September 2024 – Chris & Merelyn's Travels

Well, I’m back again .Like I mentioned I was going to have C T scans and xrays on my troublesome back. I have a great Dr. here, but the results of the scans, no so great. I have 2 fractures of the spine,as well as disc bulges, so hence the almost unbeatable pain over the last 4 mths. Don’t know how or when I did it.

Thankfully I feel at home in this area, and seeing so many flowers around to take photos of gives me enjoyment without much effort. So the last few weeks has been short drives and not much walking, and a lot of laying down and Chris doing a great job of looking after the domestics and me.

We went to a field day at Piawaning and watched the lawn mower races. They also had tractor pulling, which was another fun event.

The Idea is for hotted up tractors and one Ute, to pull a farm implement through a sandy course as far as they can . The track gets more difficult as the blades did in deeper. You probably can’t understand what I mean, but it’s all part of how they amuse themselves around here.

Nice old cars on display as well. Mary and young Chris also met us there, making it a nice day out.

So much on around the towns at the moment, last weekend we went to the Northam show to watch Skye McMullen compete in the Mounted Games ,team events. It was a beautiful day and good to catch up with Stacey again.

Seen these two pretty ladies as we went to get lunch. It was only a little show so it didn’t worry me that I couldn’t walk around it.

Our next stay was in Meckering, well known for the 6.9 Earthquake that left the town in ruins in 1968

lots of gum trees are coming out in flower now

There is some nice photos on a building of days gone by

As we wander around from town to town, our next stop was in Minnivale for a couple of days. We have stayed here before, but it’s worth another stay now that more flowers are out. I just love being camped amongst them.

All these bush flowers are within a few metres from where we are camped.

That’s it for tonight. Hope you like bush flowers as I’m done with climbing mountains for now. Haha.

The 1st day of spring or Wattle day, but so much more, follow the link….

How fast is the year going, September already and W A is bursting into flower. We are really enjoying walking through the bush and finding whats flowering at the moment. Chris found these cute little snail orchids in one of the reserves.

so many different species of wattle out now.

Another new plant to us is the upside down Pea, or Rosella bush. The flowers bloom under the bush ,not on top.

On one of our drives with Mary and Steve, we came across an old falling down hospital, and other buildings and machinery sheds.

Then we found what we had been looking for, Beautiful wreath flowers along the edge of the roads in the Goodlands area.

They are very rare and can only be found in a few places. Just beautiful and tourists travel around to see them each year.

There is also many flowering shrubs out at the moment.

As we travelled back to Kalannie late in the afternoon we looked for the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. No such luck.!

How’s this for an unusual tractor or whatever, young Chris had picked it up and unloaded in their yard. The older Chris loves seeing interesting pieces of machinery. All in a days work for the guys here.

It was father’s day last Sunday so we had a nice brunch at a little Cafe in Goomalling.

Chris and I were out and about, just wandering around. Going to lookouts finding more orchids and paddocks of Cape weed, which they seem to be feeding off to the sheep.lots more spider orchids as well.

I love these twinning fringed lilies, so dainty.

Gum trees are also in bud and ready to burst into flower.

We had had a nice weeks stay with Steve and Mary, so we hooked the van up and went to stay near Wongan Hills. It’s a larger town where I was able to get in to see a doctor about my back pain. He was great and ordered scans and xrays ,which I can get on Friday.

As the sign says there are tracks and trails all around this area and very popular with tourists looking for wildflowers.

Mt O’Brien lookout gives great views out over the lakes and we stayed on the edge of Lake Ninan last Sunday night.

lots of huge mosquitoes out here.,but a nice sunset to finish off Fathers day.

One note,” is a nice Cafe to stop for a cuppa . Chris got to have a chat with one of his favourite birds, I guess the owners are old musos, hence the name of the shop and the wall hangings. Nicely done and the coffee was hot.