photographyperthwa

We’ve enjoyed our stay here in Dandaragan. The Transit Park lives up to the hype on WikiCamps, with good toilets and hot showers, a domestic washing machine in the laundry and concrete pads with hookups. There has been one other person staying here as well.

The drive here was very pretty once we crossed the Brand Highway and there was a little picnic place with a wonderful view over fields of canola.

The farms have quite a lot of trees on them and when we were speaking with the store owner on our evening walk he said that the farms had started out being livestock only, then switching to crops, which perhaps explains why so many tress were left standing.

For $20 per night this is hard to beat. It attracts people to this tiny hamlet of about 100 people who might otherwise not come here even in the wildflower season.

We walked down the Main Street in the evening, noting the attractive primary school, historic post office building and General Store and little church that was originally built as a school/church combined. It is made of soapstone quarried locally.

The monthly Anglican service happened this morning, and we decided, with less than an hour for getting ready, to go along. The service was lovely, traditional, run by two priests who are husband and wife and who work at a number of churches in the area.

Afterwards we chatted with local people over morning tea and accepted a gift of a dozen eggs and a lift back to the caravan park. We have also been loaned a book of humorous poems on caravanning which we will drop off to a different person on our way out of town. Our impression of the locals as being friendly, from our discussion with the store owner, has proved true.

There is a local fair happening next weekend and we would like to be able to return here, but we probably have too much happening at home.

There was an organist playing for the hymns and he is a teacher at the Moora School of Music. He was asking for teachers as he said the school is proving very popular at the moment. It highlights that we here in WA are able to live fairly normal lives, whilst keeping the border closed. Even the Prime Minister seems persuaded that our state is making pots of money for the commonwealth through mining and as we don’t have large populations near the border it doesn’t inconvenience people too much. McGowan has the support of an overwhelming majority of West Australians even though there are some people complaining because it impacts on them personally.

We met some alpacas near the church and this baby would only look at us over his mum’s back.

We prayed for rain in church this morning and now feel invested in this local area getting enough rain to help the crops. It feels like it will rain, with heavy clouds and the wind increasing.

This morning after church we brought in the washing, then I made a pot of coffee in the percolator and settled down to write this blog. I feel it is a connection with my mother as she used to have coffee made in a similar percolator with the glass knob on top where you see the water gradually change in colour as it perks. Amazing for $10 from the opp shop near the bookshop where Eversley volunteers. It allows me to use the good coffee beans from Antz and tastes the same as coffee made in an Italian moka pot. What’s more, it works on the inverter when we are relying on battery power.

Yesterday was a travelling day, tiring, but it was good to arrive at Western Flora and finally be staying at the same place as Marie, Geoff and Glenn. We are parked close to them. On the way we went into Dongara for shopping, to dump our cassette and have lunch, pies and custard tarts from the bakery.

Before we left our hilltop camping area yesterday morning Stephen walked down to the road below to take a photo of the van. I took photos of him as well, one wide, the one telephoto. In the first he is really tiny.

Today we took the walk through to the river and on to the waterfall. We took lots of photos of flowers, mine mostly didn’t turn out well, but the main feature of the walk was the pink bushes along the path. Quite a feature and we felt fortunate to have come when they were in bloom.

It was a partly cloudy day which made for more comfortable walking than if it had been sunshine all the way. Marie and I had thought we would find the full walk difficult, but completed the six kilometres without too much effort. We had snacks half way through, perhaps that helped.

After lunch and a rest we met at the outdoor seating area for drink and nibbles. There was a lovely sunset, but it was getting cold and we dispersed for tea in our vans. Glenn is staying in one of the units in the main mud brick complex, which makes a comfortable berth for him. He didn’t come on the morning walk which was a bit too far for him to enjoy.

Marie, Geoff and Glenn came to meet us at the Big River Ranch, then we drove together to the Skywalk. It really is a great idea as a way of showcasing the gorge. We wandered around, had a picnic at one of the tables near the cafe and took lots of photos. There were other people there, but it wasn’t crowded. We could enjoy any vantage point we chose.

As Nature’s Window is on the same loop we went there afterwards. By then we were feeling the effects of the intense sunshine. We had afternoon tea before Stephen, Geoff and I went off on the walk. It was easy downhill at first and just a bit of clambering over rocks at the end. Nature’s Window is a lot smaller than the arch at Sandstone (London Bridge), but it was interesting to get close to the rock formations. After climbing back we felt pretty tired and went home, feeling we had had a great outing.

Stephen and I did some hand washing when we got home. Stephen is using the showers at Big River Ranch, but I am still using our own little bathroom. It feels safer. I cooked a simple one pan dinner of mince, vegetables and pasta and we added a bit of salad. We’ve had the same meal with leftovers for lunch and have one meal left for another night.

This morning we had cups of tea and a slice of toast before going for a walk down to the river. It was difficult to find a way down to the river bank with sandy paths and tracks very muddy. When we arrived it was nothing very much, but at least we tried and saw some everlastings on the way.

We had breakfast and sat around for a couple of hours, then went into town to empty the toilet cassette, fill up with water, and do a little shopping at the local IGA.

I ran into a former colleague in the shop and couldn’t remember her name at the time, but it came to me later. She looks well and says she is still working because she enjoys it. Interesting. She and her husband are still together, which seemed doubtful at one stage when they lost their only child. I was pleased to see them looking happy together.

We’ve spent the afternoon lazing and will meet up with Marie and the others for a takeaway meal later. We find Kalbari quite relaxing – despite being touristy it still feels somewhat underdeveloped and it doesn’t feel especially busy here.

I woke up just after sunrise this morning and stepped out to take some photos.

We stayed in our camping spot by the beach until about 12.00, at which point we felt the urge to get going and set off for Kalbarri. We stopped briefly at a historic site before heading on to Pink Lake for lunch. I didn’t take many photos, but we were able to enjoy a good view of the pink water whilst having lunch, well worth it. I haven’t researched why the lake is pink yet.

Coming into Kalbarri on the scenic route was wonderful, especially as there is a stopping point overlooking the rivermouth as you arrive and it’s splendid. After a short stop there we bought fuel at the BP, then headed to Big River Ranch. We don’t have a view of the river where we are, but the horses are lovely. It was a bit messy getting our parking space sorted, but we have a nice bay with some lawn and a big tree which, fortunately, doesn’t shade us in the morning (we want warmth and solar power).

The facilities are shabby, but acceptable. The one washing machine looks grubby and the line we are supposed to use had mud underneath it. We are not supposed to set up washing lines at our campsite, but they don’t expressly forbid clothes airers. I washed a shirt last night, hung it on the airer and tied the airer to my heavy camping chair and it survived the strong wind without falling over. I’ve decided to do a few underclothes tonight and hang them on the clothes airer overnight. We can then wait until we go to Western Flora to do a load of washing.

Horse rides are available here and we’ve been told that horses have right of way and we must stop driving if they need to pass us on the driveway.

We left our lovely camping area at about 11.00 a.m. We wanted to enjoy being there as for the next little while we won’t be camping in the bush.

It was about 240kms to Geraldton. We enjoyed the ride through beautiful farmlands. Travelling after the winter rains means everything is very green, with some fields of canola providing colour contrast. We didn’t break for lunch until about 2.00 p.m. We took the detour through Port Denison. There were places with views of the sea to park up, but nothing in shade. We found a shady, pleasant parking bay about 10 kms north of Dongara.

From there, we arrrived in Geraldton at about 3.30 p.m. We had shared the driving, but it was still quite tiring. We didn’t fill up with water before choosing our parking bay and putting chocks on one side, which meant that we didn’t use our hot water system this morning, but relied on heating water in the kettle. It was fine, and we can fill up before we leave.

Our free parkup is at the Town Beach, next to a working port. It was noisy overnight, but a single, consistent noise that didn’t disturb our sleep.

When we arrived we saw a car parked in one of the designated camping bays. Stephen went to talk to the driver, but said he wasn’t making much sense. At one point the driver took his foot off the break and on the tilted bay his car inched forwards toward our van. I forgot I had a horn and simply shrieked, hoping that Stephen or the other man would notice. We gave up on that spot and moved to the other end of the caravan parking bay area. All of the bays were sloped and it wasn’t actually any worse. The man in the car was drunk and not making any sense. Eventually someone else was able to get him to move. There are only about 9 bays and they all filled up overnight, with late comers missing out.

I contacted Marie and we arranged for the family to visit us at around 5.00 p.m. We sat around on our outdoor chairs for a while before taking a walk along the little marina. They left at tea time and we went to a nearby cafe for takeaway fish and chips. It was some builder’s fences outside, but as it was getting dark we could clearly see it was open. There was outdoor seating where we waited for our food, but then took it back to the van, where we added a bit of salad. Battered fish doesn’t usually have much of it’s own flavour but the fish seemed very fresh. We were hoping it was locally caught.

This morning we’ve woken up to a foggy morning. Earlier we could even see the sea.