Wednesday 30th July, 2025

Our overnight in Glen Forrest was Friday 25th July, so it has taken a few days for me to get around to writing it up. This was our third time of going to a Wildflower Society talk in Glen Forest and staying overnight in the carpark. We expected it to go smoothly, and it did.

We arrived in Glen Forrest at about 5.00 p.m. and went to the carpark to make sure there were no ‘no camping’ signs. Then we went and parked up near the Octagonal Hall and heated up some leftovers as our evening meal.

The meetings start at 7.00 p.m. and we were in plenty of time. The speaker, Yolanda Keeble, has done a three year survey of the flora and fauna of the Wongan Hills region. This was of interest to us as we have visited Wongan Hills a couple of times for their wildflower festival. It was very interesting to find out more about the local area.

There are a few wildflowers here in Glen Forrest at the moment.

She is planning a wildflower walk on Saturday the 13th September. We were planning a short wildflower trip with Marie and Geoff, and after exploring some options with them we’ve decided to go to Wongan Hills for four nights and possibly do the walk with her. It works out well for them as it’s a fairly short time and the accommodation for Glenn is suitable and not as expensive as other options.

And we love the area and it will be good to go there in September for the first time as when we’ve been to the Wildflower Festival it’s been very hot.

We bought her book on the survey and it makes a suitable birthday present for Stephen. We’ve had one celebration with Matt on Saturday night, went to see Fame, the musical at Penros College on his actual birthday yesterday, and will have another celebration this coming Sunday. Matt bought a food hamper for Stephen that includes two cakes, so we have taken it as a sign that we should have two celebrations.

We haven’t experience a mid winter at home for a while, and it happens that we are having a really good winter this year, very cold and lots of heavy rainfall. I love it as I can’t bear the hot summer weather unless I’ve had a fair bit of really cold weather. But, it was very cold in our loft bed in the Sherwood and I just couldn’t get warm enough. We had two options, one was to put the heating on again and the other was to try using a double sleeping bag on top of our doona. We tried the sleeping bag option and were soon toasty warm.

We slept in until 8.00 a.m. the next morning. Once again the heating went on and we had our morning cup of tea and washes, then headed out on the walking trail that comes through the village. Then it was back to the cafe for breakast. We ordered a big breakfast to share and they divided the food onto two plates, always much appreciated as this doesn’t always happen. We were sitting outside as it was full inside, but managed to find a sheltered spot, with lots of interesting things to watch, parents, children and dogs.

After breakfast we went for another little walk and found a running stream. Then we went home, arriving at about 12.30 I think. Matt was coming a bit after 4.00 p.m. and we needed time to unpack and rest a bit.

There is a bit of work involved in going away for a night, but well worth it.

Wednesday 3rd to Friday 5th July, 2025

We ended up staying an extra hour in Latham. We were driving down the street trying to find the beginning of a nature walk when we spoke to a local. She thought we were looking for wildflowers, though we knew it was much too early, but she ended up inviting us to her property. She and her husband bought the Latham School and have been converting it into a home, with lots of outbuildings.

She started with the outbuildings, which had their roofs torn off in the cyclone a few years ago. they have kept some things, such as the toilets, playground and basketball court, and built a couple of inviting outdoor areas. But, it was when we walked into the house that we were really impressed. They have converted three classrooms into a kitchen/dining room, loungeroom and bedroom. The living areas are gorgeous, huge, with modern fixtures and fittings, but also very comfortable and homely. I could have moved in.

She told us stories about her past, it turns out she renovated a couple of old hotels in Kalgoorlie, so has experience with doing up old buildings. Of course, they hire workmen, but the design and ideas come from her. She told us about her six children, sadly her two youngest have died, and her life with a drunken husband, who she left, and her life raising the children. Maureen is her name, a tiny woman, quite amazing.

We needed to have an overnight on power as we weren’t getting enough solar to really recharge the batteries, and had decided on Dalwallinu. By the time we arrived there it was raining and very cold and windy, so we did a minimum of outside setting up and then had lunch.

Stephen did some research on the town and when we were leaving we dropped by the cemetary to visit the grave of a famous builder and farmer. It was sunny at that time, but still very cold. I’m hoping he’ll fill you in more about the person in the comments.

For our last night we headed towards the Wannamal Rest Area. On the way we stopped in at the Miling General Store and enjoyed hot drinks and talking with Maud, who is a French backpacker.

We asked her about the fish in the aquarium, they were tiny and very colourful and lively, I thought they might not be real. However, she immediately gave Stephen some fish food, which he sprinkled on the water and made them even more lively than they had been before. She came and chatted with us when she was free of other customers. Turns out it was her last day in the job and she was then heading off to Queensland to do some travelling with her mother.

From Miling we travelled to Moora, coming into the town a different way from our usual entry. We had thought there was only one supermarket and one cafe, but no, there is a French restaurant, a Foodworks which has a cafe, and another cafe in a sidestreet. We’ve stayed at the free overnight camping a couple of times, but things tend to be closed in the evenings, so that is perhaps why we hadn’t explore more of the town. We had a meal at the hotel once when we were travelling with Marie and Geoff.

Anyway, we had a beautiful lentil soup at the French restaurant before going to the Foodworks for food for our evening meal. We then wandered around the town a bit and had our afternoon tea at the CumQuat Mae cafe.

Then on to Wannamal. There are no wildflowers at this time of the year and the little stream was dry, so it wasn’t as pretty as usual. However, there are some good camping spaces and the flushing toilets make for a comfortable overnight.

Of course, it was necessary to visit the Bakehous in Bindoon on our way through. They have soup in winter, so we could make a comparison with the French cafe’s soup. Not as good, but we were still glad of it. We also bought one of their nice soughdough loaves and resisted the cakes.

Rather than take the main road back to the city we took the Chittering Valley Road through to Bullsbrook. It’s so beautiful in that region in winter. At Bullsbrook we had a icecream, a bit of a strange choice on a cold day, but refreshing. Stephen reminded me that we had gone to an airshow with Marie, Geoff, Robyne and Chris one year, and had coffee at the Cheques Hotel first. I wonder if anyone else remembers this, I certainly don’t.

We have come home a bit early as it looked like Saturday would be rain free, with Sunday and Monday being very wet, especially Monday, which was our original day to arrive home. It seemed very cold in the house when we arrived, but on the whole it feels warmer here than our last few days and nights on the road.

Our batteries were in need of charging when we left Ellendale Pool. The place where we spent our second night was good for the view, but not good for solar and the Starlink. They both worked, but not as well as they might have. Anyway, in winter, with low sun, short days and sometimes cloud, solar is not our main charging source. We then depend on the DCDC charger, which works well if you drive far enough.

On our last morning at Ellendale Pool a young couple decided to swim across the pool, climb the cliff and jump off. There are warning signs about the dangers of swimming, but in cold weather, and the water pretty icy, the danger is probably less. Also, there is some flow in the river. Anyway, I thought they were pretty brave. The girl was going to do it on her own, but the boy then decided that he didn’t want her to be alone and followed her. The water is very deep near the cliff fortunately.

We left late in the morning and drove I think about 100kms. The thing that kept me going was the thought of the bakery at Mingenew. We enjoyed pasties and shared a walnut slice with hot drinks. Yumm!

We topped up with water (I had dumped the toilet at Ellendale Pool) and headed for Yandanooka Hall. We parked on blue metal as there was rain forecast.

It was too cloudy for star gazing and we felt really tired for some reason, so we just rested after arriving there.

It rained overnight, not heavily, but enough to wake us up. In the morning the sky cleared and we had a sunny couple of hours. Stephen didn’t realise that we had to keep driving for the batteries, so he was relaxed indeed.

We chose the village of Latham because there is free camping at the community centre, with toilets and showers. They ask for a donation and we were happy to do it was it’s a good facility. We had stopped at Morowa for shopping and I cooked salmon, potatos, tomotos and sugar snap peas in the electric frying pan. I’d charged up the Ecoflow power station whilst we were driving and we’ve had enough power for boiling the kettle a few times and for the half an hour or so of cooking. Mind you, I connected it to the house batteries via an Anderson plug whilst cooking, just to make sure.

Last night and this morning we had very heavy rain and were glad to have chosen to be on blue metal again, rather than seeking a more private spot in the large area near the hall. This morning there are puddles everywhere, but especially on the unpaved area. The rain came with strong winds and it was this that woke us up.

Again, this morning we’ve had some blue sky and sunshine. The right sort of rain really, overnight so it doesn’t inconvenience us.

We’ve decided to arrive home on Saturday, when the weather in Perth should be fine, rather than Monday, which promises to be very wet. We are quite close to home and just staying out a little longer because we don’t want to go home quite yet.

There were trucks here last night, the drivers taking advantage of the shower facilities. I expect they donate to the upkeep as well and it’s very handy for them.