Wildflower Trip – Part 5

If you watched the video in the last blog post you might have noticed I attempted to get very artistic (for me) by inverting the camera.  I was holding the camera vertically on the gimbal and then had this marvellous idea that I could invert the camera and gimbal which would bring the camera to ground level.  Of course that meant the video images were upside down but I was able to rectify that with the software,

Back to the trip.  We headed west to Horrocks a small town on the coast approximately 500km north of Perth and is at the southern end of the Coral Coast.  This is mostly a holiday town with fishing a surfing being the main activities.

From Horrocks we headed north hugging the coast.  The next town is Gregory famous for the “Pink Lake”.  

We arrived at the wrong time of the day to see the full effect but you can still see it’s pink.  The colour is caused by the extreme salinity of the water which creates two types of algae which are reddish-orange in appearance containing beta-carotene.  On the eastern shore there is a beta-carotene extraction plant.  The resulting product is used as a colouring pigment in food and medicines.

The next stop was Kalbarri, a major tourist destination.  Western Australia has closed it’s borders to the world (something about a pandemic) which means residents can’t leave and have been “forced” to holiday at home.  The town has four caravan parks and they were all rammed full.  Fortunately Ken was able to sweet talk one of the ladies in Reception into giving us their emergency site for the night.

I’m not a fan of caravan parks.  Why would you leave your block of lands and brick walls to live next door to a stranger with only the thickness of two sheets of canvas between you?  I’d much rather be on my own.  However it’s obvious the children love the freedom.

Deep in contemplation, my thoughts were broken by Ken who said “Look at the interesting colours and shapes on that tree!” 

Something else I hadn’t noticed!  Dinner was a defrosted pasta and mince stew followed by ice cream. 

Wildflower Trip – Part 4

It was now that we discovered just how good Ken’s navigation skills were.  Readers you would probably be surprised just how many unsealed roads and tracks there are around Mullewa.  We know…. because we drove most of them.  At one point we discovered a metal plaque in memory of one of the WW2 army training camps established in the area.

Western Australia was defended by Corps II during WW2 and two brigades were based between Mullewa and Geraldton on the coast.  In this location there was a tank and artillery range.  Many of the soldiers had returned from North Africa to defend Western Australia against a possible Japanese invasion.

After driving around for some time Ken’s brain unlocked and he remember the wreath flowers were not at Mullewa but near Pindar, some 20km further east.

We started down yet another dusty unsealed road when I nearly ran over a local.

This is a blue tongue lizard “Bluey” or “Bobtail” and was probably soaking up the warmth from the sun out on the road surface.

Ken was attempting the rescue him by distracting Bluey with his right hand whilst simultaneously grabbing him behind the head with his left.  Bluey was having none of it.  They are harmless to humans and pets living on a diet of snails, caterpillars and insects.

After several kilometres of corrugated unsealed road we reach the wreath flowers.

There is a kilometre of them on the verge either side of the road.  If I have done this correctly there should be a video clip of the wreath flowers below.  I can’t see it in OLW!

Neither Ken nor I are flower people and after a quick boaters meeting we decided to abandon the wildflower aspect of the trip and go somewhere more interesting.  We’ll go to Northampton.  That’s Northampton, Western Australia.  Not Northampton England.  Time to head north-east

Two storey with a wide veranda…… One of the pubs!

And opposite yet another pub.  Hot and dry country brings out a thirst for cold beer!  It must be sheep country around here.

The local bank… with veranda.  Might look old but it’s actually quite new.  And how the town looked in the 1930’s.

Alf my TPMS is working fine and is accurate.  Perhaps you received one made on a Monday or Friday?

Carol we found the wildflowers at the tip of the red arrow in the map below

Jenny, Robin might be daft and brings you flowers, but it’s one bad habit I’ve managed to avoid!

Wildflower Trip – Part 3

Ken has sent me some of the photos he took during our trip.  Two are of the cave which he climbed down to whilst I went for the high ground.

Some of the old timber from the mining operation.

We continued north in our search for wildflowers stopping for the night in Coalseam Conservation Park some 70km north of Mingenew.  There are three designated camping areas in this location.  As ‘seniors’ we qualified for a concessional price of $7 per night.  However the Ranger didn’t visit and there was no honestly box so we kept our money.

Coalseam Conservation Park is renowned for its ‘Everlasting’ wildflowers.  The name is quite deceiving as they only briefly appear and we were; according to Ken; four weeks late.

Note Ken’s sleeping bag drying on the bonnet of the 4X4.  to the right of the photo you can see I’ve kindly loaned him my tarpaulin as you will recall he left his tent fly behind.  Of course I could have given it to him last night; but then he wouldn’t have got wet! We erected the trailer ‘batwing’ awning and settled down to wait for the flies to go to bed before cooking dinner.

A male Red Cockatoo kept an eye on us whilst his wife continued making a nest in the end of the broken branch below.

I tried for one of those marvellous sunset photos……… and failed.

 

That night we tried the trailer shower using the 12V pump and a 20 litre plastic jerry can of water.  We separately stripped down to our birthday suits and promptly scared off all the native wildlife.  During Ken’s shower he was trying to tell me something and I didn’t have my hearing aids in.  This necessitated me walking around the shower side of the trailer and readers I have to tell you…… it wasn’t a pretty sight.  No wonder the birds were screeching!

After being somewhat disillusioned with our efforts to find wildflowers Ken suggested we head 60km further north to Mullewa and look at the wreath flowers.  There isn’t much to commend Mullewa, However the town church was very unusual.  It is the Church of Our Lady of Carmel with a slightly strange history. 

Designed and partially constructed by architect Monsignor John Hawes.  Hawes was born in England and served as a priest in the Church of England before converting to Catholicism.  Hawes designed and built churches in England, West Australia and the Bahamas.   

Monsignor Hawes started sketching the design of the church in the 1920’s, whilst on holiday in England.  He was reputedly quite upset when his design for the proposed cathedral in Perth was rejected and threw himself into the construction of Our Lady of Carmel.  To me it looks quite Mediterranean, perhaps Greek.  However parts of it also appear to be Spanish in appearance.

The priests house looks like something out of Mexico

Kevin TOO, I have to admit Interflora might have been a better option.

Wildflower Trip – Part 2

The plan was to follow a wildflower route NW of Moora which I’d found online. 

 

Being naïve, I had anticipated driving the unsealed back country roads viewing fields of pretty wildflowers.  Ken quickly disabused me of that idea.  We would have to hunt for them by leaving the vehicle and bashing our way through the bush.  Moreover they would be tiny and likely not grouped together.  After driving two thirds of the above route I hadn’t seen a flower.  At that point Ken had us stop and start walking.  I’m looking for wildflowers whilst he is carefully watching for snakes!

OK, the last one isn’t a flower!  It’s a gumtree seed pod.  When you shake it you can hear the seed rattling around inside.  The pod will eventually drop of the tree where it will lye dormant until a bushfire will cause the pod to burst open.

We pressed on reaching the end of the route at Jingemia Cave on Eagle Hill Road.  The cave is in a low rocky range in what would otherwise be a flat plain.  The range extends north of Moora some 80km.  For hundreds of years Jingemia Cave has been frequented by bats and birds and their droppings (guano) became a local source of fertilizer in the early 20th century.

 

 Can you see Ken making his way to the cave?

I took the high path for a view of the surrounding wheat belt.

No wildflowers; so we continued north to the next location on Sweetman Drive. 

There was a blue tree just north of Coorow

These trees are not naturally blue.  The locals paint dead trees blue as part of rural men’s mental heath support.  During the past several years there has been a significant spike in male suicide caused by financial concerns following droughts and bushfires.  The trees are a sign to locals that if they are feeling “blue” (depressed) then help is available.

We drove another 160km north to Sweetman Road where the local shire had mentioned there were more wildflowers.  There were NO FLOWERS!  Feeling disappointed, we continued another 70km north to Mingenew where there were supposed to be views of the wildflowers from Mingenew Hill.

Time for a pie and flavoured milk from the local Mingenew Bakery.   But NO FLOWERS!!