Coronation Beach and Geraldton

We spent 3 weeks at the Coronation Beach campground just 20minutes north of Geraldton and we'll definitely be back.

3 Weeks at Coro wasn't really enough, of course we were there so Paul could windsurf, the beach is well known for that. I have to say that particular requirement was well and truly met, I think we could count on one hand the number of days he didn't manage to get out on the board the entire time we were there. And most of the time he had company given how popular this beach is with the locals who would drive up from Geraldton after work to have a go. We also had a lovely few days with our friends Wendy and Chris from Tassie who we managed to catch up with at a few of our stops. So it was a very social campground. The weather was amazing, we had sun every day which wasn't a surprise. What was interesting was the almost perfect timing of the wind. Every morning would be hot with easterly winds bringing the desert heat in and then you could almost set your watch by the shift at lunchtime to a southerly and everything would just cool right down and the sails would appear on the water.

Of course Windsurfing wasn't the only activity on the list. We had a couple of very nice Lobster meals and the day before we left Paul managed to bring in a 4kg Taylor which meant dinner was covered for 3 nights Yum! Of course I made friends with every dog I could find along the way because that's just what ya do. The campground cost $30 a night, which wasn't too bad being right on the beach. Drop toilets were provided but water had to be brought in ourselves we ended up buying a large bladder so we only had to do a run into Geraldton once a week. There is a caretaker on site and she was just lovely. On the weekends the food van opens up, they have a large variety on the menu and we can say that their fish and chips is really good. I'm going to take a minute to shout out to Pete and Mel, Eric and Dimitri. You guys were awesome neighbors and made for many truly entertaining encounters.

Geraldton is a small coastal City, it has a good size shopping precinct and all the usual large stores. The council seem to be doing a lot of work to make the city appealing to visitors. There is an extensive bike path along the waterfront which is dotted with parks and seating areas. There are two caravan parks and one overnight free stop right on the waterfront, very basic but handy for when you need to stay a night in town.

We spent a day in Geraldton looking around before we headed south. The museum is absolutely worth a visit, there is a lot of history in the area of course a lot of shipwrecks. They have a display in place called Bush Mechanics about the 2001 docuseries. Kinda makes us want to go back and rewatch it. After the museum we headed up to check out the HMAS Sydney memorial, it's set up on a hill providing views over the ocean. The HMAS Sydney went down in 1941 along with the crew of 645, there is a lot of information up at the memorial, it's all been very well done and again worth a visit. From here our journey continues south along the coast,, more beaches to explore (and windsurf at) so goodbye Coronation Beach and Geraldton.