we found a Donor Fountain - it's like the marble ball that Springetts built in the park at Bowral , only larger . It was built to commemorate organ & tissue donors . 

Off down the track again , we stopped another 3klms down at a nice beach & park area , and watched the start of another yacht race . There were 10 yachts participating - some requiring a large crew , others managing with fewer people .

 We then found the site of an old ljghthouse , also the Meekatharra School of The Air . At this point the track took us away from the beach , so we turned and headed back , stopping at the museum near Batavia Marina .

Replica Batavia Longboat

 Entering the museum , the first thing that caught my eye , was an old biplane hanging from the ceiling .

 The displays showed plants , animals & insects , aboriginal heritage and early Geraldton history & information . The black plague made an appearance in the early 1900's , among other things . There was more descriptions of the rocks and sea beds , fossils of shells and other animals & dinosaurs .

  The one display that got most of our attention was the shipwrecks . Having flown along the Steep point coastline and Dirk Hartog Island , we were interested . They had some of the men who discovered the wreck of the Batavia , on a video , talking about everything they did and saw - imagine finding a brass cannon poking out of the sea floor , sitting on a bed of silver coins !!! Some reward for a long and arduous search over many years , a majority of the coins have been recovered . It was also interesting to see what they were carrying and using as ballast - a stone entrance archway , that was going to be at the entrance to the Batavia Castle . 

Heading back into the main part of town , we checked with the computer people - they told me they needed 24 hrs to do some checks and fault finding , before they would ring me - they didn't do any of the above !! When questioned , they said - it's the first job for monday - that's good I said , looks like I'll have to stay longer - Oh , don't you live here - No I don't , Oh let me see what we can do . They had a look this afternoon - apparently the logic board is dead !! Great news - NOT !!!

 We had lunch back at the RV , before heading off at 3:45 to pick up the dead computer , and then get the ute - which still wasn't finished ! We sat and waited , till it was finished and washed - good thing as the rain started to fall when they drove it around to the pick up area . We loaded the bikes , and paid the bill - we have fixed price servicing for 60,000 klms or 3 years - might have that all used up in the next 12months . Anyway , their computers were down and they couldn't do a proper invoice and charge us for the extra work done - so only charged us $300 , which was nice as we'd just paid $143 to find out the computer was dead , they didn't do everything they said they would though , with one headlight still out !

 All done and dusted for the day , we headed back for a beer & salsa .