Yesterday we did something that’s very unusual for us. We decided to stay in Westonia for two nights, giving us a full day to do the Westonia Woodlands Walk. As you can guess, this trip is about the journey and exploring places as we go, rather than being committed to getting to particular destination. The Great Central Road may be affected by this rain as well, but our plan is still to go to Laverton, get advice, and make a decision.
I spent ages yesterday morning setting up my new clip for my smaller Sony camera so that I could carry it on the strap of a backpack. It was quite a learning curve as I initially put the clip upside down. It’s easy to accidentally hit the release button and the camera predictably fell down, but I was able to catch it. I then spent more time getting the clip set up the right way.
On the walk it took time to be able to reliably unclip and clip the camera on the strap, but by the time we arrived back in the town it was getting easier to manage.
Fortunately whilst I was messsing around with the clip Stephen was also taking time to get ready. He made us cheese and pickle sandwiches to take for lunch, a good idea as it was after 11.00 a.m. before we left. The day had started out very misty and when the mist cleared it was still cool and cloudy, ideal for the walk.
The path was well marked with arrows and some explanatory signs. As well, there were bench seats and we found it useful when we had our lunch. The seat was a bit damp from all the rain, but I didn’t mind getting my bottom damp and Stephen used the map of the walk to cover his spot. He did offer it to me but I’d already sat down and felt as I was already damp it was better if he used it.
On the walk we were able to see all of the different colours of the salmon gums and gimlet trees. The walk also goes through the town cemetary, with some lovely old gravestones.
By the time we arrived at the finishing point in the town the sun was out. So, we not only felt good about the walk, but the town was lit up and more cheerful looking. We felt we deserved coffee and cake. The gallery cafe had closed, but the little general store is also a cafe and we enjoyed a rest as well as our refreshments. The walk is only 4kms long, but we spent a couple of hours on it because of reading the signage and looking at trees and plants.
This morning we left at about 10.30 a.m. after filling up with water and dumping black and grey water tanks. We also made sure we had extra drinking water as our present camping spot has no facilities, or at least, no usable facilities. It is apparently run by the National Trust and they haven’t organised to clean the toilets and fix the dump point, despite being told.
On the way here we spent about 1.5 hours in Southern Cross, shopping for fresh bread and other stuff, then making our lunch in the van, having a rest, and Stephen checked out the Museum. I found a cafe open and bought a coffee which we shared.
We had our tyres checked and the attendant noticed that one of our valves was a bit open, the one we had been using to test out our compressor. Stephen purchased a tool for fixing the problem in case it happens again.
We then filled up with fuel, we are needing the deisel heater at the moment as it’s cold at night.
When we arrived we had a cup of tea and planned a walk afterwards, but it began to rain and eventually the rain was pretty heavy. The road in had been graded and we are hoping the rain doesn’t affect it too much. We’ve been here before in the Winnie, so didn’t really need 4WD, but used it just in case it got slippery.
There are about four other campers here, one arriving as it was getting dark and in the heavy rain. It’s good to know that other people don’t think it’s too dangerous to come here in wet weather. We’ve parked on a mound and don’t expect to wake up in a shallow lake.
