We were going to pack up and move camp today, but changed our minds as this is such a lovely quiet camp ground. Everyone else has gone, so we have it to ourselves.
This morning we drove to the 5 kms Ochre Walk and completed with walk in 1hr 15mins which was better than the 2 hours forecast.
The walk was through dry open forest mainly with Wandoo Gums and Mallet Trees. The Mallet trees have tannin which was sought after for making ink and treating skins (tanning). These two trees dominate the area.
It is hard to believe that they cleared these forests for wheat farming. It must have been hard work. It’s good to see the farmers around here with wildlife corridors.
The soil is clay and has all of these little round stones which act like walking on ball bearings.
We were happy to have the steps set into the side of this hill to come down or otherwise we would have had rear ochre coloured pants. The rain the last couple of nights has made the walking easy as the stones aren’t rolling but being pushed into the ground. The ground is dry enough not to be slippery.
This is a ochre pit which was used by the indigenous occupants when body painting was in all the rage.
This is the Mallet tree bark. The timber was also used for making timber tool handles. This area was forestry and they planted the trees as well in a managed environment.
We saw the local fairy wren and a grey currawong on our walk. The walk starts through the forest and climbs a hill, down the other side and up along a ridge, then down the steps, back through the forest and then opens out, arrives at the main road and then back to the starting point. Even though it was mostly through the forest and not many wildflowers, the track had many story boards which were interesting. The other tree growing near the wheat fields was a red gum.
We have see quite a few of the residents on the posters. None of the furry ones or the slithery ones though. We would like to see a Numbat or Mallee Fowls.
The Blue Tongues if they are crossing the road, they can actually see the car approaching and will stop, so you just center them under the car and no one gets hurt. One was hurrying across the road, looked and saw us and slowed down thankfully, as we had six wheels to pass by him and hoped that he didn’t walk into the trailer wheels. We don’t see too many dead on the road considering that they have little legs and aren’t that fast and a lot of motorists don’t care whether they hit them or not. We still have goanna oil on the trailer from about six years ago, when one ran across the road and then turned back on us, a rare road kill for us.
After our walk, we drove into Narrogin. What a lovely town. A thriving little centre. We did some restocking and had lunch in the park. A lot of our time was taken with catch up emails with the builders. Narrogin has some lovely period houses and gardens. We completed the loop with a drive to Williams on the way home. Williams has a nice Wool Shed information centre and gift outlet. They also have 500 roses planted in 400 metres of the main street. Roses certainly grow well in WA. Williams had the most decorative hotel that we have seen so far. I was just content to see Narrogin and Williams and not bother with photos this afternoon.
Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th November 2014 – Fine Sunny Cloudy Warm
We shared the camp with the weekend visitors and met some nice people – from Perth doing the weekend getaway. A couple of camper trailers! We haven’t seen very many in our travels.
We spent the weekend at our campsite doing a clean up, washing, repairs & repack – it was time to catch up. We have dispensed with the old roof bag and wrapped everything in tarps on the roof basket.
I cleaned the camper trailer vinyl cover as it was covered in red dust and it looks a lot better. Probably won’t stay clean long, but at least it has had a wash. We fixed the zips on the trailer cover, the dust plays hell with them and we still need to deal with one of two of the door zips. We are becoming quite the experts fixing zip problems. I mopped the trailer floor which we sweep all the time, but it was still amazing how much ingrained dirt there was. Cleaned the flyscreens as well, and tried to clean some of the red dust off the canvas – that’s a ongoing project, and will finish that in Augusta when I have tap water. Glen fixed a couple of lights and has unpicked the big zip from our old bag, as we will reuse that in another project. We emptied the front trailer boot, cleaned and repacked everything. We feel more organized now. The Perth couple gave us the location of some of their favourite camps which was appreciated. We have worked out what the bird is that is waking us up. We spotted it last night – It’s a Barn Owl – flying over the camp several times a night and screeching.
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