We had a big day ahead of us and headed for Mullawa again, where Al and Zita had stayed the night and were holding our frozen meals for us to pick up. After a pleasant visit with them we were on our way again.
We headed down the road towards Morawa (the red route) , bypassing point 15 (the Wilroy nature reserve) but then couldn’t resist stopping in at Tardun, where we checked out the old hall (now in disrepair) which would have been the centre of so many community activities in what is now a ghost town. There is only one other building in the town. We enjoyed a couple more of the delightful metal sculptures, reading about the history of the town before we headed onwards.
As we came close to Canna we pulled in to the old miners campsite to have a look (it had been recommended) and found carpets of wildflowers giving a delightful picture with lots of space for camping among the wildflowers.
Then we headed over to the church and hall where we walked the wildflower loop, discovering lots of great wildflowers including lots of different orchids.
After wandering here for quite a while (and seeing the old mallee fowl mound) we headed only a few hundred meters away, near the grain silos, where we looked for, and successfully found, ant orchids. Cute little things.
Next we headed for the local town dam, where there were huge numbers of various orchids all in a small area and very easy to access and see.
We stopped at Bilya Rock as we headed away from Canna and towards Mingenew. This big bare rock has an impressive cairn at the top and also showed some very nice flowers.
We stopped in at Mingenew for a late lunch at the terrific bakery (especially the vanilla slice) and then headed across for a stop at Depot Hill. This old army training ground is now orchid heaven – expecially the cowslip orchids which were in great abundance. (“not another cowslip!!”). We also saw our first catspaw flowers here.
One last stop on our way saw us diverting across to Lake Indoon, where we performed a fruitless search for the famous “Queen of Sheba” orchid – but found only millions of mosquitos and spider orchids (about equal quantities). We left there as it started to rain, taking refuge in our car as we headed to Tootbardi Road and Hi Vallee Farm.
I had read that Hi Vallee farm might be a good place to see some local flowers and to stay, and had been in touch with them and booked us in to camp for the night. We didn’t really have any idea what to expect. The place is just a little south of Eneabba. We were greeted like lost friends by Don and Joy, shown to our lovely little patch of paddock (complete with water, toilet, and enough wood to make a huge bonfire) and invited to make ourselves at home.
Once we had had our dinner we gave Don and Joy Williams (the owners) a ring , and Don came down and picked us up from the campsite, taking us back to the house for hot showers (in a specially set up shower area outside their house) and a delightful Wolf Blass red. We agreed that Don would take us around the property the next day for an hour or so and show us what they have growing there. We can’t quite remember what it cost, but we think it was $45 for the tour and around $30 to camp.
They have a comprehensive book about the vegetation on their farm, which they lent us for the night so that we could do a bit of homework.
Luvapuzzle 