Saturday, Sunday and Monday, 25th, 26th and 28th October, 2024

On Saturday evening we made our way to the Astronomy Deck near the Town Hall. We found it disappointing for star gazing as there was so much light polution from the park and on the jetty. There was a cold breeze and I gave up quite quickly, though Stephen stayed for a while.

On our third night of stargazing we went to a spot on the lake that is near the caravan park, hoping for darker skies. Although Sunday was warm and still, about the time we went out a strong wind came up. This may have contributed to the haze rising from the lake, which again made finding stars very difficult. We returned to the Sherwood and Stephen took up his post just at the front, leaning against the car.

He often found this a good spot when we were travelling and it proved to be quite good for stargazing as he could avoid looking towards the south over the lake. We also found the line of sheoaks at the edge of the caravan park protected us from the wind to a certain extent.

Late on Sunday morning we took another walk beside the lake and went out on the jetty. We could see the plants growing beneath the water and although the water was fairly clear I wouldn’t want to swim.

We made our way through the town to the pub for lunch. The pub is about 100 years old and quite well maintained. It has fairly new owners who have been there several months and have plans to renovate the interior. In the meantime it is quite liveable and offers accommodation.

We asked about alcohol free beer and were surpised to find, in a country pub, that they had about four types. We ordered a couple and also placed our order for lunch. We asked about seating indoors (the flies were bad) and were directed to the hotel dining room which is obviously for the resident guests.

Stephen asked whether they had The Weekend West, the answer was ‘no’, but Stephen was offered some reading anyway. It turned out that our hosts belong to a type of Pentacosal Christian sect and the newsletters and book were from the sect. It reminded me that the main source of weird, US-style beliefs that are imported into Australia is fundamentalist Christian sects.

Stephen read about the evils of 5G and I read the exciting first chapter about a man trying to raise funds to take he and his family to the US for a conference. Once I finished the chapter we left, somewhat enlightened as to how people could live and find purpose in a small country town. Our host was kind enough to take these photos and we can see his wife, the chef. working hard in the kitchen.

From our caravan park host we had learned that the local school has two teachers, a teaching assistant (herself) and 10 pupils covering six years of schooling for the students of various ages. Quite difficult, of course. Still, it’s amazing that it is funded at all, given they could run school buses to a larger town and consolidate.

In the 1920’s and 30’s the town was visited by people from Perth, arriving in trains, to one of the few towns with a semi permanent lake deep enough for recreational boating and swimming. There are warning signs about the danger of swimming in the lake, with a photo of a child jumping into the water.

We returned on Monday after a visit to the little cafe. We had quite good coffee and chai lattes and sat on the only seating inside (away from flies), a couple of deep armchairs. Very comfortable.

At around 11.00 a.m. we left for home. In Brookton we went up to a lookout to have soup and toast. We have often seen the sign to the lookout, but this is the first time we have been there. The road in was pretty much a 4WD road, with deep ruts from winter rains. There were no level spots to park for lunch, so we ended up choosing a spot in partial shade and rather on the wonk.

We called in at Marie and Geoff’s place on the way through Roleystone. We hadn’t thought to check if they would be home and they weren’t, they were staying down at Taunton Farm for a few days. I rang Marie as we wanted to drop something off and she guided us to a suitable hiding place for the ‘something’.

Oddly enough we didn’t feel very tired when we arrived home. I think it was probably due to having a restful couple of days in Yealering, rather than our usual driving holiday. We ate healthily and slept well whilst away.

Stephen commented that it seemed like we had been to a different world during those few days away. Being home felt almost as strange as it felt after we were away for three months.

Last night we went out on our driveway and Stephen showed me a way of star hopping (using binoculars) to see stars. First you start with a very bright star, then move to a barely visible star, then use the binoculars to see a small group of very faint stars. I found it quite exhilarating. Although we have a lot of light polution where we live, including driveway lights, it’s not a dead loss here.

October 25^th and 26^th, 2024

Why Yealering and where is it?

Stephen discovered that Yearlering is a designated Dark Sky town about 200kms from Perth in the Wickepin area. It has a freshwater lake that has some water all year round, although that dimishes to the middle only in summer, when it becomes choked with reeds and other plants.

The name ‘Yealering’ originated in the attempt by settlers to recreate the Indigenous name. It means ‘place of water’ and is quite different to the land around. Coming from the rather bleak late Spring dryness of the surrounding countryside, it is a pleasant oasis of trees, lawns and apparently is suitable for water skiing.

Yesterday when we arrived in the late afternoon we experienced what locals call the ‘Albany Doctor’, very strong and gusty winds that continued at night. There was quite a lot of cloud, which made for an attractive sunset, but, combined with the wind, it was a washout for stargazing. We settled in for the night and whilst Stephen did some exploring I cooked rice, heated up a beef curry (made by Stephen) and set up a computer screen so that we could watch TV.

We were experimenting in a couple of ways. I had set up the living area as a lounge that was easily converted into my bed for the night. This was so that I didn’t have to sleep in the farthest part of the loft bed. And, we brought our Starlink mini to test out to see if it would provide sufficient speeds and reliability to be our travel internet.

Both were successful. The bed, with mattress cover and a doona that matches the one on the loft bed was extremely comfortable overnight. For the first time in a few weeks I slept really well. And the Starlink mini was able to provide sufficient internet for us to stream TV and Youtube even though it has the wireless router built into the dish, which was outside the van on the ground. Normally, with Starlink the router is separate and can remain inside whilst the dish is outside.

This morning after a leisurely breakfast we took a walk along the lake and into the town. There is a beautiful area of lawns and gardens and a jetty as well as the concrete platform for Stargazing. There is a list of 8 points for beginners.

We called into the small shop which is where we found out some information about the town. The owner is selling up, but only in order to retire and travel, not because it isn’t doing well. This sort of town was busy in the early 20^th Century as people liked coming here from Perth for holidays. The Pub/Hotel was built to provide accommodation for visitors and now is a community hub. There is a bowls club, what looks like a neglected Golf Club. and well maintained tennis courts.

There is a coffee shop/pantry that, unfortunately, is only open during the week. Unfortunate for us, that is, because we have to leave on Monday as there is a funeral on Tuesday that we don’t want to miss.

It is also a CBH storage town, with white silos that could be decorated in the way that other towns have decorated theirs, but the white is also very attractive, perhaps they are best as they are.

We are staying the caravan park as there is no free camping in town. Still, we are only paying $27.60 per night and have parked with our big windows facing the lake. We have water and power, ablutions and a small laundry. The campers’ kitchen is a basic open air structure. Everything is well maintained.

I’m presently reading Richard Flanagan’s new book “Question 7”, an intriguing memoir of his life where he tries to make sense of what is happening in the world from the point of view of someone who is only alive because of the nuclear bombing of Japan in the Second World War.

Tuesday October 1st, 2024

We took the Sherwood up to John Forest National Park for the day. We had been wanting to take walks away from the city and as we haven’t been to this park for many years it was ‘calling’ us. We knew we would be too late for the best wildflowers and were surprised to find there were still quite a lot.

On arrival we took a short walk and saw a kangaroo and joey right away near the picnic area. There were also parrots feeding there. Unfortunately, even if people don’t deliberately feed the wildlife picnic areas end up with some food on the ground.

We had a packed lunch with us and as it was rather hot in the middle of the day we had our lunch and a rest inside (with fans going) until about 3.00 p.m. We walked to the right along the creek, then walked down to the falls on the road/path towards the old railway tunnel. We saw more kangaroos on the walk and they didn’t seem too bothered by us, a little wary, but not scared.

We left the park at about 6.00 p.m., hoping the traffic would be a bit less frantic. It’s relatively easy to make the right turn out of the park onto Great Eastern Highway as it’s a divided road with a pausing area to check the traffic going the other way.

It was a really lovely day out and we will try to have more of them. The day was pretty warm because rain was forecast the next day, and it really poured on Wednesday.

The old tavern in the park has closed and become a part of the ranger station. They are building a new cafe and car park and the machinery was working until quite late in day. We hope to visit again when it is open, perhaps in a few months.

Monday 9th, Tuesday 10th and Wednesday 11th September, 2024

After our night at Yandanooka Rest Area we drove back to Mingenew to return the telescope, as well as other chores. The staff at the council where we took the telescope were lovely. We told them about the problems and hope that they will have them fixed. However, it’s apparently unusual for it to be hired out. They gave us a refund for the full amount, as well as our deposit. I had only meant to be helpful in pointing out what needed fixing, so it was a bonus.

Of course, we dropped into the bakery again. We had lunch and took a cake with us to have later in the day. By the time we reached the Watheroo Station Tavern later in the day we had travelled over 200kms, quite a lot for us. Watheroo Station Stay offers power and water hookups as well as toilets and showers that are open all night. The tavern opens at 5.00 p.m., but we waited until 6.00 p.m. to go in and have dinner. The cost of the dinner was our fee for all the facilities we used, what a nice way for them to get a bit more patronage. We really appreciated it.

On Tuesday we drove about 100kms to the Wannamal Rest Area. Although the scenary is no longer stunning, we enjoyed seeing the beautiful green and yellow fields. The shallow lakes along the way were all full thanks to the abundant rain.

Last time we visited the Wannamal Rest Area (2 years ago), we arrived in time for abundant wildflowers, including orchids. This time the flowers were a little past their prime and we only saw one rather sad looking orchid. Apart from the common cowslip orchids dotted about.

We love staying at Wannamal, partly because my mother used to live there, and partly because of the flushing toilet and good spaces to camp. They leave a very bright light on all night at the toilets, and this was something we had forgotten. Fortunately we were facing towards the light, which meant it didn’t affect us.

The morning was coolish, sunny, with light clouds. I set up the projector ready for the 9.00 a.m. US presidential debate. We thought we might just watch it for half an hour, but ended up watching the full 1.5 hours, and even some of the local commentry afterwards. Kamala Harris normally spouts word salads, especially when trying not to answer questions, but in this case she did a good job of answering at least some of the questions. She also spent time goading Trump to bring out his worst side, and he fell for it several times.

It was worth watching, one of these people will be the next leader of the free world. I don’t agree with some of the woke agenda of the Democrats, but Kamala feels like a safe pair of hands. She makes nothing of being a woman, and being a person of colour, and I like that she doesn’t position herself on these identies, but as the person she is.

After that, we needed a bakery! So, what better thing to do than head for the Bindoon Bakehaus. I needed a nap afterwards, so it was quite a bit later before we headed home. We like the Tonkin Highway as a way of entering the city. It was very busy indeed, so it was stressful driving, but we made it home safely and had a cup of tea.

We didn’t have much food left, so went out to the Hong Kong Tea House for lunch yesterday. In the evening we had cheese on toast with baked beans. I put in a click and collect order with Coles which I picked up this morning. We now have a variety of food for making meals.

It feels strange being home at the moment and we miss the Sherwood. I’m sure we’ll adjust quite soon. We’ve spoken with Matt and he is booked in to come to visit Sunday night for tea. I’ve picked up a Starlink Mini to trial. It is tiny compared with our other Dish, a Gen 3. Not as fast, but it appears to be reliable and is certainly going to be easier to handle and store away when travelling. And, we have a new Instant Pot Pressure Cooker as our last one was leaking a bit and had to be thrown away. I’ve been missing it. This is the larger size which is best for using at home.

Here are YouTube sharable links to the two videos in the last post. They should be better quality.

Monday 9th September, 2024

On Wednesday we drove from Morawa to Mingenew. We passed into the wheatbelt early in the drive, which meant much fewer wildflowers. Later in the journey it became more interesting as there were hills and quite a long drive down what felt like it had been an enscarpment. The day was cloudy and there had been a little drizzle in the morning and we had one bout of heavy rain on the journey.

When we arrived we went to the lovely Mingenew Bakery for hot drinks, sandwiches, and a shared peach tart. We shopped, then checked into the caravan park at about 2.00 p.m. They wisely gave us a site that was a bit tricky to drive into (if you have a caravan) and assigned Marie and Geoff a much easier site. They didn’t arrive until after 4.00 p.m. and by then it was raining heavily, which made set up quite unpleasant.

We had drinks under their awning in the late afternoon. We had to really rug up to be warm enough to sit outside, indeed, that included lap rugs, and it was good to do some catching up.

The next day was extremely wet, with squally fronts coming through, continuing into the afternoon. Stephen and I took it as a sign we could have a rest day, though I did some washing and Stephen walked over to the shop in a dry spell. Geoff felt like a drive so they went out for a couple of hours.

On Friday we went out for a walk at Depot Hill. Hats with fly veils helped us to stay out much longer than we otherwise could have done, although the men seemed OK. We saw cowslip orchids as well as everlastings. The walk seemed to just peter out into a number of dead end trails, so we didn’t actually get to the top of the hill. There were trenches left over from WW2, hence the name, Depot Hill.

We then drove to a tracking station that is set in fields of canola. We weren’t allowed into the tracking station, but had our lunch with a view of telescopes and canola. Naturally, we had bought sandwiches/rolls and cakes from the bakery for our lunch. It meant we could all make our own choices of food.

In the evening we had fish a chips made by our hosts at the caravan park. We decided to stay in our individual vans to eat, it was still very cold and after our day out it was good to just be comfortable inside.

On Saturday we went to the Coalseam National Park. My impression from our last visit was that it wasn’t all that interesting, with mainly yellow everlastings. However, this time I found it quite beautiful. There was some water in the river, swiftly flowing, and as it was quite a cool day, we could really enjoy being outside. We stopped to do the river walk, then went up to Irwin Point for the view of the Gorge.

We had our Bakery bought lunch in the car, there were still enough flys to be a problem, though not as bad as the day before. On the way out we went to the Miners Campground. This was very lovely as well. You could walk down to the water and there were some little waterfalls. As well, there were lots of everlastings. There is a day use area as well as the camping ground. It looked so beautiful that I really wanted to come and camp there.

Geoff had to negotiate two water crossing in the park. The first one didn’t have a paved ford, and it looked like other drivers were wondering what to do. There was a marker to show depth and it didn’t look too deep. Geoff drove across in what appeared to be a shallower part on one side, and didn’t have any problems. The second water crossing was a proper ford and we could see how deep it was. When we were leaving there were people walking across the ford, so we could really see that it was shallow. We didn’t have to go through the other crossing again as we left the park another way.

Of course, I was wondering how we would go in the Sherwood, especially going up and down a couple of steep parts of the road. The internal roads were gravel, but very well graded, so we would have been OK. Being higher, the water crossings would have been OK, though I might not have sensibly chosen the side of the road for the first one, as Geoff did.

In the evening we went to the pub and three of us had the savoury stew with vegetables that was on special and Geoff had a more traditional pub meal of chicken. It was a good way to round off our time together.

Of course, we must speak about the telescope. Stephen found he could hire one from the shire council. He picked it up Friday morning and spent some in the afternoon trying to work out how to use it. There were two problems with the equipment. One of the tripod legs didn’t have a lock, so it could only be used in the lowest position. In addition, the scope, that helps you locate stars, appeared to have a flat battery. Eventually he was able to work out how to focus on distant objects such as leaves and a distant RV’s lights and window.

The main object was to use it at a Stargazing and Planisphere at a free camp about 20kms south of Mingenew. We are close to the Yandanooka Town Hall, which has flushing toilets that are always open.

Last night, after talking with Matt on Facetime, we set up the telescope and took it out to the Planisphere. Stephen had found it very frustrating to use when he tried to see stars on Friday night. It remained frustrating. In the end he was able to focus on the sliver of the moon. We could see the craters even though the moon was very, very bright. Unfortunately, there was some high cloud developing and the night wasn’t very clear.

We have booked into a stargazing fest at Curtin University in a few weeks time and are hoping to learn a lot more about how to actually use a telescope. It seems that it isn’t simply a matter of getting out on a dark night and finding individual stars and planets. You really have to know what you are doing. Still, we have learned quite a lot from this experience and now have some knowledge. It doesn’t help that the earth is rotating at quite a speed. Some telescopes have in built tracking so that they stay aligned, but otherwise you have to manually adjust for the rotation.

Otherwise, this is a lovely little spot to be. There were seven of us altogether last night, mostly spread out although there is a caravan quite close to us. The occupants also came over to the planisphere after dark to see the stars.

I will upload the Apple generated slideshows to Youtube later so that they can be viewed at a higher resolution. Unfortunately WordPress downgrades the videos.

Monday 2nd and Tuesday 3rd September, 2024

We’ve had a couple of wonderful driving days since Yalgoo on the way to Morawa, with everlastings carpeting the bushland as we travelled along. Cream, pink, blue, mauve and white. Today we even saw some of the rare wreath flowers. They like the graded edges of roads.

I’ve taken photos and videos of the flowers, but can’t seem to show just how incredible it was for us. With little traffic on the road we were able to cruise at about 70kms today, which allowed us to really take in the changing scenes. The everlastings seem to like flat land more than hills. When we reached the Shire of Morawa we were entering the agricultural region and then we only had flowers on the roadside verges or where there were little patches of bush.

Our overnight at the cemetry was lovely visually, but the flies were so dreadful that we only went outside when necessary. Our location tonight is also plagued by flies, but we have neighbours who are sitting outside, I guess with their flynets on.

We put our fly nets on for a bit of a walk here in the late afternoon, just to check out the area where we are staying. The constant buzzing is annoying, but with long sleeves and long pants they couldn’t actually land on us, apart from our hands.

On the way here we called in to Morawa for hot drinks, shopping, and to visit the dump point and to fill up at what we hope is a potable water tap. We have some spring water bottles left, plus sparkling water, and will only drink the water from that tap if we boil it, just in case. We used it for our afternoon tea and Stephen said it tasted a bit salty.

Of course, the water is fine for our water tank as we only use it for washing, dishes and us.

And tomorrow it is off to Mingenew to meet up with Marie and Geoff and explore that area, including looking for everlastings, wreath flowers, and hopefully other flowers as well.

Monday 2nd September, 2024

We’ve had a couple of good overnight stops. On Saturday we spent the night at Lake Nallan about 30kms north of Cue. When I planned the stop I didn’t immediately realise that we had been there before, but it seemed very familiar. After setting up the Starlink we confirmed that we spent a night there in June, 2021 in the Adria van. In fact, we had the same campsite on the edge of the lake.

The lake was much fuller last time we were there, but the shrinkage worked in our favour as the wading birds were a bit closer to us when they were on our side of the lake. We saw herons and ducks, but no swans this time.

We had our chilliest night yet, 8C outside and 9C inside. As it was sunny in the morning I just rugged up and didn’t use the heater, knowing the sun would warm us up fairly quickly.

The flies were bad in the afternoon when we arrived, but we have fly nets and could still get outside in the evening to see the birds. Someone disturbed them by walking around the lake, and they flew to the other side. It was tricky to photograph them as I don’t have a long enough lens. But, I still liked some the shots due to reflections of the birds and the evening colours.

We’ve been seeing a lot of wildflowers since leaving Port Hedland, but after Cue we’ve begun seeing everlastings, sometimes large clusters. Just before Mt Magnet is a place called The Granites and we called in there to have our lunch.

We refuelled in Cue and had a coffee in the rather nice American diner style cafe. So, with Mt Magnet we just passed through and went on to our park up. It’s nothing special, just a rest area with a large field where you can camp away from the road. I’m not sure if it is private property, but we can see a fence a long way behind us and there are no livestock around. There were two other campers overnight but we were able to find a spot well away from them.

Of course, as it was Sunday, we spoke with Matt on Facetime. Now that we are in the same time zone he sees us preparing and having our meal, then washing up. He used to just join for the washing up. He seems happy enough to just hang there whilst we chat to him and do what we would normally do.

Gascoyne River (Middle Branch) Campground and Karalundi Caravan and Camping Park

At Gascoyne River we were fortunate to get a spot right on the river. Although the water next to us was part of a large pool, with dry river bed at both ends, it seemed very alive, with ripples caused by the breeze and the occasional diving willie wag tail. Perhaps the wagtail wasn’t actually diving, but I saw it hit the water a couple of times and cause ripples. There were a lot of insects flying around and we saw, briefly, quite a few magpies. With other birds we just heard the calls.

So, it was a beautiful spot to overnight. In the morning it was initally sunny, then clouds came over and stayed for the first part of our journey south. We haven’t really seen clouds since a couple of days in Darwin, so we liked it being cloudy.

The afternoon and morning temperatures were cool enought to be quite comfortable for us, a relief after the heat. We notice that even Meekatharra may reach temperatures over 35 early next week, an incentive to head southwards again.

Yesterday I wanted to do some washing and get our batteries charged up. We found a little caravan park that is located at an Indigenous boarding school. It is small enough that the camper’s kitchen and facilities are close by. There is only one washing machine, but I still managed to get a load of washing done and hung on the line. It feels strange to be surrounded by people in caravans after our fairly isolated couple of nights getting here.

We are about 55ks from Meekatharra where we can shop and get fuel for the next stage of the journey.

This is a large area of bushland about 50 kms south from Newman. After lingering at the Mt Robinson Rest Area until it was getting too hot, about 11.00 a.m., we headed for Newman for ‘services’, dump point, water fill up and shopping.

We had a medium sort of club sandwhich drowned in chips at the Dome Cafe, thus proving that not all Dome Cafe’s have the same quality of food (depends on chef), then went to the Woollies for shopping.

The dump point and potable water tap are in the same little enclosed area, so though we filled up the tank we decided to buy some drinking water. We don’t drink from our tank anyway, so it’s just a matter of not filling up our drinking water jerry cans.

Hidden Gem is an informal camping area and it is very large indeed. We were able to have almost complete privacy here. It was very hot in the late afternoon and I was wishing we had gone to the roadhouse caravan park where we bought fuel. But, by bedtime (about 9.00 p.m. for me) it was cool enough to sleep comfortably.

This morning was about 19C, it felt cool, and we have been doing a bit of stuff and organising our meetup, now in Morawa, with Marie and Geoff.

Clearly, you needed to actually be there to see how lovely it was.