Stephen was busy helping Mark for most of Thursday and we weren’t able to get away until about 4.30 p.m. Rather than drive to Northam, our original plan, we drove to Wundowie where there is a very nice free/donation campsite, with a shelter, gas BBQ, dump point, and potable water tap. The toilets are about 200m away near the town hall and IGA. The sites are well laid out, somewhat similar to the Northam campsite. There is extra room at the side, good for larger rigs or people who want to be further away from the lighting.
We arrived shortly after sunset and heated up the food we had brought for our first evening meal. In the morning we refilled the water tank using a funnel and multiple jugs of water and Stephen also emptied the cassette toilet. The tap and dump point near the Visitor Centre in Wongan Hills can be difficult to access during the Festival, so we were planning for two nights without refills.
As we later discovered, we were taking the longer route on Great Eastern Highway, but it allowed for us to go to the Toodyay Bakery for lunch and to shop in the town for fresh food. We had a good time, though Stephen was dealing with a phone call re Mark and I was responding to a query Brian had made to AbilityWA. Tracy clarified what was happening, just a worried man, not an emergency.
We then drove directly to Wongan Hills, had a look at the Visitor Centre where they were setting up for an outdoor meal, and went to the nearby free camping. I was just contemplating some cooking when one of the other campers came across and said that they had a couple of extra places at their table for the evening event, would we like to come. It didn’t include food, but we bought one curry and rice and one tasting plate in a box, which was so much food that we had the left over food in the tasting box for lunch the next day. We enjoyed the evening, which included live entertainment and long speeches, which helped us to get to know the town a bit better. We also enjoyed socialising with the rest of the people at our table, including our host.
Later in the evening I went to the toilet and came back to find a woman had moved into my chair and was leaning in to talk to Stephen in a very intimate way. I’m used to women taking a great fancy to Stephen, but this was exceptional. When I wanted to leave and intervened it became clear that she was very drunk indeed, hence her lack of boundaries. I ended up felling sorry for her. As I say, this is a very common experience for me, for example, yesterday whilst we were helping in the kitchen at a Melbourne Cup lunch one of the women invited Stephen to visit her. She lives in one of the units in the complex. Perhaps he made a mistake by introducing me to her as his daughter.
The next morning we decided to skip the cooked breakfast at the Visitor Centre and had a fairly leisurely morning. We went over at about 10:30 a.m. and looked briefly at the stalls and that’s when I took a photo of the flower girls. We succumbed to the lure of a devonshire tea, chatting with Kay, a local from Ballidue, before heading off to the reserve. There are regular bus tours, but we thought we would stay a few hours and have lunch there.
As I was getting back into the driver’s seat in town I managed to pull a leg muscle, resulting in quite a bit of pain. I took some panadol, but did not feel like doing the walk through the reserve. Stephen set off on foot and I drove through at pretty much a walking pace, so I got to see it without walking. At the end I drove around on the gravel road back to the beginning. Once there, I realised that it would leave Stephen with over a kilometre to walk in the sun. So, I drove back and waited at the end of the walk. It was only about 10 minutes before he arrived and helped me back around onto the road. Although the morning had started out very cloudy, with light rain, by the afternoon the wind had picked up and it was mostly sunny.
We drove back to the entrance and parked up, ready for lunch. It was hot in the van, with no shade and the gusty wind meant we couldn’t really open hatches and windows. So, we gave up and drove back to town to find some shade. After our lunch of leftovers and a rest we wandered back to the Visitor Centre to find that it was all over and the exhibition hall was closed. So, it was back to the camping area where we cooked tea, including steak schnitzels we had bought, with the new chutney Marie gave me for my birthday. Very delicious and just right with the meat and salad.
At the bakery in Toodyay I had bought what they call a ‘cake in a can’ and we shared that after dinner. It was delicious and just right for two people. On the way home we went to the Bindoon Bakehous and tried their pies, not as delicious as the ones at the Toodyay bakery, but you have to sample them to know this. The Eccels cake afterwards was very good indeed, so I’m glad we had room for something extra.
Sunday morning we were homeward bound, but not until after we went to the craft exhibition in town. We had been told that Great Northern Highway, which becomes Tonkin Highway, was the best way to go, and were not sorry as we could also have lunch and a rest at the bakery in Bindoon. Stephen drove about 40kms on the quiet road that connects Wongan Hills with the Great Eastern, this was his first time and I think he enjoyed taking the wheel for a change. I do need a foot rest as the passenger seat is higher than the driver’s seat due to it’s swivel mechanism. But, it would need to be about half the height of the footrest we use as a step to get into bed, is such a thing possible to find?
We called in at Lake Ninan, just out of Wongan Hills, on the way. It was mostly cloudy and the water was very still, with reflections all along the far shore. Worth a visit, though we didn’t see any birds. Perhaps we need to camp there some time. It would be good for stargazing as well. Although Stephen did some stargazing whilst we camped in the town there was a lot of light pollution, so not ideal.
