On The Road With Wal & Sue: Principality of Hutt and Cervantes

Tuesday, August 26 to Thursday, August 28:

Drove south firstly to the Principality of Hutt River and then on to Cervantes hoping the trip on the lobster boat I had booked from Geraldton would go ahead but they need at least 4 people and only had 3.

Hutt River

Created in 1970 when the now Prince Leonard seceded from Australia due to wheat quotas and moves to acquire his property, the Principality of Hutt has its own world standing.

we were greeted by Pince Leonard himself and chatted with him after buying our $2 visa. He talked about his principality (large farm worked by three of his four sons) and were then given a guided tour by his son Prince Graeme.

We bought some of their currency, their stamps and publications plus a couple of nice pens. The principality pays no taxes, issues its own passports and titles to supporters around the world and has its own number plates.

spent a couple of hours there and were even allowed to sit on the Prince and Princess' throne and pretend we were rulers of the world.

Sue by the painting of the Balibo 5 and more particularly Greg Shackleton.

Wal on Prince Leonard's throne looking very royal.

Sue with Prince Graeme.

Then it was time to move on to Cervantes. Along the way we called into all the little hamlets for a look and had lunch at Freshwater Point which has a couple of fishing huts on it – like so much of the coast around here. As luck would have it a lobster boat came in so we had free entertainment with our lunch.

After we set up we went for a drive around Cervantes – a fishing town with the main attractions the Indian Ocean Lobster Shack and the nearby Pinnacles National Park.

We visited the nearby LakeThetis which featured Stromatolites but they weren’t as good as those at Hamelin Pool.

And thankfully, our lobster boat trip went ahead. It was a bit rough and I had to hang on for grim death but it was a specially built craft capable of carrying 100 people. The captain Mick took us out to the demonstration pots to show us what they do. They pulled only 10 pots while the Thompson family’s 7 other vessels pull 100 plus each. The target is at least 3 rock lobsters in each pot and we achieved that for all bar one empty pot which was broken.

He said the water as sloppy – I would say it had very large waves!

Captain Mick shows how they have to check every lobster to make sure it has its legs, is the right variety, not carrying eggs and is of course long enough.

On the way back we stopped to give the sea lions the left over bait but they were too fat and lazy to visit us.

After the boat trip we toured the factory and learned how the lobsters are graded and purged for days before packing and processing. They have grades A (up to 450gms to H up to 2kgs). We were shown a massive 1.5kg lobster – obviously kept for us tourists.

They it was time for the serious stuff – eating lobster – I has mine grilled while Wal opted for fish and chips. Yummy.

Sue and Wal with the skipper's dog Harry who was sea sick.

This is a 2kg lobster - kept for show but very much alive.

Some of the many baskets holding various sized lobsters at the Lobster Shack.

The next two days The Pinnacles captivated us. On the first visit we went late to be there at sunset but as we missed the visitor centre we went back again the next day and again drove around the several kms of road and took heaps more photos. This is a truly amazing place. There are various theories about how the pinnacles formed – fossilized trees to rocks being warn away etc. If the scientists can get it right what hope do we have. Very much a must do on the bucket list in WA.