cervantes

for easter, john and i decided to skip the crowds and head north for 4 days. we ended up in a small fishing community of cervantes(i'd say village, but then it sounds quaint...)i was told that it's pronounced sir-VAN-tease (ideally with a nasal tone) not sir-vaughn-taise.

cervantes itself is nothing flash. a small suburb 2.5 hours north, right on the water. it has a general store, a liquor store, a post office and a fish and chips shop. that's it. it takes all of 15 minutes to walk around. we stayed at a nice hostel, which had a large kitchen and ridiculously overpriced rooms. but we had a room and a private bathroom and that's all that mattered. the plan while we were up there was to do nothing but sleep and read. which we did successfully.

at the suggestion of the hostel owner, we took one afternoon and drove a few more kms north to a small national park called lesueur. the adventure consists of an 18km drive around a surprisingly lush park. apparently it's quite stunning during wildflower season (spring). we got out at "mt lesueur" to do a short 6.5km bush walk (i've stopped saying hike because it's deceptive). we didn't see much wildlife whilst walking- i was hoping for emus and echidnas- but we did startle a cute little 'roo near the end of the hike. they never stop being funny.

after the hike we drove a bit further up to jurien bay- a slightly larger community. we'd assumed that it would be a little more built up then cervantes and have more to offer. we were wrong. jurien bay must be slang for "bogan-town" (see previous posts on aussie-lingo). we had lunch by the beach and a coffee at the campground cafe (yes, that's what i said), before driving back and holing up in the hostel for the rest of the time.

while we were there, cervantes held its "easter fair". it was described as a fun little event, so we sauntered over. bah! the "fair" consisted of 4 carnie-type games, one large bouncy castle for kids only (we checked) and a "showbag stand" where you can buy cheap candies. that's it. nothing else. no rides, no mini-donuts. nothing. it did seem to attract the locals, probably because there's nothing else to do up there, generally speaking.

luckily, we didn't care. we had our books, our food, a few drinks and 4 days of not working. it was a perfect little getaway!

xo