Merelyn Terlich

Nov 3rd

Wow, 7 months on the road, and still enjoying it.

Last week we stayed at Gidgedales Retreat, which was a handy base while going in to Perth a few times.

It’s always a treat to have brunch at the North Beach Deli. owned by friends daughter. Beautifully presented food, and on the waterfront at North Beach . I needed to walk of some calories after that. so next was a visit to Kings Park and a couple of hours walking around the Botanical gardens.

A lot of the flowers have finished now, but still enough out to keep me snapping.

It was a good day for a walk in the park, the views over the Swan River were nice and the tree top glass walk was new to us .

This fellow was camera shy , and took off.

From there we visited my Cousin Geoff and wife. Good to catch up again over a cuppa and more sweet treats.

So that was a big day in the city. The sun was starting to go down as we drove out of Perth. A beautiful city.

We headed North from Gidgegannup last Friday, did some shopping in Toodyay, then on to GinGin where we visited a friend, Wayne and his wife, who Chris met at Telfer mine, whilst working at Port Hedland. We ended up having a lovely lunch with them, before moving on .

We noticed there were more nature areas around Yandin ,so we stopped in a bush camp that night and did the walks the next day. Nice views from the Yandin lookout.

The next day was a stop in the little town of Moora for a cuppa. These small towns in the wheat belt sure know how to attract visitors. The gardens there were spectacular. They consisted mainly of Roses, stocks, snap dragons and such that we grew around our homes back in the day. The purfume was beautiful.

Not far away and heading to Wongan Hills to spend a few days, we drove up to the Mount O’Brien lookout. The view from there overlooks the wheat belt area. All the canola has finished flowering now and the farmers are starting to harvest.

On through Wongan Hills to Lake Ninan for a couple of days.

Another nice lake stop…but flies and mosquitoes are atrocious at the moment, so I just popped out of van for a short time for my pics. Fly nets are a must now.

We are now back in town at the RV Park, Wongan Hills. We will go on to Kalannie at the weekend and stay at the caravan park there. Chris is going to work for friends that he drove for 4 yrs ago. We intended seeing them while over here, and they need drivers. So that will be us till Christmas.

I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone at Kalannie, as we were part of the little community for 7 months, back in 18/19. We also have a meet and greet, pre harvest BBQ to attend on Sunday. That’s about it for now, Chris is busy resting in the shade, it’s a hot windy 33° today. Summer is here.

Oct 26th.

We really loved the little town of Westonia. Our meal on the friday night was great, we both had lamb shanks. When we came out of the tavern, the main street was all lit up.

Just as beautiful by night ,as by day. We made our way back to the van, agreeing we could stay longer, but no, we better move on.

The next morning we stopped in for brunch, at the cafe where a boilermaker, turned barista, makes the best chai latte. Had a burger, said our farewells, then a couple more stops as we headed out of town.

An interesting old church, a well preserved, old rock well and some different flowers along the back roads.

In the little town of Shackleton, we came across the littlest operating bank in Australia. They have a model set up inside when its closed. Also an interesting story to the building.

Another interesting find along the way near Kwolyin, was the place where the steel tractor wheel was converted to rubber.

We stopped at Kokerbin rock, and decided not to climb it as we are all rocked out at the moment. It’s starting to get too hot to be climbing rocks and the track around the base was very overgrown. We have also seen a number of brown snakes in the last week, so I’m being rather cautious when out taking photos in the bush. I hate snakes!

Next stop was a little old church at Mt Stirling, not much left of this one, compared to the well preserved timber church not far away at Greenhill, but was in a nice bush setting. Another well preserved rock well out in bush.

Also in Greenhill we stopped for a late lunch at the Tavern, and waited for a storm to pass. We had, had enough for the day, so pulled into an off road camp for the night.

The next morning the sun was shining again, and not sure where to next, we needed a park close to Perth, so I found this little gem on wiki camps. I rang the owner and he said, make yourselfs at home, I’m away, but I’ll see you in a couple of days !! It turned out to be a bush retreat 40 klms from Perth. Just $20 a night for power and water. What a find, only a couple of other vans here, and so relaxing.

There are two dams on the property, ducks, birds, some sheep and a couple of friendly horses.

The property is for sale, so the owners are downsizing, and not taking extended bookings in the future. We are here for 4 nights, so making the most of being close to Perth. We went shopping yesterday and Chris’s has now put roof bars on the car. A must have….

There are still quite a few different flowers out here, especially kangaroo paws. and Im enjoying just wandering around taking photos and talking to the animals.

Thats it for now tomorrow we are off to Perth for breakfast, and a roof basket, to put on the newly installed roof racks, another must have …., then hopefully catch up with a cousin of mine . Keep well everyone more next week.

Oct 21st

Well we certainty had the best of weather at Lake Baandee. On the Sunday it was very busy, but hot and windy. In the afternoon the smoke from nearby fires closed in.

The day trippers all left, and the ring around the moon and smoke that night, let us know summer is here.

We left early next morning, stopping for a short time in Merredin. Some photos of the silos there, and the mosaics on posts outside the college are well done.

From there we drove out to Westonia. We had been told it is a great little town, and it is , been here for 5 days and leave tomorrow.

we went for a drive out to the Edna May gold mines, just on the outskirts of town . It is still operating and a big part of keeping the town alive.

Also brought back a lot of memories for Chris of his time in Port Hedland.

Blocks of land here are selling for $5,000 !!

The main street is only a block or so long, and the buildings are reminders of the settlement days. There are quirky things, old cars and machinery placed here and there, keeping the tourists interested.

Lots of these little buildings around the streets as a reminder of what was there, in the early days.

There is a park section full of bush shrubs. Everything is kept clean and well maintained. All this for a comunity of 82 people, plus the miners who come and go.

And of course there is a museum in town. Just brilliantly done. Each section has life size models, and oh so life like.

The jolly publican.

The concentration on the nurses face !.

I recon the kids would of copped the hair brush a few times

The frindly grocer..

And as for this sheerer, so life like he was scary. We were waiting for him to move. Chris even had to touch him, to see. The mole and the hairs on his arms seemed so real. Made the hairs on our neck stand up, haha.

There is a mining simulator section with sound effects. Also lots of donated items and collections.

As we left one of the best displays we have found in the country, I found Chris stopping for a chat to the lady behind the service station counter.

The caravan park here is also owned by the community, well set out, very clean modern facilities, has a nice camp kitchen.

The mining accommodation is next door, and also appears to be very nice, not like some we’ve seen. As its friday we have decided to go to the tavern for dinner. Have a nice weekend peeps….

Oct 14th.

The last week started out with a day of showers. We sat that day out in the van, on the edge of a not so spectacular lake, not far from Woodanilling .

The following day we stopped at the interesting town of Wickepin. The weather had cleared up, so we camped at the railway station site, an did walks from there.

The orchids have almost finished flowering now, however I did find a nice white spider still out.

These little towns do it so well, good walks and parks as well as free camps for us travellers.

A shed and paddock full of old tractors, for the guys, and a gnome village, plus a bit of everything, I thought was cute.

From there we drove on to Harrismith, for a cuppa in the park, then on to do a 5 klm drive walk through the bush. The flowers there were spectacular.

I ended up walking while Chris went for a bike ride, before waiting patiently for me at the end of the trail.

We thought we would end up at a lake out this track, but had to stop and go back, the track became very sandy, and we dont have a winch.

Back in at Bullaring we stopped for a pic of a paddock full of miniature pig face in full bloom. They started as a few plants in memory of a lady, now a paddock of beautiful colours.

That night we stopped at the old football site. We had a visit from farmer Steve, a nice chat and a warning about a big brown snake, he had seen there the day before. So given that and the millions of mosquitoes, only one pic here.

First stop the next morning was at the dog cemetery in Corrigin. So much bigger now than when we visited it in 2007. Some are really well looked after, and we noticed one with its owner’s ashes there as well.

The rest of the day was taken up with more bush walking

At the end of this track we were able to go up a lookout and see over where we had been.

Next was another small town, Narembeen. How good is this horse sculpture made from metal bits and pieces . Chris was amazed they had uses Sidchrome spanners.

Further along the road we pulled up to take a look at the shoe fence

And add a pair of Chris’s old joggers.

That afternoon we drove out to the Narimbeen ski club on the lake. A nice deserted area to wander around and watch the sun go down.

We left there early the next morning and did a nature walk before stopping in at Bruce Rock. It would have to be one of the nicest towns, in the Wheat Belt. They also manufacture big trailers there.

Grumpy old man!

The amphitheatre and park are well kept.

Camp for the next two days is on Banndee Lake, another ski club site.

A nice sunset with an even better sunrise this morning. So peaceful, have TV, Phone, and 25°

Had some entertainment for a few hours, thankfully they are only day trippers, and packing up now. Need a Caravan park stay next, as the washing is mounting up. Till then. 😊

Oct 7th

On our way again after a few lovely days on the lake, our first stop was morning tea at Cranbrook, only an old hall there and a few flowers.

In fact the ground here was covered in these little lillies. We ended up booking into our most expensive Caravan park yet at Kojonup, out of town, middle of nowhere, bush setting, very untidy, old and $34 a night. !! However I did the washing. $20 here would have been sufficient.

The next day and still showering with rain we arrived at Katanning. A good little town in the wheat belt, all you need there.

As the weather had turned very ordinary, it was a good day to put new tyres on the van and a bit more shopping. And pics of a few murels.

Some of Chris’s ancestors had settled in Woodanilling in the early days , so we had a stop overnight in the RV park and a walk around town next morning.

From there we drove some of the back roads and stopped to wander through the nature reserves.

Look at the eyes on this green spider orchid,! Well named. Further along the road we came across this sign. Not sure if we should keep going, Chris was a bit worried about losing his alcohol, haha.

First house was deserted…so we kept going, the further we went the more evident it was that the place was deserted.

A whole settlement of probably 50 plus homes, as well as comunity hall, church, and children’s parks. Some brick and tile, all with water tanks. Some even had solar hot water . THE PLACE WAS TRASHED.!!! Power poles pushed over and the wiring still attached. No doubt a lot of $$ of copper wiring. Thankfully the power would have been cut off.

We realized there wasn’t anybody living out there, so we parked the car and had a look around. What we saw was absolutely criminal, the interiors of every building had been destroyed, all windows were broken and furniture that was still there was smashed.

In one of the streets there was the remains of a remembrance park, great big granite plaques had been ripped out of the ground and left laying. Some still had the names of those that lived in the mission over the years.

The outer toilet building at the comunity hall still had all the fittings, left, trashed.! I know these institutions have a sad past, but why, why ,the waste, the destruction, where are the authorities , the government ? So many people are homeless at the moment, due to no fault of their own. And we find a whole township? Still annoyed over the waste here , 4 days later.😡

Time to move on, I needed a bush walk and some flower therapy . We drove on a few klms and pulled into a side track and put the jug on for a cuppa.

I had just walked out with my cuppa and saw a ute coming towards us . So happened we were parked in the gateway to a lady’s property, no problem she took another track out and pulled up to talk. Yes she would love a cuppa tea, we chatted for awhile then I was invited to go and see some of the flowers on a property next to hers. Talk about never getting into a car with a stranger, haha.

I was shown white and pink spider orchids,

Cow horn lillies, Zebra orchids

Duck orchids

And hammer orchids. Its no wonder we hadn’t found these before as as the flowers are only about the size of my thumbnail , an about 6″ tall.

I was so grateful to be shown these little ones. She dropped me back to the van and Chris and I backed out of the driveway and on our way, to do more bush walking down the road.

That bush area was full of colour, then it was time to make camp. We settled on a great spot beside Lake Queerearrup. Backed up to the new BBQ area, cooked our dinner and watched the sun go down over the lake.

We ended up staying here for a few days, such a nice area, nobody else around, A few birds, full moon, and a nice place to walk around with the camera.

Also had nice sunrises, when I managed to get out of bed to take a pic. Then back to bed as most mornings are only about 3 degrees. Days are around the low 20s.

Oct 5th

After leaving our camp at Cosy Corner, we went back into Albany and did shopping and fuelled up. Not sure where to next, so good to be prepared.

We stopped in at Denmark for a bit of lunch, it was cold and wet, so we didn’t stay long.

The football grand final was on that afternoon, so we pulled into a gravel pit, checked that we had TV reception, watched the disappointing game of footy, and ended up staying the night.

There were lots of these parrots making a hell of a racket. How ugly are they? Thankfully they quietend down at night.

The next morning I went for a wander around the paddock and found my first lot of fringed Lilies .Happy about that.!

By the time we got on the road, the weather had cleared and we were able to stop and do some bush walking on the way to the lake we hoped to stop at, only about 20Klms away.

As soon as I saw this clump of flowers I thought of family. So this one is for you all.x

We found a good spot to set up beside Lake Poorrarecup . More flowers and a huge lake to walk around.

This is one of our best stops yet.. Birds, flowers and beautiful sunsets. Not to mention the days here have been about 23deg. I even got sunburnt. And only one other couple here. And its school holidays .

We are now seeing lots of different coloured Kangaroo Poor plants as we do the walks, or Chris finds some when he goes for a bike ride.

The water in the lake is so clear, we were even tempted to go for dip. Nah…

The bush tracks are covered with little flowers, it seems a shame to step on them.

Some of the orchids are hard to see, like this one, when I got up close, I think its called a Rattle Beak. A lady told me, if you shake them they rattle ? No I didn’t.

More bush walking and finding my way back to camp along the waters edge.

On a beautiful day even the ugliest of trees is worth taking a pic of.

So many of the orchids are similar, but not the same.

It’s not unusual to find headstones and graves on some of our trecks, this one is from 1893. Wouldn’t be hard to get lost in here.

What a great day, just wandering around before getting back to the van for the best sunset

The colors over the lake changed every few minutes. These are just a few of the shots I took. Rain was forcast, maybe it will, by the look of the clouds . Tomorrow’s another day.

Sep 30th

Albany was a nice stop for 10 days. So much to see, and so many areas to visit from there.

For our 11th wedding anniversary we went for breakfast at the 3 Anchors restaurant at Middleton beach. My breakfast was delicious, too say the least…

After breakfast we walked around the coastal boardwalk.

We got back to camp in time to feed the birds, and enjoy the evening and lights of Albany across the bay.

The day we moved on, it was overcast, but we stopped in to the wind farm to do the bush walk out to the coast. And, we got wet !

We only moved on about 20klms to Torbay, and camped beside the lake . A pretty little spot, lots of flowers and mosquitoes.

Moving on another 20klms or so we are now at Cosy Corner. We have stayed here a couple of times, and love it.

Our own cosy corner, at Cosy Corner,the quale and wrens feed around the van, seems they are quite used to the campers.

A nice drive is out to West Cape Howe, Shelly beach is beautiful and there is runs off the Cliff that are used by the hang gliders,

No I didn’t run and jump, I left my broom back at the van, haha.

The bush walk around Cosy Corner is worth doing, at the moment there is so many kangaroo paw about to bloom, as well as blue Enamel orchids .

This morning we drove back to Albany to get water and groceries. The painted tanks are at Bunnings. And the ship Amity is in a park down on the waterfront.

The weather has been lovely here, Chris went for a bike ride this afternoon and I sat in the sun and watched the wrens . The male is such a deep blue, just beautiful.

Keep safe and have a nice long weekend folks.

Sep 23rd

Another place we visited in the Albany area was the chainsaw carvings, it wasn’t far from where we are staying . It is a drive around a property, with probably a hundred or so wood carvings in trees . Quite amazing how good the sculptures are. I wasn’t sure which photos to put up. I didn’t take photos of all of them, but I did take a lot . If you get sick of looking at the pics , thats ok. I was sick of taking them by the end.

And a nice crop of orchids, just to break the monotony

Thats it, maybe not spectacular, but worth a donation. There are some talented people out there.

Sep 23rd

A day out and about around the bays and beaches of Albany. We started off with morning tea at the Historic Whaling Station in Frenchman Bay.

Then a walk around the cliff tops, it’s a beautiful beach, and I found a bush orchid, that I haven’t seen before. That was exciting.

These walks are easier going than some we have done. This walk was in the Torrndirrup National Park.

It’s a beautiful natural park,with some different flowers and of coarse more stairs. But worth doing the walk.

We were dissapointed in the light house though, a bit ordinary, eh.

The sea was rolling in under the Natural Bridge. Can you see the little rainbow ? Still following us 💖.

A good turbo action, happening below us, as we walked the plank out over the edge of the rocky cliff.

We were here a few years ago, but places like this never get boring. The power of the sea and the beauty of nature, never fails. Photos don’t do it justice.

From there we drove out to Vancouver Peninsula, stopping at Goode beach for a look, so calm .

Quite a few of these orchids flowering along the track. I think I have already put a pic of them on, from somewhere else.

That was a big day out.

I actually got up at sunrise the next morning. So off for another drive after breakfast. This time we went out to Sharp Point . We did the walk along the cliff track to the lookout. Beautiful views out over the bay, and some flowers along the way.

A lovely evening at the end of the day.

Sep 19th

After almost recovering from our climb up Bluff Knoll, yesterday we ventured into the Porongurup National Park. We have done the Sky walk years ago, but I had chickened out on the stairs that led onto a glass bottom walk back then. But I made up my mind that this time I would actually do the walk out.

The track starts out with a reasonable incline, through the bush. A few stops along the way, before we got to the rocky area at the top.

The Balancing rock is a, must take photo, stop for us and others. Also a chance to rest the legs before the 65mt scramble through the rocks.

After scrambling through the rocks, we got to the base of the stairs. First Chris went up, then it was my turn. Not even the rain was going to stop me from climbing up.

As we walked out around the rock, we were up in the clouds, it was freezing cold and raining. Thankfully they have replaced the glass flooring with the modern fiberglass type they use for beach boardwalks these days. Anyway I got there, and was determined to stay there untill the shower had passed.

Funny how I’m ok with climbing rocks, but when it comes to human made platforms, I’m very wary. As you can see by the photo below, the platform is suspended out from the rock. I would rather have the rock under it.

Finally the rain and clouds moved over, leaving us with a reasonable view. Then it was time to go down the stairs and scramble back, not so elegantly, through the rocks.

At the base of the rock climb there is another walk and viewing platform, which goes through lots of moss covered rocks, as well as flowering bush scrubs

Next it was back down the walk, so much easier than the walk up.

And yes more showers of rain, I couldn’t resist taking our pic, much to Chris’s objection. And it proves, he does keep the umbrella, over his way more!!

What a day, I wonder why I do these things, but then I think why not, we only have one life, so I’m living it each day as I see fit. So for the next few days we will take it easy .

A drive to the beach and a picnic lunch.

On the way home we crossed a river that had rocks in the middle of the water, and there were lilies growing on them. I got Chris to drive over the bridge a second time, slower so I could get a better photo.

More showers of rain this morning, so we stayed put all day. Now a nice quiet afternoon in the park as the sun is going down.