We were only going to spend one night at Horrocks, but we rather fell in love. We had rather hoped we would have a view of the sea, but apparently those spots were booked in advance. It didn’t really matter. We booked a second day anyway.

On arrival we were quite hungry and went to the General Store, which is really more of a cafe and had fish tacos and hot drinks. In the afternoon we took a bit of a walk along a path by the sea, and thought that we would do a beach walk in the morning.

In the morning we found out why there were large sandbags against the shoreline, the normal tide comes right up to the edge, meaning there isn’t a beach until low tide.

We went for a bit longer walk along the path to enjoy the sunset. It was partly cloudy, which made for quite a beautiful view from a lookout point, strategically placed to make the most of it. Well done Horrocks!

We bought a frozen meal for our tea, taking advantage of the camper’s kitchen next door which has many appliances, including a microwave. It was a single meal and we added extra veggies.

I had done one load of washing after we arrived and did another on the second day. We have managed to half fill our washing bag again already.

Saying goodbye to Horrocks made us feel sad. We have worked out how far it is from Perth, just in case we want to pop up there some other time. It’s a combination on pleasant aspect, many nice homes, both old and new, and it doesn’t seem to attract many tourists, just people passing through, like us.

I have wanted to go to Ellendale Pool for a couple of years now. It’s not far from Geraldton on the Grenough river. The landscape is reminescent of Coalseam National Park. On the way we stopped in at Northampton for shopping and to visit a cafe. The drive itself was much longer than it should have been because of a road closure at Walkaway. Still, we were able to visit a vast wind farm on the way.

We have just moved from our original spot this morning as most caravans and vans have left and we had more of a choice. Our rear wheels are up on ramps to make us fairly level. Happy.

Our plan is to stay here tonight, then go to Mingenew for the water and dump points, then back to Yandanooka Hall in hopes of seeing some stars. There is light rain forecast for tomorrow and we don’t know if the skies will be clear enough, but it’s a good spot, level, with flushing toilets. We have flushing toilets here as well, plus bins, picnic tables and shelters, and some established walk. We went on one of the walks yesterday evening.

Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th June, 2025

Well, waking up in our camping spot at Glenna Bridge was  one of those magical experiences that we hope for when we are travelling. Before sunrise there was lots of wildlife on the river, including many black swans. With a gentle, rising mist it was quite breathtaking.

Our first stop on our journey yesterday was at the Kalbarri Skywalk. We arrived at lunchtime and decided to eat before looking around. 

As we sat at a table we were joined by another travelling couple and talked with them for about 45 minutes whilst we all had lunch. They had done a track with a group of other people and found it a wonderful experience. They were heading off to see Mt Augustus and the Kennedy Ranges next. They sleep in a tent, which makes life very simple, but it wouldn’t be our cup of tea these days, though we’ve done so in the past. They are about my age I think.

Then we wandered around between the two skywalks, taking photos and generally enjoying the experience.

On our way to our next campsite we called in at the IGA in Kalbarri for a couple of important items, then went to the dump point which has a separate potable water point, a necessary step as Lucky Bay Campground does not have any water.

The road in is supposed to be 4WD only, but of course on arrival here we saw a little camper van tucked away in a corner. The road had lots of small potholes, a few light corrugations and some areas where there was water over the road, but not deep. So, well done to the camper van.

After settling in we went for a walk down to the beach to watch the sunset. We paid for one night at the ranger station on our way in, but have decided to stay two nights as it seems worthwhile.

Today we’ve walked about 2.5kms up the beach to a lagoon. The beach is long and wide and fairly firm, so good for driving on, though we haven’t attempted it. The only tricky part is the access point where the road is roughed up as vehicles make the turn onto the beach section.

Still, we felt good about walking, it was quite a long walk for us, 5kms return, but it feels satisfying. Although it is sunny here and I didn’t wear a jumper on the walk, Stephen did, and took a coat as well. It was fine in the sun, but when I sat in the shade opposite the lagoon it was a bit chilly.

We stayed out there for quite a while.

There are whales passing this beach and with the help of Stephen’s binoculars we could see one clearly, and other possible whales further out.

Before going out I cooked up a soup for our thermal cooker. You have to make sure everything is very hot before putting it into the outer pot, which I heated up with boiling water. It wasn’t ready when we got back for lunch, so we will have it for our evening meal.

I forgot to mention that our inverter has failed. This happened a couple of nights ago after I had been cooking in the electric frying pan. Our electric kettle only draws about 900watts, but it was whilst using it that the inverter shut down. The next morning, this was at Nerren Nerren, we took everything off the benches so that we could take a look. We have a remote button, but I also tried switching the physical button on and off, plus there appears to be a reset button, which didn’t work either.

So, we’ve reverted to using the gas stove, which is a pain as, once we open the cover, it takes up most of the bench space and it’s difficult to prepare food. We have an Ecoflow power station, which I am using for things that I can’t do on the stove, such as charging this laptop and blow drying my hair. We can recharge it from an Anderson plug whilst driving, but it does take away from charging the house batteries. Even if we aren’t using house battery power for cooking and boiling the kettle we still need it for all of our 12V appliances, such as the fridge, the hot water ignition, the diesel heater fan and the Starlink mini.

These are just 24hr resta areas along the North West Coastal Highway. After our night at Goulet Bluff Camp site we had morning coffee at the Overlander Roadhouse, then fueled up and had lunch, our own food in the van at the Billabong Roadhouse. Although we arrived at about 4.00 p.m. at Nerren Nerren we were still able to find a good campsite.

Overnight was very chilly, officially 6C, and had a very good view of the Milky Way.

This morning we took our time getting up and having breakfast. We didn’t leave until about 11.30 a.m. Sue and Ian, fellow Sherwood owners, came over to say Hello. They had just called in at Nerren Nerren and are on their way to the Kennedy Ranges and Mt Augustus.

We then drove about 75kms to Galena Bridge. This is a beautiful camping area, with lots of room both sides of the river. As it’s a designated stop over there are bins and drop toilets, as there were at Nerren Nerren. Our reason for stopping here is that we want to go to the Kalbarri Sky Walk tomorrow and it’s the nearest free camping to the National Park.

Also, it’s beautiful here and we have secured a spot close to the river, with a little path down to get a good view of the river and abundant bird life. We took a walk over the original bridge to the other side, which has notices with historical information about this area.

One of our neighbours has lit a fire, and we can enjoy it as well from our back window.

Stephen has had confirmation that he will be able to sing in the next WASO production, which means we are aiming to arrive home by July 7th. This actually works out well with what we want to do for the next week and gets us home just as the school holidays start.

It seemed quite a long drive to Monkey Mia on Friday. The scenery was more beautiful than I remembered, but perhaps the amazing cloudscapes helped. It was raining heavily at first, we just managed to get out of the car for photos at the sign between showers. But, later, the showers were more intermittent and our arrival in Denham coincided with sunshine. It is certainly very pretty indeed.

We fuelled up before driving the last 25kms or so to Monkey Mia. At the entrance you pay for access to the park, this is in addition to our previous payment for the accommodation. We have about a $20 discount for the accommodation due to RAC membership. At $54 per night with the discount it is very reasonable for a tourist hot spot. We paid about the same at the Coral Coast Caravan Park in Carnarvon, plus the cost of the ensuite there, another $20 per night.

Our pitch here is a long way from the main buildings and we are getting plenty of exercise walking to and fro. Of course, we got up early enough to get to the Dolphin Experience at 7.45 a.m. yesterday morning. There was quite a long wait for the dolphins to arrive, but eventually they swam close.

Then they were off chasing fish in another part of the bay. Stephen had the patience to wait and eventually they came back for the feeding. I saw this happen, but had defected to get a coffee, so was further away. Fortunately my camera has a long lens. The staff doing the feeding often got in the way of shots, so didn’t get very much.

We have a second chance tomorrow morning before we leave. 

We had quite a storm, with strong winds, last night, but this morning was sunny and the water was completely calm, so I think we were very fortunate. The wind came up again by late morning and it’s cloudy, with some very light showers.

I’ve done two loads of washing, one last night of our towels and other linen, drying it in the dryer, and one this morning and hanging the clothes both inside and outside the van. It always causes me anxiety, will I manage to get a machine, then will I manage to get a dryer.

We had lunch at the restaurant, the only one, at Monkey Mia. We shared a toastie, followed by hot drinks and a slice of chocolate mud cake. I ordered an Aporal Spritz, delicious, and we shared that as well.

In the afternoon Stephen spent time in the Dolphin interpretive centre whilst I had a rest.

We had a light dinner of hard boiled eggs and salad.

This morning (Sunday) we had to be packed up by 10.00 a.m. So, we worked steadily to get ready to leave by about 9.30 a.m. so that we could try to see the dolphins again. We were very fortunate. They had not been in to shore earlier, whilst we were busy, but came after we had waited with everyone else for about 45mins. We stood on the jetty instead of on the sand and it gave us a really good view of the whole process. Very satisfying.

One female dolphin hung around for quite a whilst the guide was giving us information. The guide spoke very kindly to her and my impression was that she was very attached to this person, perhaps because of her manner. I have some video that better illustrates the relationship, but it needs processing and I will post later, or perhaps when we get home.

Afterwards we had hot drinks and shared a muffin before going on one of the local walks to a lookout.

We set off for Denham where we wanted to do some shopping to cover the next few days. After the shopping we parked with a view of the bay and had lunch.

I had booked a camp site in one of the bays on the road out to the Highway. It turned out to be not the best choice, and we are not actually in the sloping campsite we booked, but on the road. However, we checked and this road appears to be purely for our campsite and we have relaxed and settled into this place.

We have much better views from this position as well.

This evening we had a long chat with Matt who appears to be quite happy.

Friday 20th June, 2025

Quite a bit of time has passed, so let’s see if I can catch you up.

We had a peaceful night at the Mooloo Downs RA. In the morning we took a walk down to the river. There was no water, but evidence of floods, with debris pushed up against the tree trunks. We then continued our journey to Gascoyne Junction. The roads have been very rough the past couple of days, but we have still managed to travel about 180kms each day.

At Gascoyne Junction we were disappointed to find the roadhouse kitchen closed. We made our own picnic lunch at the day use caravan park up area, which is very nicely done and has a potable water tap and toilets. We then went back to the roadhouse, which has a nice caravan park attached, to empty the toilet and get fuel.

The road into the Temple Gorge campground in the Kennedy Ranges was very rough and we took it very slowly. The campground wasn’t full, fortunately and the camp host gave us some choices of where to stay.

This was on Saturday last week. On Sunday we had a restful time and I made some healthy soup for lunch. We’ve realised that we can only stay two nights as we don’t have enough water to stay an extra night, as we had hoped.

We walked into the Gorge in the late afternoon. The path follows a rocky creek bed, similar in a way to the paths at Mt Augustus, but with better views. It took us about an hour and we were able to get back to the campsite just after sunset when we still had good light.

We rang Matthew and had a good long chat with him. He seemed quite relaxed and cheerful, I wonder if the fact that we rang at 6.00 p.m., about 40 minutes earlier than last week, helped as he wasn’t in the process of going to bed.

We had homemade soup, with a boiled egg and bread and butter for tea whilst chatting with him.

On Monday morning we packed up early and went along the range to the Sunrise Viewing Platform. Not in time for sunrise though. I walked up to the viewing area without taking my hiking stick as the path looked easy. However, it was actually rather steep coming back with loose rocks, so I should have had walking shoes and the stick.

After that, we went to Honeycombe Gorge, which has beautiful natural carvings. There was a sign saying that we shouldn’t take photos, which was a pity. But I later did a search and found there were a great many photos of the gorge on the web, including in Adobe stock photos. The sign hasn’t worked.

When driving back to Gascoyne Junction I decided to go much faster to see if we could ride the corrugations better. It worked, plus the time went more quickly, and made it seem a much easier journey than getting there.

We stayed overnight Monday at a station stay on the road to Carnarvon. On Wikicamps it said with was great, with flushing toilets and a campers’ kitchen. However, we arrived when it was rather hot and it was very dry. The campers’ kitchen turned out to be a sort of little museum. But the flushing toilets were real.

There was another couple staying overnight as well and they had a campfire in a little fire pit which we got to enjoy as well. The farmers, husband and wife, showed up and we chatted with them as well. Stephen noted that the farmer never stopped talking, so it was hard a get away.

In the morning the campsite seemed somewhat nicer and we didn’t get away until about 10.30 a.m.

Arriving in Carnarvon was wonderful. We were refreshed after the bitumen road and everything seemed particularly lush after the dry desert areas. We drove into the centre and had lunch at a cafe, enjoying the cool weather. We spent a bit of time getting to know the surroundings before going to do our shopping.

The caravan park we had chosen was fairly central, not far from the Woolworths where we shopped. We took a pitch with ensuite as a bit of luxury. The next day was extremely wet, it rained most of the day, although in the afternoon it was quite light rain and we went for a walk to the Gwoonmardu Mia Cafe and Art Gallery. 

The exhibition about the lives of the indigenous people of the area was very interesting. The art gallery is very small, but I liked a couple of the paintings, so worth a visit as well. The local people seemed very proud of their work for the stations in the early days, which helped to get things established. Children had a chance to be educated at a Christian school, a very good experience for the children who knew each other at the school and had ongoing contact with their parents and extended family, not good for the children who were just taken there and had no further contact.

The coffee, scones, jam and cream, were excellent. The cafe it on a veranda and was shelters enough, without cutting us off from the open air.

After the afternoon tea we walked back past our caravan park to the library. The art gallery there was closed, but we spent about an hour in comfortable surroundings, not keen to get back to early to our tiny van.

There are food vans that come to the caravan park each evening and the choice was to have a pizza. That’s it! So, we had a pizza and salad. We are happy to be eating fresh salads again.

Yesterday morning (Friday) we left the caravan park at about 10.00 a.m. We went to a tire shop where Stephen checked our pressures, then to the Woolies to do a more comprehensive shop. 

We didn’t want to leave too early as our next camping spot was only about 100kms away, so went out to see the old jetty and do some more research on coffee and scone with jam and cream. The scone was good and we had a very nice fig jam with it, but the cream was just the one from a spray can, not real cream as we had the previous day. The cafe is very nice, with a play area for children.

I decided we needed to drive a bit further more, so chose a different campsite, about 150kms along the road. This was unfortunate as the whole area is still damp from rain and I didn’t feel it would be safe to try to drive into the camp, which was around a small hill, well off the road.

We decided to head on the Overlander Roadhouse where you can camp for free out the back, or pay $11 per person for access to showers and toilets with a key code, and plug into power. Quite a bargain I would say, but we chose the free option.

Although it was partly cloudy for most of the drive it cleared after sunset and there was a really good view of the stars. The Roadhouse is sufficiently far away that we weren’t bothered by the light. However, Carnarvon casts quite a glow in the sky.

We had fresh salmon, potato and salad for tea, an easy and quick meal. For a few years I’ve been using a very small electric frying pan for cooking, but for this trip I’ve brought a somewhat larger pan that gives us more options for the types of meals we can cook. It makes preparing a quick meal, like the salmon and potatoes, very easy.

So, here we are, up to date. The woman in the cafe yesterday commiserated with us about the rain, but actually we were so grateful to have finished our travels on gravel roads before the wet weather that we didn’t mind at all. We were able to get a big load of washing done yesterday morning and used a dryer instead the outside line. We had a bit of extra stuff that couldn’t go in the dryer and used the ensuite bathroom to hang it overnight. It still needed time in the sun in the morning.

June 11, 12 and 13, 2025

On Wednesday we went on the drive around Mt Augustus, stopping twice to do little walks. Our first stop was a Oramboo, where we did the short trail, plus a little of the longer trail. There were Aboriginal etchings on the rock, with a rope to keep visitors from getting too close. As we started about midday the sun was penetrating as we left the shade of the trees, so not a good time to see how far we could go.

Our second stop was at Beedoboondu where we had lunch and a rest before doing the second short walk to Flintstone Rock. The trails are very well marked here, with a sign to say that you are at the end of the trail, very useful.

On the way back to the caravan park we stopped in at Cattle Pool, which is a permanent waterhole. We only spent a short time there and decided to come back the next day.

On Thursday we packed up relatively early and have spent the day here at Cattle Pool. It is a lovely oasis, with a short walk clearly marked along the bank. There appears to be plenty of birdlife, though we’ve heard far more birds than we’ve seen.

It’s been very peaceful indeed and we appreciate having a fairly restful time here at Mt Augustus before we start travelling again. There were other places we could have visited around the Rock, but we do feel we’ve done a good enough exploration.

In the evening we went to the pub for meals, a hamburger and a T-bone steak. We had a little bit of salad on the burger and some veggies with the steak. The meals were good, but a huge amount of food for us, still we did our best.

This morning (Friday) we managed to get away quite early, despite having done quite a few chores before leaving, such as filling up our tank (water is non potable, but we don’t drink it), doing a little shopping at the reception shop, getting fuel and visiting the dump point. All in preparation for camping without services for the next three nights. The plan was to do a loop around to stay overnight at one place, then arrive at the Temple Gorge Campground in the Kennedy Ranges.

It was cloudy this morning and we had a colourful sunrise.

On our way out we went to the lookout and took some photos. It was only a little way off the road and has a lovely view of Mt Augustus and the surrounding areas. We left there at about 10.30 a.m.

After a few kilometres on the road we realised that the road conditions were pretty bad. It was stony as well as deep corrugations and just hard work to travel on. When we reached a junction we decided to take the road that leads more directly to Gascoyne Junction, with the hope that it would be a bit better. And it was, but still had some difficult patches.

We’ve driven about 180kms and have pulled up for the night at a rest area. We are fairly close to a river and can see some ranges (probably the Kennedy Ranges) in the distance. We’ve pulled off away from the road so that if any cars come through we won’t be choked with dust.

We think we can make it to Temple Gorge Campground tomorrow, but don’t really need to stress as we have plenty of time.

The final part of the journey to Mt Augustus and arrival yesterday

Saturday 7th to Monday 10th June, 2025

We had a couple of nights on the road here to Mt Augustus. The first day we drove approximately 200kms to the Murchison Settlement. We stayed overnight at the Roadhouse/caravan park. We were on grass with non potable water and power, with a short walk to excellent toilets/showers. Even I took advantage of the showers, though I usually want to shower in the Sherwood.

On arrival we found out that the kitchen closed at 5.30 p.m. As we were hungry and hadn’t had lunch we decided to have a meal right away. We had steak and onions on Turkish bread with salad on the side. The dining area at the Roadhouse is very attractive and we were glad we had decided to stay there.

Stephen had a shower before sunset and I went for a walk to look at the Murchison Rangeland Botanical Walk. It is well maintained and signposted and I thought that Stephen would enjoy a walk there in the morning.

In the morning we packed up, bought 10 litres of water in 2 five litre bottles, fuelled up, emptied the toilet, and went and parked near the walk. We spent about half an hour there.

On the first day we found that most of the road was bituminised, apart from about a 40k section of gravel. However, for our second and third days, the roads were all gravel. Still, it’s a good road and there was evidence of graders and other machinery working on it.

Our second night was spent at Billing Pool. This is a free camp and we were one of only two campers spending the night. We enjoyed a walk along the banks of the river bed to explore the pools. The river bed is like a gorge and our camping spot was overlooking a dry section.

Another quiet night, and we slept well.

On the second day we reached the turnoff to Mt Augustus and took many photos of the sign. The gravel road became a bit more rough, with even more dips. Fortunately we didn’t have to do any water crossings, even at the creeks, which have a concrete causeway to help getting through. But it was evident that the rain, when it comes, causes a lot of flooding and maintaining the road in good condition must be a major, ongoing job.

On the first day we crossed a creek with a very steep entry and exit, fine for our little vehicle, but as we saw two articulated road trains shortly before we got there I could only imagine what it was like for them.

We stopped for lunch at the Gascoyne River picnic area yesterday. According to Wikicamps some people stay overnight there, but there were signs forbidding camping so we imagine they must have ignored them. Anyway, we wanted to get to our destination and it was only 100kms away, so we kept driving and arrived at about 3.30 p.m.

There are surprisingly few people here and we had a choice of camp sites. We went to the evening meal at the pub, a lovely beef stew with mashed potatoes. The deserts had sold out so the waitress made us up icrecream with chocolate sauce and kit kat wafers. She charged us $10 for these, the deserts were $15 each, so we considered that a win.

This morning I’ve done a big load of washing and Stephen helped hang them out.

The weather in the last few days has been ideal, cool enough overnight to snuggle under the doona and clear, sunny days in the low 20’s. It may be a little warmer here, mid twenties, but overall just lovely. It was windy in the afternoons, but it’s too early today to know if we will have a windy afternoon, only 11.30 a.m.

We spoke with Matt last night. He seemed agitated and was clearly trying to tell us something, but as we don’t understand him, we don’t know why. We did ring a bit late whilst he was getting ready for bed, so perhaps 6.00 p.m. would be a better time.

Tuesday 3rd June to Friday 6th June, 2025

Day 1: Victoria Park to New Norcia 139kms

We are taking things rather slowly as there was heavy rain for a couple of days and we were a bit concerned about the condition of the gravel section of our trip. Today we spoke to someone at the Mullewa Visitor Centre who assured us that they haven’t had enough rain to cause problems. She said that the gravel sections are well maintained and should not cause any problems.

We left on Tuesday morning at about 10.30 a.m. and stopped at the Bindoon Bakehouse for hot drinks and to buy some of their lovely bread. We had a choice of routes to get to Mullewa, but decided that we would like to see New Norcia again, and perhaps even visit the museum. On arrival we made the decision to stay the night in the camping area near the oval. This costs $10 per night and after settling in, having lunch, a nap and afternoon tea, went out for our evening walk, stopping in at the Roadhouse to pay our $10.

We walked around most of the village, taking in the various building styles.

 Our evening meal was leftovers from home.

Although it rained for most of the afternoon and evening the rain wasn’t heavy and it was possible to have a good walk without having to dodge showers.

Day 2: New Norcia to Watheroo Station Roadhouse 92kms

Well, it was a short day of driving, but we had spent the morning in New Norcia visiting the museum and art gallery. The information at the museum stresses the positive impact of the Benedictine monks and the establishment of the settlement, but Eversley has alerted us to a documentary that includes interviews with people who lived there as children. Their treatment was abusive. I noticed that although the early settlement included families of the Yued people, later they were sent children from all over the state, thus participating in the Stolen Generations of indigenous children.

We made a stop at Moora where we shopped and bought fuel.

We then drove to Watheroo Station Roadhouse and set ourselves up outside, plugging into the free power. Later, when the Station opened we had access to toilets and shower for free, if you have a meal there, which we were happy to do. We shared a very large hamburger and chips, very tasty, and they served each half on separate plates, so that the meal looked very good. I wasn’t able to eat all of my section.

Day 3: Watheroo to Yandanooka 143kms

We both had showers in the Station ablutions in the evening, but decided to just wash in our own bathroom in the morning. As we were on power we were able to use the air conditioner to take the chill off the air a couple of times.

It was promising to be another wet day as we set off, but fortunately the rain had finished by the time we arrived at Yandanooka. The clouds had mostly cleared by sunset.

On the way we stopped at Carnamah to admire the Big Tractor. Our main aim was to empty the toilet, but the exhibit is on the main road, so very hard to miss. We enjoyed walking around it and taking photos. Some other visitors took a photo of us together.

We had our lunch at Yandanooka, then rested for a while. It was interesting to visit this place again. We had one other camper overnight, a solo woman with a small, pop up caravan towed by a 4WD. She and I exchanged greetings.

We saw a goods train going through, quite exciting as you are so close to the rail line. 

In the evening I tried flying the drone and more or less lost control of it. Still, I eventually landed it and actually was able to capture a good photo from the video feed of the area where we were camping. That’s the image at the top of this post.

Day 4: Yandanooka to ‘The Waterfalls’ just out of Mullewa 120kms

Well, this is us all caught up. I’ve been making notes about the journey so far on a daily basis, and just now have entered it into my book on the laptop. From here, I can cut and paste into WordPress and Substack for publishing.

So, it feels lovely to have sunshine, even though we know it means it’s likely to be colder overnight. We may need to use our diesel heater!

Our first stop was at Mingenew, where I went to the bakery for fresh bread. Disappointingly, they didn’t have any interesting bread, just white rolls and a round loaf. I opted for the rolls. Then I joined Stephen in the IGA. It is nowhere near as good at the one in Moora, of course, so we bought some of the things on our list, Stephen having assured me that the Mullawa supermarket would be much better as it is a larger town.

When we arrived in Mullewa, it became clear that we should have finished our list in Mingenew. Stephen enquired at the Visitor Centre and was told that people go to Geraldton to shop, or shop online. The service station had some groceries and we were able to get some Sunshine milk and yogurt anyway.

We had a couple of the fresh rolls with cheese for lunch as apparently the cafe did not serve lunch. As there was a coffee machine at the Visitor Centre I bought there rather than going to the cafe.

It just goes to show that I’m not the only one in this family who makes dogmatic statements, then has to eat his/her words! Thank goodness.

We are camped at the beginning of the road up to Mt Augustus. The rain caused some damage to the road into the camping/picnic area, but the main road is bitumen so far. Still, we are feeling happy as the real adventure begins. On our fourth day of travel we are in new territory for us.

Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th May, 2025

Clearly, we hadn’t had enough of getting away because on Friday at 4.00 p.m. we finished packing up the Sherwood and drove up the hill to Glen Forest. There was a talk by Malcolm French who is a botanist and farmer, a man of experience and wisdom.

Curiously, we had something of the same hopefulness after his talk that we felt after the film ‘Oceans’, with David Attenborough. David spoke about the regeneration of life in the ocean by creating sanctuaries, and how everything could come alive after just a few years, with spill over effects which make fishing viable. Though not deep sea trawling, which creates deserts on the ocean floor. 

Anyway, Malcolm’s message was that many of the beautiful native trees to the east of Perth can thrive in very hot, dry conditions. He suggests that we start to plant these trees closer to Perth so that we still have lots of trees as climate warming bites.

As a farmer, he knows that local producers can get much higher prices selling to the European Union, if they adhere to the sustainable farming practices set by the Union. This means that farmers are adhering to these principles out of self interest. The EU does not take this on trust, but does satellite and in person inspections to confirm compliance. The farmers get 10% higher prices. A win for the environment and farming becomes more sustainable financially.

On arrival we had checked out the park where we stayed overnight last time to check for no camping signs, then went and parked near the hall to have our small meal.

At 7.00 p.m., when the meeting was supposed to start, we walked along the road trying to find the hall, but all was in darkness and we initially walked straight past. When people did arrive the lights came on briefly before going out. It took a fair bit of trial and error to work out what the problem was. The offending light switch was turned off and meeting commenced. 

We had a quiz to start, Stephen and I could answer none of the questions. Then we had the talk, with slides showing the various trees. Malcom is quite old, but he didn’t need a microphone to project his voice and we really enjoyed it.

After a peaceful night in the parking area we had breakfast and went for a walk along the Heritage Trail, heading east this time, we went west last time.

We still somehow ended up at the cafe for hot drinks and a savoury scone.