25 & 26/3/16 Honky Nuts & Rain

 Awake to another overcast sky , but no rain , good for us , but not good for the farmers around this area . Nights have been cool , but not unbearable and seem to be warming up a bit - we don’t like the idea of getting cold , we have enjoyed the warmth of the last 12 months !!

 Washing hung out , we quickly threw some lunch together and headed off to Bridgetown Jarrah Park , it’s west toward Nannup . The drive is through and around the hills and valleys , through a lot of forest . We parked and headed to the info board and decided to go on the short walk through the forest , with the option of continuing further if we liked . Jarrah forest is a bit of a comedown after seeing all the Karri forest around Pemberton . There were thousands of honky nuts littered all over the track - sometimes making walking interesting - some are the size of golfballs , imagine walking through hundreds of them !!!

 Grass trees were another feature here , no shortage of them either .

  Back to the ute , and we headed off toward Wheatley Dam . Didn’t know how big it was or what it was for , but we found out later . Missing the turn off , we crossed the bridge to find Donnelly - what once was a thriving timber mill and housing , general store , workers club & tennis courts , is now a mill museum and all the 20 or 30 workers houses are now available to rent for holiday accomodation . In front of the general store were a few holiday makers looking at some kangaroos - about 10 of them . As we looked further up the street , there were more and more - lying all over the front yards of houses , on the street ( dirt road ) , then to top that off , their friends from the coat of arms were also there - 3 emus also wandering around . This little holiday place was a gem of a find , it’s in the middle of the bush , and as you drive down the road you see a couple of houses and the old mill - when you drive in you find all the other little bits opening up !!!

  Crossing over the bridge , we pulled into the carpark for the dam - apparently this side also had part of the town there - not any more , but the dam was only about 150m up the track . It is suffering a little will the drought as well , the water level is over 2m below full - there is not too much more left below that level either . There are 2 dams , neither one is large by any means . We had lunch there before heading off again .

  Next stop was Karri Gully , and another walk through the bush - the tracks we’ve been on today need some TLC as most are overgrown - shouldn’t be a problem soon , as we’ve seen signs saying there will be incendiary drops & a burn off in the very near future . The fuel load in the forests is really high !!

  

  Heading back toward Bridgetown you drive beside the Blackwood River , a nice drive , with views of the river beside you . The water is dark - tannin stained , and the grass & shrubs grow right to the waters edge , making for some nice photos .

  We drove into Bridgetown to check the emails & catch up with everything , before heading back for the afternoon . We purposely stayed away from the main roads , and all the associated easter traffic .

 That’s another day in our travels complete , here’s a map link :-https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z1G8gwwxwyYo.kaaJ2CbAdMPY&usp=sharing


26/3/16

Day at the park .
 Due to the inclement weather , we decided to call today off due to lack of interest - actually it was raining most of the day , so we stayed in , played board games & watched a movie     ( thanks John P ), it would have been a bit boring otherwise !!!