Ellendale Pool - Geraldton - Oakabella Rest Area

110kms / 8 hrs

After raining most of the night we were lucky to wake up to a dry morning. We got ready and left at 7:45am and drove the short 50km into Geraldton. We stopped on our way at the Alinta Wind Farm again and couldn't get over the size of the vestas and the blades (80 metres tall with a blade length of 40 metres) - they are huge!

Our first stop was a tour of the Geraldton Fisherman's Co-Op Rock Lobster processing factory. There were lobsters everywhere but 98% of them are exported to China, Japan, Vietnam, Europe and the USA. Their yearly turn over is $380 million and the wheat industry in WA is $400 million so the industry brings in a lot of money for WA.

There weren't any boats out this morning due to the weather conditions so we didn't get to watch them unload the lobsters but we did get to watch them process them.

When each lobster arrives they are graded depending on their colour, size and condition (ie. if any legs missing etc) - each country has particular requirements with Japan wanting the best. They are then placed in holding tanks until they are ready for packing. This is when they put the lobsters to sleep in 9 degree water for shipping and wake them up in 22 degrees when they get to their destination - yep still alive!

We watched Styrofoam box after box packed with 15kg of lobster packaged and loaded onto trucks ready for shipping. They can have a lobster caught off Geraldton coast, processed, shipped and on a dinner table in China in under 30 hours!

We really enjoyed the tour and all got to hold a lobster too.

We then fuelled the car, had fish & chips for lunch and the kids had a long play in the great kids park along the foreshore. It then looked like it was about to pour so we quickly went back to the car and then drove around some of the sights including the HMAS Sydney II memorial, St Francis Xavier Cathedral & Point Moore Lighthouse (it's red & white stripped).

We then drove north to Oakabella Rest Area (which is about 17km south of Northhampton) which is where we are staying tonight. We arrived around 3:45pm so the kids had a ride around and played in the dirt!

Roger cooked a delicious vegetable stir fry for dinner.