3/12/21 A different view Day 3

 

    Awake with the birds and after a surprisingly good nights sleep , we head off toward the  small town of Yearlering . More driving through tree lined roads & wheat fields and as we drive further south , we find they are still harvesting canola and haven't started on the wheat - that we've seen anyway .

Arriving at Yearlering , we find the very attractive Lake Yearlering on one side of the road and the small township of Yearlering on the other - it's another grain handling town , with large silo's and a rail link . The wind coming off the lake was reminding us how cold it can get , so it was a quick walk then back into the ute for a look around town .

   This is the hotel , it sits off the main road and across from the wheat silo's .

    Opposite the pub is the old butchers - it opened in 1922 and closed in 1973 , supplying meat to a large area .

  Wheat fields , yes more of them 

    Just for a change , some lupins .

    On one of the back roads we went past this creek bed and found these large pink flowering bushes about 3m tall - was an unexpected sight .

    And they were pink !!

    Onto another small town - Wickepin - they have some beautiful roses red & white beside the main street 

    This native was flowering quite happily as well .

     This small homestead has been relocated here to commemorate " Albert Facey " . It was his home when he lived locally , they relocated it here and have it as a museum , which is open for inspection periodically - not today though . He wrote the book "A Fortunate Life ". We were fortunate enough to find there was a mulberry tree beside the house , and it was in full fruiting mode , so without further ado I picked a few handfuls for us to enjoy - it's been over 45 years since I'd had any mulberries , but the memories came back pretty quick - purple stained fingers , hands & lips - but boy were they good !!

   Just behind the house is the railway yard with the old loading crane still on site .

    Across the road was the hotel 

    And the bank

    Further down the street was a fenced yard that contained more tractors , bulldozers and other machinery than I'd seen in one place before , here's just some of them .

  

     Back on the drive , we headed out to Toolibin Lake . One side of the road was a track that followed the telstra cable - we took that track , leading us to a wetland area just north of Toolibin Lake .

 

    Beside the tracks and all around us were yellow everlastings and some small mulla mulla .

    There was a yellow carpet below the trees .

    The track opened up and we found another road that went to the old Toolibin football ground - it was near these lakes , but is so overgrown you wouldn't know it's there .

    It was another nice drive through the bush .

    We made our way back to Toolibin Lake for lunch , discovering the lake walk was closed , so we ate and drove out , heading to Taarblin Lake . It was only a short drive away , and we found our way down to the water , greeted by these 2 ducks - not sure what variety they are though .

     The lake was pretty full , there's lot's of trees in the water - alive and dead , the lake would be at least 50 acres in size .

   This was one of the offshoots from the lake .

    Next town was Wagin , a larger town with several hotels , again with great architecture .

    From here we headed to Katanning to do some shopping and decide on tonights destination . Deciding on Franklin River and it's small caravan park was a good option , there were 3 other vans , but they were empty as the workers had gone home for the weekend , meaning we had it to ourselves ! We took over the camp kitchen , had dinner and a really nice hot shower - it was going to be a cold night , so a hot shower was welcome .

  Here's a map link :-  https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=18w7-_q3sdKBcGIg7fozUj-QItrin9i3D&usp=sharing

1/12/21 A different view Day 1 & 2

    Well here we are - this happened !!! Lyn won 2nd prize in a Destinations WA contest last year - 1 weeks hire of this Redsands Camper for 5 people , fortunately for us it was only the 2 of us - everyone else who we asked didn't want to come with us .  There are 2 rooftop tents ( that may of had something to do with it) . 

  We'll back track a little , we picked this up in Balcatta , and got the rundown on what was what and how to set it up , and away we went . Heading toward the northern wheat belt area , there's a section of the Great Northern Hwy that we haven't been on - I know , hard to believe - so we headed up to Bindoon , then Wannamal . It was there we decided not to bother with highways and go back roads where possible , so we can see some of the countryside . As previously stated we are in wheat country and there's a lot of it , surrounding the roads we were going on . To be fair it wasn't all wheat , there were canola fields as well as lupins .

   We drove through Calingri and headed to Wongan Hills , stopping to have some lunch at Lake Ninan , a good spot to stop for free if you are self contained - we don't qualify for that in this vehicle , so that will be a stop in the van in future travels . A good spot for lunch though , with a new covered picnic area , aslant a good spot to get some aerial shots of the area .

Here's Lake Ninan

And now from above 

Wheatfields in all directions around the lake 

 Some previously harvested , and more to go .

 Back on the road and we arrived at Wongan Hills , one of the many old towns that are dotted all through the wheat fields , nice wide streets and old architecture . Jacaranda's are just starting to bloom .

 

There's a mural on the side of the newsagent .

Across the road was Wongan Hills Civic Hotel - a little Art Deco

The newsagency was a little bit older style though .

    We headed further northeast toward Mollerin and found some more salt lakes that needed to be photographed . I do love all the different colours and patterns in them , contrasting with the harvested fields .

   The drive was excellent , very little other traffic and roads criss crossing the landscape , allowing access for all the wheat trucks to take the crop to the silo's .

 Making our way to Mollerin Rock Nature Reserve , we looked around the reserve a bit before finding a spot for the night - then the fun began - setting up for the night ! Hah , it was easy , undo a few clips and up it went , up the ladder and push on the struts to lock it in position , and we were set for the night . We parked with the front of the car into the wind and we were all good .

   We walked to the top of the rock , it wasn't very high , but gave us some views of the surrounding area , plenty of lakes up this way , and of course wheat fields .

The drone came out again and we discovered we were camped on the golf course - it was in use from the 1950's up untill about 1981 - it became very clear from above .

  It was an eventful night , the mattress not very thick , the pillows even skinnier , we had a fitted sheet , a blanket and a quilt . The lid was insulated a bit and was surprisingly secure in the wind - untill the wind changed direction in the middle of the night - not to worry we'll just move the ute into the wind - there weren't any neighbours to disturb !! 😆😂🤣 

   Next morning we decided this mightn't be for us - it's only 6 nights - 1 down , 5 to go . 

 After breakfast we headed off again , back road after back road , left then right and away we went .

Scenery changed as we went , some spots wide open , others with beautiful gums lining the roads .

  AT one intersection we found some flowers still out , so stopped for a few happy snaps .

    Harvesting is in full swing , mowing down thousands of acres of wheat .

    We arrived at Trayning , another of the many towns , we had a comfort stop and kept going . Here's a bank we hadn't heard of before . 

  More tree lined roads on our way to Kellerberrin .

   And at Kellerberrin we went up to the lookout . The wheat bins were starting to fill up , as well as the silo's - it would be interesting to know how much wheat goes through these bins in a season ?

   A building got our interest - it's a flour mill - very appropriate given the wheat around here .

   There was a section with some pink flowers carpeting the ground - only a few centimetres above it , a white butterfly liked them as well .

    Some Jacaranda's in a private driveway were bursting with colour .

   After some lunch we continued south , more gravel roads and trees .

   We had a brief stopover at Kokerbin Rock , you can't camp here any more but there's a campsite not far away where we will stay for the night . Time for some aerial shots again .

   And here is Kokerbin Rock .

   Big sections of granite look to be ready to slide off the rock .

 

   And here we are , set up ready for the night in amongst some trees at Kwolyn - an old town site , that people are encouraged to camp at - 72 hours is max stay . There's toilets and a camp kitchen , quite civilised camping . We have stayed here previously .

  Sunset wasn't too bad either .

 

  That's it for the first couple of days , here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1x2I6NyvE0PVvFB5QkE1yKgxTs5pnHbSm&usp=sharing