Wongan Hills to Karlgarin near Hyden

We left Wongan Hills on a miserable morning.  By far the worst weather we have experienced this trip.  Traveled through the Granite belt towns, more wheat as far as the eye could see, all looking very lush.  Sadly the small towns we passed through looked rather sad with many empty shops and nobody on the streets apart from the odd vehicle outside the local IGA.  It appears that with the amalgamation of farms into huge properties the population has diminished greatly.  All these towns are dying.  The roads are deserted in this part of the world.  It was a cold day and we didn't feel like camping out at any of the spectacular granite outcrops along the way.  Next time maybe?  We ended up at historic Mangowine Homestead.  Bob, the caretaker, made us very welcome and showed us over the house built in 1890 even though it was closed.  We spent the night there and had a nice walk around the property late in the afternoon finding lots more orchids.  Continued on to Tressies Caravan Park in Karlgarin the next day.  We first stayed here 10 years ago when the park was just opening and it is still as welcoming and delightful as it was then.  Laurel and Merv are still here and Merv now has an exceptional collection of artifacts in a museum.  He gave us a tour of the museum and played us records on very early gramophones.  We spent a couple of hours inspecting his eclectic collection. The next day we did several walks out at The Humps . A good climb up over and around the huge granite rock. We had a very pleasant social time here and went to the local pub with one of the other couples, Andrew and Margaret from Northcliffe,  staying at the caravan park. Deja vue from 10 years ago.

Mangowine Homestead. Built of rubble stone in late 1800s . First as a wayside inn,

Historic  Mangowine Homestead behind the Inn

View from top of The Hump near Wave Rock

Another view from The Hump over endless canola crops.

Coalseam Cons. Park to Wongan Hills

Reluctantly left Coalseam and continued on our merry way to the wheat town of Wongan Hills.  A pleasant little town with an excellent visitor centre.  Along the way we passed through endless wheat and canola paddocks of vast size.  Bright greens and almost blinding yellow of canola in full flower.  Not good for hay fever.  The knowledgeable gentleman at the visitor centre directed us to the best flower walks in the district.  The Wongan walk was very pretty with lots of new flowers including various dampieras and cowslip and donkey orchids.  We followed that up with the walk around Christmas Rock where we found ant orchids as well as many other species. Christmas Rock was very interesting in that the early pioneers had built out of rocks an aqueduct in order to collect the run off from Christmas Rock to supply the town.  Still operates today.   Also drove out of town to O'Brien's Lookout to see the extraordinary 360 degree views over a vast area of countryside.

Spider orchids

Ant Orchid

Dampiera

More cowslips

Donkey orchids everywhere

Kalbarri to Coalseam Conservation Park

On our way to Geraldton we deviated through Hutt River Province which is somewhere I had long been curious about.  The story of how Prince Leonard seceded from Australia is fascinating and he certainly had our sympathy.  It happened to be his 90th birthday on the day we visited and we had quite a conversation with him.  Quirky, definitely but with a huge intelligence.  Stopped in Northampton for lunch and this is a pleasant little historic town making a big effort to attract tourists especially caravaners. As soon as we were set up in the van park in Geraldton we went up town to look for an Athlete's Foot as Bill's sneakers were on their last legs.  Got a very colourful pair! Geraldton is a prosperous looking town with a busy port, very clean with attractive buildings.
very healthy.  On arrival in Mullewa we went to the annual wild flower show but were a little disappointed at the quantity and variety of flowers on display.  However, the very helpful young lady next door in the Visitor Centre gave us good directions to find wreath flowers and where the best everlastings were to be found. Drove immediately out to Pindar and the road to Tallering Station where we located an excellent display of wreath flowers.  The road out was a mass of everlastings in colours of yellows, whites, pinks, blues and so many different varieties of daisies and shrubs. Fabulous.  Lunch on the Pindar common before we found our way through more endless beautiful crops stretching as far as the eye could see to Coalseam Conservation Park.  What a beautiful place.  Excellent little free camp.  Parked amongst the flowers.  We were so lucky to arrive at the peak of the everlasting season.
More flower photos.

 The chapel Hutt River Province

Smelly Sox Grevillia

Wreath flower

Wreath flowers. They grow in bare gravel

Everlastings

Cowslip orchid

Camp spot, Coalseam Cons. Park

Dampiera

Carnarvon to Kalbarri

Cleaned up the van and car in Carnarvon which felt good.  As it was a Saturday the local market was on.  Bought a couple of jars of authentic curry mix from an Indian lady which should be most tasty.  Also did a slow drive around the fruit and veg trail where we bought somw frozen mango cheeks and some ruby grapefruit.  It is in the Carnarvon area that a great deal of western Australia's fruit and veg are grown but the area was devastated by a cyclone earlier in the year. Evidence of the terrible damage is everywhere in smashed trees etc.  The crops have been severely affected and it will be some time before the markets are supplied again.
From Carnarvon it was a short drive of 119kms to Wooramel Station.  A cattle station which has a bush camping area on the banks of a wide dry river which is edged with very old river red gums.  Lovely gnarled old trees with many nest hollows and these were being fully utilised  by the many hundreds of budgies whizzing through the campground.  Also zebra finches and galahs.  The competition for nest holes was intense and there was activity everywhere.  I also found a family group of rufous song larks and nesting whistling kites with young, white plumed honey eaters etc..  Another gem.  A campfire at night and lots of stars.
Regretfully left and headed for Kalbarri and shortly after we hit the road an amazing floral display unfolded. Yellow pom poms spreading out over the landscape, then white pom poms, then so many varieties shrubs heavy with blossom.  Banksias, grevillias, thryptomene and so many others. Unbelievable quantities colours and varieties stretching into the distance.  Turned into the road into Kalbarri and the road was lined with an even more huge selection of flowering shrubs.  Each time we stopped and walked into the bush we found new varieties and colours to marvel at.  It appears that this year has been exceptional because of the rain at the right time.  We have been told that it is the best wild flower season in decades.  How lucky are we.  Spent all the next day in the Kalbarri National Park flower hunting and walking and the following day we took the river track which yielded even more plants all smothered in flowers.  We had hoped to see some flowers but this has surpassed all expectations.  A few more flower photos.

Yellow pom pom everlastings

White pom poms

Geraldton wax

Gorge Kalbarri Nat Park

Green and red kangaroo paw

Me sitting at Nature's Window, Kalbarri Nat Park

Banksia

 Murchison Rose

Banksia