Further North, the bush along the road is replaced by grassland and wheat fields. Though you do not see many cattle in the fields. Geraldton is the first large town up the coast from Perth. We stopped to stock up on groceries and to buy an Australian hat for Rudy to keep away the flies and the sun. We were too late for the museum (closes at 3pm) but visited the cathedral instead. The pillars reminded us of the Mosque in Cordoba/Spain. We stayed the night on a free parking lot next to the beach in the town center and visited the museum the following morning.

The museum tells a story of the early settlers and the local First nation people. The main attraction for us was however the story about the VOC vessel Batavia. The large 600 T Batavia carrying 300 people and trading good (cloth and silver) was on its way from Kaapstad to Batavia op Java. It ran aground on one of the many corral reefs in-front of Australia’s West coast. The captain and some 40 men sailed in a smaller boat north to Batavia to find help. In the meantime, a mutineering group of officers and soldiers decided to take control of the situation and reduce the number of mouths to feed by murdering some 100 of the stranded survivors. When the captain returned some 2 months later the mutineers were overpowered and many sentenced to death. The museum holds many artifacts which were retrieved from the vessel. Among them was a dismantled stone entry arch for the prestiges fort being built in Batavia.

Meanwhile the town Annual Sunshine Festival was ongoing. Along the promenade there was music and many stalls selling food and other home-made product. We spotted a stall selling Malaysian food. Jamaliah went over to buy some but never came back. She had bumped into a group of Bruneian’s who live in Geraldton and were running the food stall. They invited us to stay over at their house. The camper was parked outside on the driveway and the whole family came over for Makan. Needles to say that we left the next day with 3 containers of rice, noodles, and chicken curry.