Another day just wandering and slowly heading back north. 
We stopped for Morning tea in Wubin, then on to Buntine ,
Stopping here and there to take photos of anything of interest.
Well the photos are of what I see as interesting, not necessarily of interest to others. On the outskirts of Buntine there is an interesting rock area, so of course we had to climb up and over them. Quite a good view, and an easy climb.
Another good camp spot with our friends, only one more night, with this lot, then chris and I will keep going north and they will head back over to the east coast. Did a lot of zig zagging today, not that that matters, so long as we find somewhere to pull up at the end of the day and have a campfire, and one of our camp oven meals, were all happy.
so, on for a look at Camel Soak.
Good walk around rocks, a few more photos, lots of different flowers here
The one orchid I’ve been looking for is a red one, and found a version of it here 
A very popular camping area in a National Park. Lots of campers all around the headland. Looking north you can see the start of the popular 80 mile beach.
There is a number of basic facilities as well as a ranger on duty. Quite sheltered as well, from the WA winds.
This is also the start of the rabbit proof fence.
So much went into this in the early days, but was a big failure. all that remains here now is a stone fence and a couple of plaques.
We drove into all the camp areas, including a couple on the beach
Had a picnic lunch ,[ no takeaway shops in these parts, no water for that matter]. It was a nice day, and an area, neither of us have been before, we would be happy to go there again, with the van, for a few days fishing. have not seen so many large fish being caught before.
Think they were Taylor or Salmon. The people fishing in the area we were watching, were catching them on every throw out, just amazing.
Of cause we didn’t know of this, and so didn’t have our fishing gear with us. Bugger ! Home in time to cook frozen fish, out of a packet for dinner….
It was just about daybreak when we arrived to an area where there is a track leading into the bush where you can overlook the hills well into the distance. Of all mornings there was a few clouds, but not enough to spoil the sunrise.
Glad we made the effort.
Then we came back to the Nullagine River and put the kettle on for breakfast. 
Still some water here and so many different species of birds enjoying it. 
The rest of the day was taken up going into areas that were accessible, and looked like they could be interesting. Most were. 
We checked out a station property,
more rivers and gorges. 
One of my favourite things to photograph is the white gum trees. just love them.
Last stop for the day was Coppins Gorge. 
It was worth the trek in but to rugged to do any rock climbing, besides it had been a long day, and enjoyable.
Looked like it doesn’t get used, so we made use of it for the night, Tom has the most important job of setting up the out house each evening. We are only about 30 klms from New Norcia. Only 6 degrees here, and the campfire didn’t have much effect on the chilly breeze. We packed up and left by nine.
All our trips over West, we haven’t been to see the Historical town of New Norcia. Stopped for a view of the town on the way in.
Then gathered with a dozen or so others and walked the 2 hr tour of town.
Well worth doing. The guided tour took us through all the old buildings, from the early 18oos.
Magnificent churches, collages, dormitories.
A fully self sufficient community, including flour mill and bakery, still working till 2008. A great display of farm machinery as well.
It’s all owned and run by the monks. The bakery has now closed, but they still have scones and specialty loaves of bread for sale at the entrance building. So we didn’t come away empty handed. We were told they keep the place going by now offering it for school camps, and the like.
Most of the live ins are practicing monks. Stopping work to pray 7 times a day. Ok, been there done that, interesting ,with beautiful buildings, but could not help thinking of the life the young children, would of had living in the orphanage.
I don’t need to go back again.
Next it was a late lunch at the servo, also run by the church, yes they have it all sewn up.
Did a couple more hours on back tracks heading east before making camp for the night. It’s time we started heading back North.
Neil is quite the bush chef, cooking up a storm most nights. Kathy keeps an eye on the pot as the sun goes down.
Another great day ,and also a few different flowers as well.
We have booked to do a tour of the town New Norcia tomorrow, so will camp in an area just out of town, tonight.
The leaders job is to do the spotting, weather it be wildlife, flowers or a place to camp at the end of the day.
Nothing is planned ahead, so stopping and wandering into the bush every few kilometers, is great, although I am always last to get back into the car and often hear a car horn giving me the hurry up !
So many beautiful little orchids can be found once you know what to look for, some are only a few centimeters high, and hidden amongst the scrub.
It becomes a real challenge trying to find different varieties.
When we pull up we wander in different directions and then yell to each other, when we find some.
I don’t think any of us realized how much enjoyment we would have doing the wildflower trails.
We are finding that gravel pits and quarries are good to make our camp in. The areas are big enough that we can spread out, have a decent campfire, and no one else around. Neil can have his country music …loud.
The rest of the day was taken up visiting small towns and wandering through bushland.
We are now finding lots of different coloured flowers.
Also nice banksia bushes and the odd orchard. 
Hard to pick which photos to upload here as i have taken so many.
We ended up camping in the bush, no highway noise around here.! 
Starting to cool down now as we are not far from Perth and not all that far from the coast. We packed up in misty rain, so much for our washing ! We headed out through Pindar, the best place to see the unique wreath flowers, which hopefully will be the highlight of the wildflower trip.
They grow on the edges of a sandy road 10 kilometers out.
Not fully out yet, but we may come back this way in a month or so, should be in full bloom then, but still worth seeing now.
Happy with our find we headed out again, exploring some of the tracks a local had suggested to Kathy to do.
Acres of canola everywhere as well as more flowers.
Had some lunch at a nice spot called the glassiers 
More driving, more photos and so many towns, I can’t remember where we went or in what order.
Had some fun with the camera at an old school site, where there is still a rock path across the salt plains, that the children used to get to the school.
Finally we booked into a caravan park at Mingenew.
Most towns have beautiful, well preserved buildings from the 1800s. And most are open to the public and free to visit. Monsignor Hawes was a architect and constructed a lot of the magnificent buildings. 
Time to head out of Mullewa and find somewhere to camp. Tom seen a nice clearing over the railway line at Indarra. 
So we set up in a clearing amongst a paddock of flowers.
Yes, right beside the track, opposite the station, the train doesn’t stop there anymore, but the drivers tooted at us every time they went passed. 
Think they liked the look of us all sitting around the fire. So it became quite a ritual every hour, yep hourly, but strange enough they didn’t wake me during the night.
It was about 6 the next day when we woke, there had been a light shower of rain sometime during the night, so I just had to go for a walk among the flowers, not ready to open up to the day yet.
Morning walks for photos, trains rolling on down the track , breakfast by the fire, life’s good. On the road again by 9.30, doing wildflower trails around the area. So many flowers now ,and the photos don’t really show how spectacular they are, and it is only early in the season yet.
I’m in photography heaven on this trip. 
The evenings are quite cool, but ok sitting around the fire. As for the days, sunny and still able to wear shorts and tee shirt. We are both really enjoying this trip, so much fun travelling with these friends. We travelled from 9.30 to 3.30 and found we had done about 110 klm and were 50 klm back up the road to where we stayed last night.
Oh well tomorrow’s another day.
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