R. Doug Wicker's Blog, page 87

Circumnavigating Australia — Beaches on the Road to Perth

Cottesloe Beach

Beginning in North Fremantle and extending northward are a series of beautiful white sand beaches — Sand Tracks Beach, Coast Port Beach, Leighton Beach, Mosman Beach, an onward to today’s photo stop. Today we’re visiting Cottesloe Beach, in the Town of Cottesloe.

Cottesloe Beach

We were here on February 25. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere that works out to late August climate-wise. Thus, you can see that the beach had many visitors on this late summer day:

Cottesloe Be...

Fun Photo Friday — Circumnavigating Australia; Fremantle Favorites

Fremantle War Memorial

Fremantle Favorites on Fun Photo Friday:

South Mole Lighthouse

Bronze Fisherman

Brass Screw

Sailboat Rigging

Navigation Lights

Circumnavigating Australia — Fremantle; WA Maritime Museum

WA Maritime Museum

It’s still Fremantle, and we’ve already visited the Fremantle War Memorial and the fishing boat harbour. When last I left you on Monday we were about to view the Western Australia (WA) Maritime Museum, which is quite the place. I found this stylized map of Fremantle Harbour on the building exterior a rather striking subject:

Fremantle Harbor — on the WA Maritime Museum exterior

Inside the museum you’ll find a striking array of really fun photo subjects, which I’ll let do the r...

Circumnavigating Australia — Arriving into Fremantle; War Memorial

“Freo” — Fremantle, Australia

We arrived into our next destination the day after leaving Geraldton.  So, Radiance of the Seas made port on February 25 in Fremantle, affectionately called ‘Freo’ by the local, which would also grant us access for that day into nearby Perth.

Western Australia (WA) Shipwreck Museum

This would be a busy day for Ursula and I. We had much to see and do, and only one full day in which to do it all. So off we went with our tour, and the first stop of a very long day foun...

Fun Photo Friday — Circumnavigating Australia; Geraldton Favorites

Stained Glass

Here are today’s Fun Photo Friday favorites of Geraldton, Australia:

HMAS Sydney Memorial

Marine Terrace

Mount Scott

St. Francis Xavier

Waiting Woman

Circumnavigating Australia — Geraldton and HMAS Sydney Memorial

Geraldton map at HMAS Sydney Memorial

One of the first things Ursula and I did after taking the shuttle out of the secure area of the port was to take a free bus ride. Our immediate objective was to get to the HMAS Sydney Memorial. The memorial sits atop Mount Scott, which offers some nice views of the surrounding area.

HMAS Sydney Memorial

But this is a solemn place. It commemorates the loss during World War II of HMAS Sydney (D48), a modified Leander Class light cruiser that was sunk in a Nove...

Circumnavigating Australia — Touring Geraldton

Floating in the Indian Ocean

Two days after leaving Port Hedland Radiance of the Seas made port in Geraldton. The city of Geraldton looks much larger than its population would suggest. The population here is under 38,000 (2018 numbers), but it has both the look and feel of a major metropolitan area.

“Lighthouse” at Marine Terrace and Cathedral Avenue

It certainly feels much larger than, say, Port Hedland (14,320 in 2018), but it doesn’t feel appreciably smaller than Darwin (pop. 148,564 in 2018)...

Fun Photo Friday — Circumnavigating Australia; Port Hedland Favorites

License Plate

A last look at Port Hedland before we strike out for Geraldton:

Plying the Waters

Orange Tug

Looking Forlorn, but Now a Café

Circumnavigating Australia — The “Port” in Port Hedland

Ore shipment moving out toward China

As I note on Monday, the city of Port Hedland owes its existence to a natural deep anchorage harbor and its close proximity to iron mines in the Pilbara region of Australia. Today we’re going to look at the actual Port of Port Hedland, which is the busiest commercial port in all of Australia. Of course, any busy port requires control, and here is a view of the new Port of Port Hedland Control Tower:

Port Ship Control Tower

Working hand-in-hand with the contro...

Circumnavigating Australia — Walking Port Hedland

Welcome to Port Heland

Radiance of the Seas arrived into Port Hedland on February 22 of this year. This was the smallest destination, population-wise, of our entire trip. But small does not equate to uninteresting. This is quite the busy port, and the port itself is a huge operation even if the town itself is small.

The port at Port Hedland

The primary export from this port is iron ore, and over 515 million tonnes/568 million U.S. tons of ore were shipped from here in 2019. Another export is sal...