We made pancakes for breakfast, they were delicious!! After breakfast we had a lazy morning around the caravan. In the late morning we drove to Mullewa. Mullewa was about an hours drive. (To get a better idea of where we are, Drummond Cove is about 10 minutes away from Geraldton.) On the way to Mullewa, we saw two trains pass each other. One train had 91 ‘trailers’ with three engines, the other had 61 ‘trailers’ with two engines, and it was full of Iron Ore on its way to the Geraldton Deep Sea Port.

At Mullewa we talked for a while with the Tourist Information lady, who was very excited about the upcoming Rodeo, and the Flower show which takes place in August at Mullewa. We went to a little cafe called Jonesys (without the apostrophe). The whole cafe was coloured red, black and white, so we think it might have been a local football team, or something. Even the cupcakes had red,white and black icing!! The cafe had no windows, but the food, and interior of the cafe was very nice!

After lunch we went on a small walk around the town, following the Monsignor Hawes trail that ended at a lovely old church. The church was actually designed and partly built by Hawes himself, who was a Franciscan Priest (he was an Anglican Priest before he turned to Catholicism). Monsignor Hawes was born in England, and when he was young he showed promise as an artist, which led to him studying architecture in London around 1900. We found his story to be overwhelmingly fascinating, which is why I cannot recount it all here. But here are a few things that he achieved in his life: He owned and breed race horses, which led to him actually riding one in a race when a jockey was not available, he came second; He designed many of the churches and other Catholic buildings all around the world, and even in Werribee, Victoria. His crowning achievement in this area was the Cathedral in Geraldton. He designed it, helped build it, and purchased most things for it! It took 22 years to complete. Before coming to Australia he was a missionary in the Bahamas, and in his life, he travelled to many other places around the world. Despite designing many fine buildings, when he was a Parish Priest in Mullewa he was content to live in a simple hut, until the Bishop insisted that he should build a proper Priest house; He also designed his own cave attached to a church in the Bahamas where he was to to be buried, he also gave detailed instructions on how his body was to be laid out.

This is the church in Mullewa

This is the Cathedral in Geraldton.

Afterwards, we had a little look around Geraldton, before going back to the caravan for dinner.

Tara