Principality of Hutt River: Meeting Prince Leonard
The drive to Hutt River from Denham was one of the prettiest drives yet. We were entranced with the beautiful scenery and the abundant wildflowers along the way, especially as we drew closer to Hutt River. The dirt road into the Principality itself is very well-maintained. No corrugations and barely any dust. We had booked to stay one night on the property and when we arrived mid-afternoon we had the whole site to ourselves. Later two more vehicles arrived containing foreign back packers, no doubt happy like we were to be paying only $5 per head to stay there.
There was a clean flushing toilet and reasonably clean showers with hot water as well as a camp kitchen shelter ( which did need a bit of cleaning up, but at least provided a sheltered place to eat away from the wind) Not only that, there was even access to a free washing machine. What a bargain! The down side was that there were a LOT of flies here. Out came the fly nets that we'd put away after leaving the Centre of Australia. Also there was a nearby swamp that was home to some very noisy frogs who serenaded us all night.
We really enjoyed our evening here. We were joined in the camp kitchen by the two girls in a Subaru. A Dutch and a German who'd met while working on a horse farm in NSW and decided to travel around Australia together. Steve helped to repair their old gas camp stove and John loaned them our butane gas stove to cook their meal, and we had a lovely chat with them afterwards while we all ate our meals.
The next morning we packed up and went up to the main reception area, which comprises several buildings, including a post office, church, souvenir shop, and some other weird and wonderful shrine type buildings. We were shown around by one of Prince Leonard's daughters who was very happy to tell us all about the history of the place.
We were very fortunate to get to meet Prince Leonard himself. He is getting on in age, around 92 years old and not in the best of health. The effort of getting up and dressed is enough to make him quite breathless with his emphysema. He is still very sharp mentally for his age, although a little forgetful in the day to day trivia ( like remembering people's names) The maths brain is still all there. Most of it went right over my head when he started trying to explain his theories. John thought it was a load of clap trap. But you have to hand it to him. He's managed to stay one step in front of the Australian Government in maintaining the status of his self-proclaimed Principality.
From talking to his daughter, it seems that Prince Leonard has handed over the Princedom to her brother and it will be up to him to maintain the fight.
Meanwhile this eccentric gentleman is bringing a lot of tourism to the area, and the nearby towns actually benefit from that. We spent quite a bit of time in the morning having a good look at the whole setup and buying some souvenirs. It was all good fun!
Later , we headed to our next accommodation at Wagoe Beach which is about 35 Km south of Kalbarri. We were unable to secure spots in any of the Kalbarri Caravan parks, still being school holidays. Wagoe Chalets offered un-powered caravan sites for $25/night, so we were pretty happy with that. It was a bit tired and run-down and very windy and exposed here, but at least there was a partly enclosed camp kitchen which we were able to share for the two nights we were there. It would've been impossible to sit outside by our vans or put our awnings out as the wind was so strong. We felt very sorry for those poor souls in tents or even camper trailers in this weather. Inside our vans we were warm and safe.
The Chalets, being situated close to some pretty spectacular sand dunes also offered quad-bike tours.
John and Barb were almost mown down by a crowd of them when they went for a walk down towards the beach. The beach was too far to actually reach by foot, so they turned back and braved the swarms of flies on their walk back.
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