The Winery Coast

Sunday, 15 September to Thursday 20 September 2012

We decided to make Big Valley Campsite our base from where we could explore the Margaret River and south coast areas. Big Valley Campsite is a working sheep farm about 10kms from Margaret River, very quiet and relaxing and reminded us of home.
The first day of our stay we took a “Cheers Tour” and as the name suggests we visited wineries, a chocolate factory, a cheese factory, a venison farm and finally a brewery. We were collected from our campsite at 10.30am and delivered back again at 6.15pm. A great day with lots of taste testing along the way and a lovely lunch at one of the wineries. We didn’t want much for tea that night.
Another day trip was to Augusta and Cape Leeuwin to see the lighthouse and where the Indian Ocean meets the Great Southern Ocean. At this point we were only about 5,000kms from the South Pole.

We also had a trip to the north to Busselton to see the famous Busselton Jetty and from there to Dunsborough and to the Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse. A walking trail around the lighthouse leads to a viewing platform from where whales can sometimes be seen, but they were a long way of shore. A colony of seals were sunning themselves on the rocks below.
Jewel Cave was another highlight with a guided tour providing a spectacular glimpse of the limestone cave, an example of the many caves in the Naturaliste-Leeuwin National Park which extends from Cape to Cape along the coast.

 Cowaramup is an interesting small town on the Bussel Highway. The streets are inhabited by dozens of cow sculptures, all sponsored by local businesses and towns people as a charity fund raising idea and is now a great tourist attracting scene.

Places We Missed Last Year

Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 12 September 2012

After two nights of camping on the old oval at New Norcia we ventured on to Wongan Hills, another grain growing area with more wildflowers.
Our next stop-over was at Goomalling, much the same type of area as the last but with a really great little caravan park with plenty of space for us and the price was unbelievably reasonable.
As we were now back in familiar territory we made very quick progress by passing through Northam, Beverley, Brookton, Pingelly until we reached Narrogin for one night.
The next day we found our way to Donnybrook, via Williams and Collie. With Donnybrook Transit Park as our base for a few days, we ventured north to Dardanup to visit a great privately owned heritage museum. Set on several acres, the museum was set up by Gary Brooks who owned a trucking company and was an avid collector. The museum was about to open when Gary died unexpectedly and it is now run by his wife and family. It is a great display and takes most of the day to explore.



We also had a trip to Bunbury but the highlight of this area was a visit to “Gnomes Ville” where we found a crossroads corner where people have been placing gnomes and messages for many years. This is an incredible sight with hundreds, if not thousands, or gnomes of varying shapes, sizes and colours.

In Search of Wreath Flowers

Sunday, 26 August 2012

After saying goodbye to Mingenew, we ventured southwards to Three Springs, Carnamah and then to Perenjori. We checked into the caravan park and during the next five days we explored the area. We gathered some information from the Visitor’s Centre and other travellers and ventured 85kms out of town to view an incredible area of Wreath Flowers. These flowers stretched for a couple of hundred metres and in places were so close together that they touched each other.

Our return trip to Perenjori was via Camel Soak, a large rock and surrounding area used to water stock in years past. Here we found several orchids and everlastings.
Former neighbours, Ross & Brenda stayed next to us for one night and we were able to share many stories of our respective travels. A very enjoyable evening.

31 August 2012

After hooking-up and leaving Perenjori we travelled through some typical grain growing areas until we arrived at Wubin. We had a look through their machinery museum which is housed in an old grain bin. Crawf found a few interesting exhibits. After lunch we made our way to New Norcia, a small settlement entirely owned and operated by a community of Benedictine Monks. The community was started in the 1850’s to farm the land and educate the aboriginal children. The order has been very successful in all it’s enterprises and and the community is very wealthy, owning a large area of farm land, beautiful buildings, all of which were built by the monks and their helpers, and also a priceless collection of art and artifacts. There are only eight monks in residence these days but they now employ dozens of workers. New Norcia is an incredibly beautiful, interesting and peaceful place to visit.

Wildflower Country at Last

Saturday, 18 August 2012

We finally managed to leave Port Denison this afternoon after having our new awning fitted during the morning, our destination being Mingenew.

Mingenew is a small town set in a huge grain growing area, the largest inland grain receival centre in the southern hemisphere is located here.

Sunday, 19 August 2012

After a visit to the Visitor Centre and armed with our picnic lunch, maps and lots of information we drove to Depot Hill Reserve where we found our first everlastings and several orchids. Depot Hill was used as a firing range during the second world war and some of the trenches can still be seen.

Pink Everlasting

We had our picnic overlooking the Irwin River and then made our way back to Mingenew via the back roads through the farming area.

Twining Fringed Orchid

Mingenew Hill lookout provides a great view of the township and the surrounding farmland which is particularly pretty at the moment with the green of the crops and the colours of the canola crops and the wildflowers. Drovers Rest is also in this area where the drovers of the past were able to water their stock at the trough which is now days only used by the symbolic corrugated iron cows. The old water tank has been decorated with old boots and many gadgets from the past.

While in this area we visited Coalseam and Canna. Coalseam, as the name suggests, is an area were coal was found and mined but as the coal was not of good quality the mining was very limited. The scenery is lovely and we saw many wildflowers, especially on the sides of the road as we drove along. After lunch we travelled to Canna, which is now only the site of a grain receival facility but many of the old buildings remain. Behind the old shop is a hall and church with a great campsite which is very popular during the wildflower season. A walk into the scrub behind this area provided us with the chance to see several orchids and shrubs.

The Golf Course at Mingenew and a couple of walks and drives around town also provided us with a great variety of flowers.

We also took a drive to Mullewa where we visited another church designed and built by Monsignor Hawes, this one is considered to be his best effort. It is very beautiful and the detail is exquisite.

After a very interesting week we decided it was time to move on.