After leaving Perth, we headed out to the South along the very efficient freeway with the train line in the centre.
We stopped for lunch at the Miami Bakehouse at Myalup where , along with a very delicious pie each (with fancy name on them to avoid confusion)
we found lots of painted kangaroos in the yard. These are part of an art project which also draws tourists to this bakery.
I was delighted to find that one of the kangaroos had been painted by Wendy Binks (who painted the mug that I bought at Karijini)
We arrived at cousin Andrew’s home in Bunbury in time for afternoon tea and enjoyed a couple of hours (not long enough) catching up with Andrew and Ann , including tasting his most recent wine bottling (delicious).
With time slipping away fast we then made haste to Wellington Dam at Collie, where we hoped to see the completed mural which we have been watching develop on facebook. Unfortunately the car navigator decided that now was the time to get creative with route choice and we had to backtrack once and ignore the navigator many times before we finally found ourselves at the appointed spot before the last of the light was gone from the day. It was worth the frustration to finally see it.
…and so we headed off on the last leg of today’s journey. We had met up with Codge and Meri at Mitchell Falls and then a number of times after that, and had finally exchanged contact details. They had invited us to visit them if we made it close to their home at Boyup Brook and we decided that we would take them up on the offer and cement a contact, hopefully for the long term. They had kindly invited us to share lamb roast with them and stay at their home and we readily agreed as it gave a great opportunity to spend more time together and get to know each other. Maybe it is crazy to try to build a friendship across such a long distance, but we all love to camp and travel in the same sort of way, so we hope that, over time, we might have some adventures together.
As we drove towards Boyup Brook in the darkening light and the rain the countryside seemed strangely familiar and we came to realise that this was one of the areas that we drove through a couple of years ago when we drove the “Mundal Track” created by the WA Four Wheel Drive Association through to the south of WA. The next day, when Codge took us into the small town of Boyup Brook it was very very familiar and confirmed this realisation. Codge’s instructions to find them were really good and we turned up, later than we really wanted to, but happy to have arrived and were greeted very warmly by our new friends.
Dinner was a really lovely time, finding out about each other’s family and lives. Codge and Meri moved off of their farm and into their current place only a few years ago, leaving the farm to their sons. Codge is still involved from time to time.
We parked the camper in their tall shed for the night and had an excellent sleep there.
Luvapuzzle 