Luvapuzzle

Coffin Bay NP 29/1/22-8/2/22

Erica awoke with a crook back a couple of days ago so just Trevor headed off to join Bob, Craig, Michael and his son Max for a few days of fishing in Coffin Bay National Park at the end of the peninsula at “The Pool” campground. She organised food etc even though Bob & Craig were providing everything needed. I left home about 11:30am in the Hilux camper and stopped at Port Wakefield to eat my packed sandwich and have a cuppa.

And again for a relief stop and cuppa near Cultana, just before Whyalla. There were huge puddles along the road and even across the road from the downpours recently experienced around here. Some roads had been closed.

Arrived at Cowell at 5:30pm and joined the others at their caravan park cabin for a cuppa before a $20 pub meal of Lamb Shanks. I retired to the RV park on the edge of town for $10/night after watching Ash Barty win the Oz open final. The night was cool and windy but the view of the stars was terrific.

Arose and breakfasted and joined the others by 8:20am and we drove together to Pt Lincoln for some last minute supplies then on to Coffin Bay for a pie. We stopped at the end of the hard stuff and let our tyres down to ~20psi. Then started the soft stuff. It took us nearly 3 hours to do the less than 40kms to camp.

We enjoyed Craig’s Chicken & apple for tea.

Monday was windy from the Southeast. Probably the worst direction for our fishing aspirations. Walking down the beach to our spot we were buzzed by a pair of Sea Eagles, one of only 10 known on the whole Eyre Peninsula. What a great sight. I was so wrapt I forgot to take a picture. We also saw Dolphins, Oyster Catchers, Rock Pigeons, Emus, Roos, Sting Rays, Pelicans and lots of Gulls (Pacific & Silver) and plenty of other things I couldn’t identify. Bob kindly lent me his good rod and set me up and so I was probably first to get my hooks into the water and so I got the first fish. A double header. A nice King George Whiting and an undersized flathead which went back. This was almost my only success and I regularly lost my trace and kept Bob busy sorting me out. Think I was depressing him by losing all his gear! But between us we had a nice catch and enjoyed fish for tea.

The wind didn’t really let up all week which made it a bit difficult and took some of the fun out of it. But the days were sunny and warm and our campsite was sheltered. The above right-hand picture shows a storm racing across to our north in the opposite direction to the stiff breeze in our faces. It flooded Pt Augusta! We didn’t get any rain all week. We tried a couple of different sites to get out of the wind but we weren’t really successful.

One day Craig drove us around down the western side, we checked out Mullalong Beach and down to Sensation Beach. We scrambled down the steep cliff face at Mullalong and attempted to fish but no-one caught anything. It was quite an effort to get out again!

We caught just enough fish to give us a really good feed every night and for me to bring a meal home to Erica. Perhaps just as well as Craig’s second battery died and so too his fridge and Michael ran his battery flat on the last day before he and Max left. We stayed another night and I booked our sites online as I had Optus coverage. Bob & Craig’s site (4) was booked by someone else so they shifted into 5 (Mike’s site). The people did turn up but decided (thankfully as they were very noisy) to go back to site 1 instead.

Sensation beach

Mullalong Beach

Apparently our campsite is well known for Death Adders and we nearly stepped on one right next to our camp just as we were leaving. The drive out took ages and I was a little worried about “Axle Break Hill” but second attempt in low range saw me out ok. We stopped at the washed up whale bone along Seven Mile Beach but we didn’t see any naked ladies as Bob has on previous trips!

Even though we kept moving about as fast as we could it took 2.5hrs to get back to Yangie Bay were the blacktop starts. Just before we got Yangie Bay we came around a corner and found a Mitsubishi SUV in the soft sand with 3 people trying to push it out. We stopped and as I walked past Craig and Bob, Bob said “I’m going to get angry”. He asked the guy what his tyre pressures were. The young lad had no idea and no gauge to check. While Bob gave him a lecture I walked up to the passenger door, opened it, reached in and selected 4 wheel drive and told him to give it a go now. Needless to say it just climbed out of the hole it had dug itself into. I explained the need to select 4WD and we left him to it. Hope he took it out again once back on bitumen!

Back in Coffin Bay we had lunch at the shop, pumped up the tyres and I headed towards Cummins while Craig and Bob headed for Cowell and when no cabins available Whyalla. I had rung cousin Vincent and checked they were home so I could drop in to say g’day and have a cuppa before traveling on to meet up again with the others. Vinnie and Barbie were great hosts as usual and I ended up staying for Dinner, a shower, a drink or two or three and a great chat, making it to bed out the front by about 2am!!

Sunday I headed off on roads less travelled heading for Peter and Belinda’s at Pt Pirie. A stop in Whyalla to make some lunch and a cuppa and put in some Fuel. By the time I made Pirie I was a bit tired. Of course I stayed for dinner (recurring theme) and laid down for a little rest (didn’t get to sleep) and later started out for home, arriving at 5mins past midnight. What a great time. The camper was very comfortable and performed admirably in the rough and soft stuff. Just shy of 1600 kms. It’s good to be home.

Trevor and Erica’s Christmas Letter for 2021

It’s been a full year for us. When we retired at the end of 2017 we planned to seize the opportunities that were available while we were still youngish and healthy(ish) and before our grandchildren came along and changed our lives for ever. Since then we have travelled lots, both in Australia and overseas. This year was no different, except the travel was in Australia only.

For some time we had been tossing around the idea of getting to the Kimberley, in the far north-west of Australia. This rugged area seemed so remote and so far away from us in SA that the whole idea was almost too big to consider. We were fortunate to have two other couples who are good friends and were also keen on the idea, so the planning began in earnest. We ended up buying a Hilux with a camping box on the back in September last year, and this vehicle was our home away from home for the 97 days that we were travelling. Most of this trip was done together with them.

We used an app called “Track my Tour” to save waypoints on our trip so that others coldl see where we had got to and when. https://trackmytour.com/zTjv9

This map shows fairly well where we went. From the Flinders Ranges, we headed up the Oodnadatta track, and the Ghan Heritage road to Alice Springs, before heading to the North-west on the Tanami road. We stopped in at the amazing Purnululu (Bungle Bungles) before visiting Kununurra and Lake Argyle and then headed on to the Gibb River Road to see the Kimberley region.

The remote roads, isolated gorges, beautiful swimming holes and stunning red soil and rock formations were jaw droppingly beautiful.

We made our way across to Broome, before heading slowly to Karijini NP and across to Cape Range NP and Ningaloo Reef and then down the WA coast to Perth. We were lucky with the weather on the Gibb and then with the wildflowers inland from Geraldton. Erica spent her birthday with Auntie Joc in Perth before we headed on to catch up with various other friends and relatives as we tracked across the southern part of WA. The last treat was a stop at Tozer’s Bush camp to go orchid spotting with a botanist, and then the wonderful trip back across the Nullabor and home. A Blog of the trip can be found at https://wordpress.com/view/luvapuzzle.travel.blog if you with to read about it more.

While we were planning the trip we found out that Ben and Jasmine were expecting their first child, and Sophia was duly born in the start of May as expected. She is now 7 months old and an absolute delight. It was a painful tear to leave them in early June to go on the big trip, but we decided that it may never happen if we didn’t do it then, so we decided to go ahead. Jasmine kept up a stream of updates which delighted us each time we had reception on the trip.

By the time we left we also knew that Thom and Laura were expecting a child in November, and that they were hoping to come home. We left an empty home behind, but are so very thankful that we came home to find them in SA, having taken an Australian Repatriation flight from London at short notice and come home via Howards Springs in NT. James was born in Adelaide on November 13^th. They will move into their own house in Coromandel Valley in mid-January and will continue to stay with us until then. This means that every day we get to enjoy the heart-warming pleasure of cuddling a grandchild.

As you can guess the grandchildren have changed our life. Grandparenting suits us very well so far, as we imagined it might. Having both our kids and their families in our city again also suits us very well indeed.

Trevor’s Mum, Grace, continues to live independently in her own unit and to complete jigsaws at a great rate.

Erica’s Dad also continues to live happily between his own and Peggy’s places, and to cover many km as he drives to Encounter Bay and to Baldina (near Burra) with Peggy. We are thankful that they both remain in great health.

Trevor turned 60 in October, but they say 60 is the new 40, and maybe it is true. He certainly seems much more active and young than 60 year olds used to be when we were kids. He is holding his brand new seniors card in this photo.

We continue to be involved in Orienteering, although the pressure is less since Erica gave up the secretary role. Most weeks there is an event for us to attend, which keeps us thinking and active. It’s still the best sport ever.

We also continue to be involved in our walking group, with Trevor, in particular recording the walks for the members of the group to enjoy, and consistently walking on Tuesdays and every second Friday. Read more at https://walkingwith4seasons.wordpress.com/

Erica has had a problem ankle in the last few months, meaning time off from both of these activities, but is now on the road to recovery after an arthroscopy and removal or bone spurs.

With Trevor off walking, Erica has had a bit of a chance to get into more quilting, with a number of quilts completed this year. She particularly enjoyed making baby quilts for the expected grandchildren. It was a lovely way to express all that hopeful anticipation. The current project is a hexagon quilt for the double bed, made up of the many hexagons which were handsewn as we travelled on our big adventure

We have also continued to deliver meals for Meals on Wheels every first, third and fifth Monday of each month in the local area, which gives us a chance to give back to our community. The recipients of the meals, for the most part, are very very thankful for the service. The more involved we are, the more we see the value of this daily check in visit. “More than just a meal” is very much a fitting slogan for this service. If we are lucky we even get to take some leftover food home to eat for lunch as well.

We look forward to 2022. Watching Sophia and James grow and change is a constant joy that we hope to make the most of. At this stage we are hoping to travel to Victoria in September for the Australian Orienteering Champs, but we will see how that turns out as we watch the development of this COVID virus which is causing so much trouble.

We are thinking of you all, and wish you much love and happiness.

4/9/21 – The very last day

We woke up on a chilly morning and took a while to get going, but once we were awake we realised that this was the day that we would finally be home. We were both keen to be there already and there wasn’t going to be much that would stop us now. Instead of stopping to boil the billy, fill the thermos and make our breakfast we just packed up and hopped in the camper and we were off. We agreed to try to find something for breakfast at Kimba (just a little bit down the road).

Near Kimba we came across a road heading off of the main highway to the right called “Venus Bay Road”. But it doesn’t head towards Venus Bay at all. It seems to head towards Cowell. Why is this road called this name??? If someone can explain this to us we will appreciate the solution to the puzzle. The black circle is the location of the road. This also shows Kyancutta (far left) and Kimba (far right) and the location of Caralue Bluff (our camp from last night) for those who are interested.

Kimba wasn’t as open as we expected. We thought one of those little cafes in town might be open to give us a quick brekkie, but we were wrong. After a quick lap of town we headed down to the Big Galah on the highway and ordered bacon and egg sandwiches for breakfast and cups of tea. We used their loos while we waited for the food and admired the work going on on the Galah himself.

The Galah is having a makeover currently and at present he has scaffoldig around him and it is a bit hard to get the feel of what it will be looking like, but it does look like an improvement. After nearly 30 years the old galah was starting to look a bit tired. Now a couple of artists from Port Lincoln have been commissioned to fix him up. You can read about it here: https://www.portlincolntimes.com.au/story/7404022/galah-gets-peoples-attention-even-under-wraps/

As we started to reach the wind farm territory we noticed that lost so the wind turbines were not turning or turning veery slowly today. There is a very strong wind today. Are like like this because the wind is too strong for them? Later on the drive we saw that the Snowtown ones were turning more normally. On the subjectof wind turbines, we were amazed to see hwo many there now are on the main highway just south of Port Augusta (near the Sundrop site) . We counted approximately 30 on one side of the road and another 18 or so on the other side (in various stages of construction). These seem to have gone up really fast. (much faster than any of the roadworks seem to be progressing). When we came through this are in lateMay, heading for Hiltaba we counted only 24 (some still partial) on one side of the highway, and saw none on the other.

The new bridge at Port Augusta is progressing, and we crossed this at about noon, but not really feeling hungry yet, we opted to keep on driving.

We drve through Port Pirie without a stop too. This is unusual for us since our friends Peter and Belinda and their family live here and we usually try to drop in as we go past. We had phoned them the night before and found out that they were going to be busy with hockey finals all day, so even Pirie couldnt stop us today.

We stopped at the roadhouse at Red Hill finally. We used the loos and bought a pie each for lunch. Still no time for a cuppa. We ate our pies and then we were off again. It was as though the family were calling us.

We had promised to keep the fam posted about our progress so we started to send little messages of update on our progress.

The Pink lake at Lochiel (Lake Bumbunga) was beautiful – with much more variety of colour and texture than the famous pink tourist icon (Hutt Lagoon) on the WA coast, and then new Nessie there does look very impressive. It had us ruminating on the fact that we had travelled out of our way to see the other one, but always take thsi one for granted as we drive past. There are so many places in our state taht we should see and appreciate more than we do.

We passed under the new bridge at Port Wakefield and were happy to see that the roadworks had at least progressed there. Sadly it seemed to our eyes that those past Port Wakefield along the road were almost stalled, with traffic crawling along at 60km/h and 40km/h for ages. I guess we were in a hurry to be home, so it seemed more frustrating to us than it might normally have been.

We stopped to do our final fuel fill for the trip at Pooraka. (133.5/litre) and poured another $150 worth of fuel into the tank.

Then we really were on the very last leg before we saw the family. We trekked to the south-east and out towards Ben’s place. Thom and Laura were tracking across from our place at the same time. When we put in an update to say that we were at the Darley Road corner we had a message float back”so are we”. So we pulled up out the front of Ben and Jasmine’s place at about 3.30 in the afternoon (much earlier than we had expected to) dying to see the all and to have a cup of tea. We waited on the driveway for Thom and Laura to arrive (about a minute behind us) and started the hug fest. Laura looks really pregnant!!! All the photos have looked like this expected baby might be a fake, but now we know for sure that there is another grandbaby growing inside there. Hooray. Molly the dog was keen to get in on the act and greeted us with an enthusiasm only she can manage and Ben had woken up poor Sophia so that she could greet these keen strangers as well. She managed the noise and excitement with happy gummy grins and the trademark killer dimples and grabbed our hearts all over again.

You will all be surprised (as I was) that I was not a teary mess. I was just a happy Grandma and Mum, back with my family again and feeling like we were all just where we needed to be right now.

Thom and Laura had made some lasagna for tea, so there were no decisons about food to be made. We just sat around, and caught up on life and spent the afternoon and evening being together.

3/9/21 The penultimate day. Streaky Bay to Caralue Bluff Conservation Park

We started off the day by setting off the smoke alarm in our cabin. In our defence I must say that the kitchen set up made it impossible to put the fry pan under the exhaust fan and the frypan was always destined to be smoky. We heard at least 3 other cabins do the same. Luckily it was not early in the morning when I did it.

Our niece Dani was home for the morning so we spent a couple of hours catching up with her and even checked out her little veggie garden that Geoff set up for her. We’ve got carrots, bok choy, broccoli, lettuce, baby spinach and snow peas to take on home with us. Yum. It was great to see her and share a cuppa.

Our next stop was Murphy’s Haystacks. We have seen distant views of these many times as we drove past on the Eyre Highway near Elliston, but you can now pay $2 and walk in and around them. The farmer even has a toilet there and sells honey. It was great to get up close to these unusual inselbergs (Insel=Island, Berg=mountain) finally.

We were really lucky to catch the landowner doing a check visit and had a good chat. A lovely bloke who was happy to spend a few minutes just shooting the breeze with us.

We stopped in briefly at Port Kenny and admired their jetty.

Then headed on to Venus Bay. We parked looking out at the boats and the bay while we ate our sandwiches and got closely acquainted with some of the locals.

There was a bloke here working on his amazing cut stone wall. He has cut the local rock to build an amazing dry stone wall around his place with some dolphin sculptures set in to it and was working away in the cool breeze. It will be worth diverting past his place again and checking out the completed project when it is done. Laborious work.

Then we headed down the coast toward Talia Caves. We’ve been blown away by the action of the sea many times on this trip (and by the ability of even fresh water to sculpt rock) and this was no exception. The waves crashing in have sculpted huge cave areas at both Woolshed Caves and The Tub. The wind was savage but it was worth braving it to take the stairs down to water level to get a closer view at Woolshed.

A little further on is a very fancy memorial to Sister Millard- who drowned here. Even the marble stone of this is eroding badly from the elements.

We resisted the urge to take the track through the Lake Newland Conservation Park and backtracked, checking out the rocky camping area nestled in behind the Sandhills near Woolshed Cave. This was originally where we thought we would be camping the night before.

We travelled onwards, taking the route suggested by the friendly farmer at Murphy’s Haystacks. The Mount Wedge to Kyancutta road took us out to the main highway, where we tootled along for a while, but turned back towards the coast and turned in to Cows Head camp in the Caralue Bluff Conservation Park, finding ourselves a nice spot nestled between the trees beneath the rocky bluff. The wind was chilly but died away after a while so we were able to enjoy one last small campfire – heating our curry and boiling the billy on the coals instead of hooking up the gas bottle.

2/9/21-Made it to Streaky Bay

We had a vague plan to get to Talia Caves today, but the wind was strong, then the rain started and the weatherman was predicting thunderstorms. We decided to do the traditional “ shelter from the storm” move in imitation of the time we got a cabin at Streaky when we were swagging across from the west with Joc. We have an identical cabin tonight to the one we had then (but we think the row of fancy cabins in front have been erected since that visit- so we now have a little more shelter from the beach itself. )

The day started with a highway drive to Penong and then a turn off to visit Denial Bay, where we ate our lunch on the beach under the shelter

and enjoyed the murals.

Then we took a walk on the jetty and found the baby long-nosed fur seals. Apparently they have only recently weaned and are resting at the jetty to recover from heavy tidal swells. We curtailed our jetty walk to give them adequate space since one was actually lying on the jetty!!

This crested Tern with attitude was making enough noise for the whole flock

The town was called Denial Bay by Matthew Flinders when he came here hoping for fresh water in 1802 but was denied success.

Having eaten our fruit and veg we passed through the check point at Ceduna with no problems and immediately bought some more, along with more fuel (138.9/l) and then headed on our way. Mask wearing is the way to go in Ceduna at the moment.

Since we were heading down the western side of Eyre Peninsula we took the road towards Streaky Bay, stopping in to take a look at Laura Bay (of course) as the wind picked up. By now the shorts and sandals were starting to feel like a bad clothing choice.

Camping on the beach at Perlubie also looked like a desperate choice as the waves were starting to look angry.

In the end we decided that it might be much more pleasant inside some solid walls with a shower and seperate beds so we found the caravan park and checked ourselves in.

Tomorrow should offer more pleasant weather (we hope) as we continue to head towards home.

1/9/21- Back in SA

We were relieved to make it to the border and find that we were still allowed to re-enter our home state. With all that is going on with COVID closures (and especially truckers over these borders) we always had it in the back of our mind that we might miss our window of opportunity if we lingered in WA too long.

We crossed the border checkpoint around lunchtime after dropping down onto the plain at Madura and then climbing up again and enjoying the views as we came towards Eucla. The Sandhills looked like clouds on the horizon when they were in the distance.

We celebrated with a purchase of fuel ($1.88/litre) and an egg and bacon burger from the empty store.

The diesel pump is pretty out of the way and hard to find at Eucla. It doesn’t help when a road train parks between the incoming traffic and the pump, blocking it from view. We watched a number of vehicles drive in, look for the pump and get confused. Maybe the opposition at Border Village ($1.99/litre) are in cahoots with the truckies??

Not sure who Andy and Dave are??

We stopped for a cuppa on the cliffs, checking for signs of whales in the calm blue water, but no whales were seen and we ended up taking refuge from the hot wind and flies inside the vehicle. As always the views of the cliffs were stunning.

We stuck our nose into a couple of potential stopping places before finding one just 6km west of Yalata at about 5:30 when we followed a track in off of the road and behind some trees. We could still see some light from the traffic and hear some noise- but not enough to worry us.

It was a beautiful clear night and we ate up our veggies in a stir fry along with some tender beef from that same excellent butcher. Then we sat back with our cuppa and spoke to Ben, Jasmine and Sophia through the magic of mobile phone coverage as we watched the stars overhead and the distant traffic passed us by.

It was a warm night with blankets not needed and we were happy to be sheltered from the wind among the trees.

31/8/21 Heading across the Nullarbor from Peak Charles

We packed up from our little bush camp in the shadow of Peak Charles and quickly checked out the start of the walk trail. It looks like the last part of the walk (to the top of the mountain) is a bit extreme. Apparently it is unable to be rated as it exceeds the walk criteria. You need to be able to lift your own weight multiple times as you climb, to be able to find your own foot and hand holds and to crab walk on hands and feet facing out from the mountain with a drop below you.. If you are short you may need assistance from someone else who can lift you. I guess there is no easier walk path hidden around the back of the mountain. You can count me out on this walk. Someone will be sorry when they realise that they have left their bag of rice, flour and pasta behind on the picnic table at the start of the trailhead.

We opted to continue on our planned route. This meant tackling the rough road out again that we took in at twilight last night. It looked worse in the brighter light. Considering that it probably gets very little traffic it is amazing that the corrugations and pot holes are so bad. It certainly woke us up.

Pink gums. Looked like they had been painted

Not long after turning back on to the Lake King to Norseman road (which is not much better) we were met with a choice. There was now a “4WD only” sign on the rest of the road. We could take the right hand option (the Kumarl to Lake King Rd) or stick to the plan. We decided to stay with the planned road. It does go between lakes, and is therefore at risk of being a muddy mess, but was actually not too bad. Quite a lot of this section had not been burned in the last few years. It was lovely to have the older gum trees and healthy vegetation crowding along the road as we drove.

We met the highway after 50km and one hour. Not too bad.

Only 20 or so km later we decided to investigate Bromus Dam. We pulled in from the road into the huge network of dirt tracks dotted with the occasional picnic table and rubbish bin and even a toilet. The dam is a big square one with a swimming rope hanging from a big tree and a little boat tied up in one corner. A huge stone inlet from a pipe-line drops into the dam.

There was a cute bit of artwork here. Painted rocks and wood, plaster butterflies and information on a tree told the story of a family stuck there in June this year waiting for lockdowns to be lifted so they could get home. Presumably they made it and are now locked down in NSW. The little monument felt like a piece of history.

After our refreshing cuppa and break we stayed on the highway for less than 10 km before we allowed ourselves to be distracted into another side trip. This time it was the Dundas Tourist Drive, which wound through the wooded area and old gold-mining towns towards Norseman, with interpretive signage along the way. The first of these mines started in 1892, and there is still active mining in the area today, along with relics of the past. Old streets now empty, an old cricket pitch and, of course, lots of hills and gullies along with some cliffs and dams.

We finally hit Norseman at lunchtime and stopped there, buying delicious Thai curry for lunch at the takeaway shop in the Main Street and topping up on less expensive fuel. ($1.649/ litre). Then we moved on again.

A cuppa at Balladonia was the next break. Did you know that Balladonia was created as a refuelling stop for those coming to and from the Empire Games in Perth in 1962. It was originally 25 km further east from the current location. As we travelled east we could see the old homestead at the original site, and the big red rocks standing out on their own. Apparently the name “Balladonia” is derived from the local aboriginal language and means “big red rock by itself”

It wasn’t too long before we were on the long straight stretch, listening to Pink Floyd and checking out the stops. There was no-one parked near the old shelter and tank at 4:30 pm!!!

We pulled in at about 5:30 just as the sun was setting. We chose a place called “Howie’s Find”. It is really just a spot among the trees with wood for a fire and far enough in from the road that we can’t hear the traffic from the highway enough to bother us and they can’t see us in here. We have a little fire for warmth and to boil the billy and have enjoyed the schnitzel that we bought from Joc’s butcher, with mashed potatoes, carrots, broccoli and pepper sauce. We will enjoy our cup of tea as we watch the stars above and keep warm by our little fire. Then we will snuggle into our bed. It doesn’t get much better than this.

30/8/2021 – Leaving Tozers – and a long drive to Peak Charles.

We had a big day ahead of us, so we were up in good time, but the Colwells were already gone when we surfaced. They really had a good early start!! We were a bit reluctant to be leaving Tozer’s, so I guess we did linger a little before we headed off.

We headed out from Tozers the back way and picked up fuel (55.07 litres at 158.1/litre = $87.07) and groceries at Jerramungup before heading onwards. We waved to Al and Zita as they drove through town past us, but they didn’t stop to say hi. They had a busy day ahead too.

Just after we turned north at Ravensthorpe we were tempted in to take a look at Pallarup Rock and the nature reserve there on our way past, walking to the bare granite rock after having a little native orchid party (along with mosquitos) in the nature reserve grounds near the car park.

We drove on to Lake King, hoping that we might find more information about the road which goes from Lake King over to the main highway from Esperence to Norseman. We were hoping to take this road, as we haven’t driven it before and thought it might be a good route to take on the way home, rather than going via Esperence.

As we reached the corner in to Lake King we came across a little parking area with a display they were calling a Tractor Museum. This struck instant boredom into my heart, but Trevor was keen to go and have a bit of a look, so I conceded defeat and went along to read the signs. I am reluctant to let you know that I had to back-pedal in my opinion, as this was really well done and was actually a display of tractors made from bits melded together by some very tricky people. The farmers in this area were really short on money and needing larger tractors that could provide the pulling power that they needed. Take a look at what we found. It was really a fantastic demonstration of what intelligent and innovative people can do when they put their minds to it. For those of you not interested , I urge you to have a bit of a read and be struck with awe as I was. (I will never live it down).

We continued on to the little town of Lake King (with an excellent town toilet block where you can even have a hot shower!!) and made ourselves some lunch, stopping to eat it at a handy table before I headed over to the only shop to ask about the road. They were a little discouraging, not actually telling us not to take the road, but suggesting a better (longer) route and saying that the road may be impassable, but they were not sure, as they hadn’t heard anything in the last few days about it. This was not very helpful so we decided to think about it while we drove in the opposite direction to have a look at Lake King itself. We drove across a causeway through the middle of Lake King and stopped at the “lookout” to take a photo before heading back again. (not exciting)

By now we had decided to start on the road across and see how it went. The suggested turnoff was part way, so we thought we would go to there at least and then see what the road was like.

About 30km along the road we came to our decison point and the road didn’t look too bad, so we decided to go with our original thought and stick to the direct route across. The road was bad, but not awful. There were lots of sudden holes that we had to brake for unexpectedly, so the driver had to really be giving his best attention as he was getting tired, the wind was strong. There had been a big fire here at some stage, so the road was not a pretty one. Blackened tree trunks rose like spikes from vegetation about a metre high at most and there was a lot of bare ground where the undergrowth had been burnt and not recovered. There were still patches of colour and we stopped a number of times to take a look at the growth more closely.

The blackened and boring track.

As the day wore on and we started to get tired we noted an old tank on the map and hoped that we might find shelter there for the night. As we got closer we got more hopeful, as we saw that there was a large, high roof over the old tank, but then our hopes were dashed when we investigated more closely and found that the galv was loose or off, and the high wind was blowing it in a dangerous way and making a loud noise in the process (too loud to sleep through).

We opted to continue on our way once more. We could see the Peak Charles National Park ahead, with a campground shown and thought maybe we could stop in there if we could get to there and nothing else showed earlier. We were keeping a lookout on the side of the road for likely side tracks with shelter, but with the burnt countryside, patches of unburnt country were hard to find. We were getting heartily sick of the bumpy track, but happy that we had not yet been forced to turn back.

We ended up taking the extra 25km or so track (even worse) to get us to the Peak Charles camp ground.

This is a tiny campground. There are about nine small marked camping spots around a central toilet and campfire area which sit under the shadow of the huge mountain. The wind was gusting still, and our small fire was blowing a lot until we just let it go out. We had a couple of fellow campers, one of whom came over briefly for a chat. We ate, and were tuckered out well and truly, so flopped into bed as soon as we could.

29/8/21 – Orchids and other beauties of the bush at Tozer’s Bush Camp

The first orchid flower was found right near our camper (a spider) and the next also very close (a leek orchid) . These both happened before we even headed out on our orchid tour. The tour started at a very reasonable 9:45am as they wait for the sun to be out and the orchids to have a chance to open.

I think the best way to show you what we saw is to put the pictures here with names on them for you. Basically the day was taken up with seeing these, talking about them, documenting them and feeding ourselves and then falling in to bed to be ready for travel the next day.

Red beak leaves and red rattle beak orchid and leaves(more pointy)

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST (DRUMROLL PLEASE…..) THE QUEEN OF SHEBA ORCHID

This was our last night together on the trip as we all had slightly different ideas of what we wanted to do on the way home and how fast we wanted to travel. When we got up and moving the next morning Craig and Evelyn were already gone.

28/8/21 – Castle Rock, and finally we arrive at Tozer’s Bush Camp

We enjoyed our breakfast in the camp kitchen at the Porongurup Caravan Park before heading off again .

The weather was looking OK for the moment, so we took our chances and headed off to walk the track to Castle Rock.

The track was delightful. Just enough climb to know that we were alive without killing us. Hopefully the walk track and signs above give a bit of an idea of the overall walk.

We enjoyed a friendly grey fantail who danced on the track for us as we went up and then again as we came down. I never got a decent shot of him as he never stayed still enough.

The view , even from part way up, was excellent and worth the effort.

There are quite a lot of works happening on the track, and there were numerous tools, pink marker tapes, and bags of cement sitting around. Since it was Saturday we were not distracted from our walk by any actual workers.

Towards the top the large granite boulders became more apparent, until we were walking between them on narrow paths only, or over branches twined between them.

Finally we came to the physical test to get to the top. A number of metal handles have been fixed into the granite to assist climbers to get up onto the next section. These required you to lift your weight and haul up on to the rocks using them. I’m afraid I failed the test, but Trev had no trouble getting up there and continuing on to the massive skywalk up the top.

I contented myself with a stroll out to the secondary lookout and took my time enjoying the exceptional views from there.

While here I also received a call from Zita saying that Al had spotted an unusual orchid and telling me some directions to try to find a marker that they placed by the side of the road to enable us to go and have a look. They were only a few km away.

The trip down the track was just as lovely as the way up. We had time to look at the sides of the track and note the birdsong and the tiny helmet orchids.

Since the weather was still so pleasant and we were enjoying the day so much we decided to put off stopping for a cuppa or lunch and to continue on to the Walitj Meil (Eagle) walk loop. This walk had lots of informative interpretive signs and was very enjoyable indeed.

We were rewarded almost immediately with views of splendid wrens

and what we think was a Western Yellow Robin

We enjoyed the interpretive signs, with very timely information about the wildlife and vegetation. There were a few times when we had signs and then the vegetation almost right beside them. A very worthwhile walk.

To find the amazing orchid that Al and Zita had marked we needed to travel back to Angwin Park Road.

It took us a while to find the small red indicator by the side of the road, even though we had some instructions. The orchids turned out to be Jug orchids, which we had never seen before either.

We continued on to have a look at the tree growing out of a rock(!) and had our lunch at a seat in the picnic area there before continuing on our way.

Our next stop was a little reserve called Twin Creeks Conservation Reserve which is on the outskirts of Porongurup. It was a bit tricky to find – you need to go through a gate off of Knights road and then drive in along a track a while before you find the car park.

We cleaned our shoes at the special station and had a read of the informative board, deciding to head south and then east along the fence line and then to cut back to the shelter and car park when we ran out of time. (yellow, then blue)

The walk was really interesting and we had a wonderful time discovering new and interesting plants (including some orchids) and trying to photograph them..

Here are a few we saw.

It was 3pm before we were on our way again!!

We finally arrived at Tozers just as it was heading towards dark at about 5:40pm. Toze himself was there to greet us, as was Robert Armstrong (the botanist who will lead our tour tomorrow). Rob has been hard at work putting together a book of information about the plants to be found at Tozers, in particular the orchids. He knows of over 70 types of orchids which have been found there. The property used to be part of a farm and was left uncleared and moved to an eco-tourism licence after a number of applications by Toze. He thought others might enjoy the area as much as he did – and I think he is right. He has done a great job of clearing unpowered bush sites into nice flat areas, but leaving a good amount of scrubby bush between them so that you have a private area to use. The central meeting area has an excellent kitchen and eating facility, with power, and even a TV. It was an excellent place for all three of us to meet again. Hot showers are available, with a request to go easy on the water use. Rob is a fount of knowledge about the plants and very happy to share his info. He has a map of the locations of the various orchids on the property which shows how they are distributed (but not which ones are where, or their exact locations). He was happy for me to photograph this and put it here for your information. The camping area is that central busy area in the bottom of the map.

If you want to see the orchids here I highly recommend booking in to a tour, which happens most days of the year. For $30 you get bussed around and shown just where to find the interesting plants and all your silly questions are answered happily.

Evelyn and Craig had seen a good number of spider orchids on the way in. We had seen none, but I did identify some in the bush surrounding our camper park. We were hoping that tonight Jan and Ross would be meeting us, but sadly the COVID restrictions made that a no-go as they would have had to quarantine for 14 days up until a couple of days ago … too late for them to make the trip this time.

Zita and I were very excited about the upcoming orchid tour in the morning. Al and Trevor wre keeping a lid on their excitement well. Craig and Evelyn decided to walk on their own and see what they found, rather than doing the tour.