Easter apples

Easter - the last holiday time before winter.
 When we were working we hardly ever went away for Easter, letting everyone else take to the roads. We had some lovely times staying at home, and there are always lots of events around the city. Now we are retired of course things have changed, we can travel when we like, hopefully avoiding the crowd. So this year we joined fellow motor homers and travelled down to Donnybrook for the annual Apple Festival. We left home at 9.00 am Thursday morning and being later than peak hour we used the freeway to head south. We remembered the road works from our previous trip south so turned eastwards when we reached Perth City and used the Tunnel to head out to the Tonkin Highway and on to our friends Ralph and Hanny's place in Kelmscott.
After a morning coffee we all set off south along the South West Highway.
There are 4 highways heading south from Perth and the SW highway used to be very busy. We were pleasantly surprised at the low volume of traffic as we passed through Serpentine, Pinjarra, Waroona and Harvey.
 The newly opened Bunbury Highway, which is an extension of the Kwinana Freeway now carries the majority of traffic, as it runs directly from Perth to Bunbury on to coastal towns and the Margaret River area. (The Albany Highway is still busy as this is the direct highway to Albany. The other highway is the Great Southern Highway and that is one of our usual routes, running through Brookton, Pingelly, Narrogin and Wagin. It is fairly quiet, with it's main traffic being trucks or local farmers.)
We were getting hungry by the time we reached Harvey so stopped on the south side of town at 'HaVe' Cheese factory.
We ate a sandwich in our vans before heading inside to check out their goods. Michael, Ralph and Hanny spoilt themselves with an ice cream and I perused the cheeses. Some very different flavours but to be honest at almost $60/kg for a blue vein cheese I was not tempted. (Some imported top of the range cheeses are around this price and I don't buy those either). I bought a small wheel of Baked Ricotta cheese with garlic and chilli (a very acceptable $2.15).
The factory used to have a big outside area with lots of farm animals, including donkeys, but nearly all have gone. All that are left now are two lovely camels. There were near the front gate and looked very content. Michael has always wanted a camel and whenever we see one he starts chanting, "Can I have a camel? Can I have a camel?" (The answer is always "NO"). But I do see the attraction, in a way.

                                                         Michael showing off his ice cream


We then continued south through Waroona and at Waterloo we turned off the highway to travel through Paradise Country to Boyanup and then rejoin the SW Highway to Donnybrook.
There were no photo opportunities in Paradise Country as all the shire signs with the locality name on them soon disappear. I imagine that there must be hundreds of back yards around the state called Paradise.

In Donnybrook we made our way to the High School oval and parked up with about 40 other motor homes. We found old friends and settled in. More motor homes arrived over the next day and by Saturday morning there were almost 60 vehicles parked neatly on the school grounds.
 Some schools no longer allow events like this but others see a benefit in that it gets some revenue for the school and acts as security over the holiday period.
The Apple Festival was held over 2 days starting at 10.00am on Saturday. After breakfast Ralph and I walked into town to get the weekend papers and a quick scout of the Op Shop. Then we had a quick cuppa  before Michael and I went off to the show, the others would join us later.
The current fad seems to be to only charge adults for admission to shows. Children under 16 (if with an adult) are free and there are no concession discounts. This show admission was $12 each.
 I can see that by letting children in free those children have more money to spend at the show, on rides, show bags etc., thereby keeping traders happy but why must adults bear the full cost.

Anyway, we paid our $12 and wandered around. Disappointing is the word!
There were more food vans than anything else. The entertainment stage was in constant use and some of the school bands we listened to were quite good but there was only one 'Apple shed', featuring local produce and the 'craft' tent was quite poor, with very few hand made items. We felt that we had to get some money's worth so walked around again, met up with friends and sat together chatting for a while. After looking at the food stalls we got hungry and decided on curry for lunch. It was really tasty and good value for money (well, maybe not if you add the admission cost).

We then returned for a rest and get together with more old friends. We decided not to return to the show grounds in the evening and when the fireworks commenced we stood at the end of the school oval to watch the show. A nice display - we love fireworks (who doesn't?)

Next day was Easter Sunday and there was a Parade through town, down the SW Highway (closed for the duration of the parade). The motor home club was having its' own Easter Bonnet parade that afternoon but decided to join the town parade in the morning too. This caused some confusion as the announcer wasn't told in advance who the group were, but the leader of the motor home parade ran across, grabbed the microphone and filled everyone in as to who these strange people were. He was dressed in a chicken suit so I'm not being unkind when I say 'strange'. (Ralph and Hanny joined the parade and marched with them back into the show grounds, where they had lunch. It's one way to get in without paying again!)

The afternoon was spent chatting with friends and then after afternoon tea, before Happy Hour, the Easter Bonnet Parades happened. Ladies and Gents Parades. There weren't as many men as women in hats, so some men grabbed their partner's bonnets and joined in, only to be disqualified as the hat had already been judged!!
There was lots of fun and laughter as we had a couple of 'stand-up' comedians in the group, including an 82 yr old lady telling a story about a tattoo, a bluebird and a pussy.

Monday was departure day and some people were away before we were up. There was a little group heading off on a tour for a few days, we thought about joining them but decided to do our own thing, with Ralph and Hanny.
The four of us were going to go to the little place near Capel that we'd been to earlier in the year but when I phoned to check if they had room for us I discovered that the cost was two and a half times that we'd paid!! (Surely not just because of school holisdays, we must have got a big group discount last time.)

So we re-considered our options and travelled on to Collie, where we discovered that the group tour was gathering for a 'shop stop'. But being Easter, most of the shops were in fact closed. The supermarket was open  from 11.00 and as we drove into town at 10.30 there were motor homes parked in the supermarket carpark, waiting for opening time!. We parked in the street and found that the bakery was open. We were just going to have coffee but the warmth of the shop and the delightful smells meant that we all ended up with a pie or pastie (and a fresh baguette).

Along the railway tracks Michael spotted the Collie Railway shed and the door was open, so we went for a look around. A respectable little restoration project, and as both Ralph and Hanny have connections with the old railway workshops in Midland (in Perth), and Michael likes old railways, they all soon got chatting with the guys working on the restoration projects. Not only are the carriages etc beautifully restored the shed itself is a fine structure, beautifully made.

We decided to continue Eastwards and headed on to Darkan.
Ralph's ancestors had both a shop and a farm in Darkan so he spent some time checking out the 'family farm' while we had a lunch break.

Then we carried on, having decided to overnight at a nice quiet spot near Wagin.
We had been to this place a few months earlier and found it very relaxing and peaceful, we found it very easily and were surprised to see a few developments. There was a new fire shed (with fire truck inside), a new water tank and signs of new plumbing to the toilets. The water to the toilets wasn't running but after some persistence Ralph managed to release the float valve which had got stuck, and the toilets were usable.
We had a lovely quiet afternoon and night. In fact it was much warmer than our nights in Donnybrook. Donnybrook is in the valley, and some nights it got down to around 3 or 4 degrees C but we were now higher up and were much warmer. The area is 'wheat and sheep' country, and the farmers around were stubble burning. They'd light the fires in the early afternoon, when the winds had dropped and then the cooler evening temperatures would dampen the fires. The evening sunset was broken by smoke and the night sky had a few fire glows.

We decided to spend two nights at this spot. the next morning at around 10.00am the first of the motor home touring group pulled in to join us. They gradually all arrived during the morning, (good job that Ralph had fixed the toilet!)

Ralph is a great one for a game and we were soon playing Boules, together with Chris and Ann who were on the tour. Later in the day  a few of us then played 'Clog Golf'. No one can think of another name for it as it involves a solid wooden clog stuck on the end of a stick and hitting a ball. We progressed from picking a rock or something to act as the 'hole', to throwing an old can and then we found a tennis ball which we used as the 'hole' / 'cochinet'. The tennis ball was much better as it rolled and bounced into all sorts of tricky places.

The next morning the 'visitors' departed, most of them gone by the time we'd had breakfast. They were heading into Wagin, and so were we. They were staying in the motor home rest area and we were going to indulge in the caravan park. Wagin is a small town so we felt sure that we'd meet again.

We persuaded Michael to give Clog Golf a try and soon the four of us were playing a round. Not only is it good exercise but it's such a laugh. One of my shots sent the ball into the paddock so I had to climb the fence to take a shot from the middle of a fallen tree - well and truly 'in the rough'.

                                         

Then after a little rest, over morning tea, we too headed into Wagin. We booked into the caravan park at the Shire Office, for 2 nights and then went there to set up. We found two bays next to each other and after the morning's exercise a little siesta was in order. With all of us suffering one way or another with dodgy knees, ankles, heels or just plain laziness, we drove into town in the late afternoon. We were going to have a meal at a pub but arrived too early, we had an hour to kill before they opened the dining area. The bar was not very inviting so we took ourselves off on a slow walking tour around town. We worked up an appetite and it was still 15 minutes until the pub dining room opened - so we went to the cafe for fish and chips!
Very nice they were too.


The next morning, having discovered that there is an Op shop in Wagin, we drove up there. We had been there about 10 minutes when the 'tour group' arrived. They were on a tour of the town before heading out to the neighbouring town of Dumbleyung in the afternoon.
Lake Dumbleyung, a salt lake on the outskirts of the town, is where Donald Campbell set a land speed record. We have been up 'Pussy Cat Hill' and seen his memorial with it's panoramic view over the lake, it's a really lovely spot. The group were having another couple of nights in Wagin, they were going to the Dawn Service on Anzac Day and the 'Trots' (Harness racing) in the evening.
In the afternoon there was more siesta time for some but I was restless and set off for a walk around Wagin.

One of the farmers on the edge of town obviously had a good sense of humour, with an assortment of humorous 'sculptures' in his front paddock.

   

                                                                                 










Walking into town from the caravan park I took time to discover the park on the outskirts of town, behind the Shire Offices. A very pleasant surprise, lots of pathways and several ponds with little bridges and inlets. There were some large healthy Koi in one pond.
On  the town side of the park there was the Giant Ram, sitting on his plinth looking down the main street.

Wagin was an important town, and is still 'Centre of The Great Southern'. There are 3 very large hotels in town, but not all are still operating as pubs - one is a backpackers, one has shops on it's ground floor, and a daytime only cafe and the other is still a pub (with a dining room that opened too late for us).
In a side street I found the local cinema - The Little Gem Theatre.
This week's movie was 'I, Frankenstein' and was showing on Weds. 7.30, Friday 7.30 and Saturday 3.00 and 7.30.
Today is Thursday!

                                     

                                        

The next morning, Friday, Anzac Day (none of us went to the Dawn Service). We checked out and made our way back west. Ralph and Hanny left us at Arthur River to head home via the Albany Highway.
We carried on west, through Boyup Brook and Greenbushes to Balingup.
We considered an overnight stop by the roadside but all stops seemed open to traffic noise so we drove into Balingup to see what was on offer there. There was a rest area in town but this was closed off as it was being used by traders at the Balingup Small Farms Field Day. This show was the reason that we were in Balingup. A notice on the verge said that camping was available at the primary school, so that's were we headed.
We spotted a couple of vans on the school oval but couldn't find a way in. Eventually Michael stopped and I walked over (through the sand pit play area) to ask how we got in and whether we had to book in anywhere. The ladies there were very helpful, explaining that it was $20 to camp , someone would come around and collect. (I thought it a bit steep but the money went to the school and we had access to showers and toilets) and showed me where the gate was ( at the end  of a small driveway between two weeping willows).
So we were camped up ready for the show in the morning.

                                                  Balingup's town theme is scarecrows - they're all over town.

Next morning some of our (few) fellow campers were away early to set up their stalls at the show ground.
We had a nice slow start and walked through town to the show. The usual story - kids free and no concessions but it was only $10 admission. There were HUNDREDS of stalls! There were lots of food vans, a busy entertainment stage,  and stalls featuring anything and everything you could name. Everything from Face Painting to Freemasonry! We found a stall selling some very stylish LED down lights but had to take details and arrange to send a cheque and get them posted to us as they only had 3 (we wanted 4) and we were short on cash (no electronic facilities at the show or ATM in town). We walked up and down all the aisles and then did most of them again - it was a splendid show. (mental note to self - pass on Apple Festival and come here in future).

We trudged (too tired to 'walk') back to school for lunch and then started our journey home.
We drove up the SW Highway through Donnybrook, back through Boyanup, Dardanup, Paradise and
the other towns that we'd come through on our way south. As we drove through Yarloop a strange thing started to happen - we were a little startled and had to check -but, yes it was happening.

                                                            IT WAS RAINING!

It was more than a little drizzle, and the showers stayed with us all the way to Perth, through to the north of the city and home. I had heard that no rain was forecast until June, and as we last had any real rain in October this shower was very welcome.
We arrived home around 5.30pm, drove into the shed, unloaded food and the pillows and then flopped in front of the telly.
 Our next trip?
Well there's nothing planned, but some of the best trips are unplanned!!

Brookton and beyond

The Brookton Old Time Motor Show is held every 2 years, on 'even' years, and it's a great day out. We of course make it a weekend event, either with the car club or the motor home club. This year we combined the two, camping with the motor home club and joining friends from the car club who came to display their cars.
Brookton is about 200 kms east of Perth and we decided to have a change and to travel a different route to our usual one which skirts around to the east of Perth through the country towns of Gingin, Toodyay, Northam, York and Beverley - we drove south to join the Freeway at its' northern limit and travel south, through Perth city, before heading east and joining the Brookton Highway.
Our first hiccup was that their was no power in the area where we wanted to buy cheap fuel, we had enough to get to Brookton but a top up of discount fuel never goes amiss. We had a good smooth run down the Freeway, it was even smooth running through the usual 'bottlenecks'. These being the city centre area and again where Roe Highway joins the Freeway. Here 4 lanes of the Freeway become 2 and to add to the 'enjoyment' the Roe Highway finishes and joins the Freeway with a constant flow of heavy trucks, so in effect 4 lanes drop down to 1!
Exiting the Freeway we hit our second hiccup - road works. We were stuck in traffic for 25 minutes, our usual route was looking less boring and more inviting by this time. Then we were moving again and soon out on the Brookton Highway heading East from Kelmscott.
 We arrived in Brookton to the sight of a whole crowd of motor homes parked around the perimeter of the show grounds and (after buying some fuel) joined them. The next morning there was an almost unending line of vehicles entering the show grounds but we sat back in comfort and watched them arrive and set up. The weather threatened with a light shower but by the 10.00am, show opening time, the sun had come out and we went off for a wander around the displays.

There was quite an assortment of vehicles, vintage caravans, military vehicles, vintage cars, motorcycles and some Citroens too. As is often the way, the day ended too soon and people and vehicles started to leave. Some car club members were joining us to camp the night and they set up their tent and caravan alongside.

Next day the majority of folks headed home but those inclined could stay an extra night and head off on Monday. We were staying along with only other vans so it was a much quieter Happy Hour in the evening.

Monday morning and we made our usual slow start, heading south around 11.00am. We carried on through the town of Pingelly to the small town of Cuballing. Cuballing is holding a MotorMart and Swapmeet next Sunday and we are going to 'hang around' in the South and go to this event. We went to the Shire Offices to double check that the event was happening and asked if it was okay to camp in the town the night before at the RV rest area. I mentioned that we were thinking of staying out of town at Yornaning Dam but as the event started at 8.00am would prefer to be closer (then we can get up later). The lady at the Shire Offices actually suggested the RV Rest Area because a thunderstorm on Thursday night had brought down trees at Yornaning Dam, one falling onto the toilet building, and the council had now closed the area to campers in case more trees fell on them! With that sorted we continued south, we took time out to wander around Katannning, a thriving country town which was built on the wool trade. Now its economy is reliant on the abattoir on the outskirts of town, the smell from which pervades the whole town. We eventually found the op-shop but weren't tempted by anything. I went into the supermarket to get some fresh milk, and we needed a toilet roll too, I really only needed the one but I always compare unit prices. It was almost half the unit price to buy a pack of 16 than a pack of 2. So I came out with 16 toilet rolls, just as well we have a large storage area.
Then escaping the abattoir aroma we continued south, arriving in Wagin around lunch time.

We stopped and had lunch under the Giant Ram and decided to spend the night in town at the caravan park. We booked in at the Shire Offices and drove around to set up for the night. We were joined a short time later by a couple of caravans and enjoyed watching them park and set up. Motor homes are so much quicker - set the handbrake, connect the power and get the chairs out. We don 't have any trouble reversing, don't have to worry about stabiliser legs, tow hitches or most of the things that occupy caravanners for at least 30 minutes whenever they camp.(It's not quite as much fun as watching the goings on at a boat ramp, but it's pretty good). There was no sign of any more thunderstorms or rain and we sat out until the last rays of sunshine disappeared.

The next morning we were off again, southward to our next stop - Cranbrook. This little town is the 'Gateway to the Stirling Range', but apart from being just that it doesn't have much to offer except one general store, a great op-shop and a nice caravan park. We like it here so we checked into the caravan park for 2 nights, oh and we checked out the op-shop too (got a couple of books).
We also checked out the station, you just have to look at the distance from the platform edge to the track to realise that passenger trains no longer run this line.

The weather was slightly overcast and even tried to rain a couple of times but nothing to speak of.
On our second afternoon there we got neighbours, a small camper van with a young couple and baby. We heard them speaking German so popped across to say G'day. They were from Hamburg and had had a lovely tour of the South West ( a few days had stretched to over a week), they were now heading north. We suggested that they took our route and skirted the City joining the Indian Ocean Drive near us, just south of Lancelin. They could then continue to the Pinnacles and on. They headed off the next morning a couple of hours before us, they had more miles to cover.
We, on the other hand, dawdled down to the town of Mount Barker. I got some fresh bread, a few other items and Michael scoured the second hand book shop. Surprisingly he didn't buy anything, the prices were what we thought was on the high side! We briefly considered the option of staying overnight in town, there is a free overnight area behind the Shire offices, but we thought it would be too noisy in the town centre so drove out of town to head west and across country to join Chester Pass Road which runs north out of Albany.
The road we took ran between the two ranges, the Porongorups and the Stirling Range. It was a very pleasant quiet road through some good arable farm land. We joined Chester Pass Road and turned north, taking a lunch stop to enjoy some great views out over the Stirling Ranges.

The  sun was shining and the roads were quiet so we were happy to continue northwards.

 We checked the map and decide to re visit Lake Grace and stay at the caravan park there. We arrived early afternoon and were told to find a spot and someone would come and take our money later, so we did. We initially chose a spot under some huge trees but on trying to plug into the power box Michael found that two of the neighbouring caravans had each got 2 power cables plugged in - no free power points for us so we moved out onto the open area and set up. Much later, around 7.00pm someone did call for our money - the son of the old lady who runs the park. The last time we stayed she had been in hospital so I enquired after her health, she was in hospital again and that was the reason for the late money collection. We gave our best wishes and hoped that she was out and about soon.

         I went for a wander down the main street and then we enjoyed another glorious WA sunset.

One down side to Lake Grace is the lack of tv coverage - ABC channels only. Luckily for us we mainly watch ABC so we weren't too upset.
Next morning time to move on again and we drove across the top of the salt lakes and onto the small town(?) of Kukerin. We had never driven into town before, and now that we have we have no need to do so again, there's not a lot happening in Kukerin.
We followed the rabbit proof fence north of Kukerin to Dudinin (even smaller than Kukerin) and on to Kulin,
a very friendly (officially RV friendly) place. We called into the tourist office and got some info on 'caravan stickers' depicting the 'Tin Horse Highway'. Kulin's 'edge (every country town has to have something different to attract visitors) is the 'Tin Horses' around the town and district. One particular route into town has lots of these horses and is called 'The Tin Horse Highway'. Some are very inventive - I really should have taken some photos now I come to think of it.  Next time. We sat in the van and had lunch in town before decided to travel further. We headed north to Kondinin, still in WAs 'lake district' - all of which are mostly salt lakes all year round now.

On the way we came across a silo lying in the bush by the roadside.

We had to stop for photos, although it was on a bend and there were double white lines - we had just climbed back into the van when a car came around the bend from the other direction. It was a police car and he looked hard at us and stopped - Michael explained that we were just having a snoop and asked what had happened. He told us that they don't know, it just appeared about 3 weeks ago. No one is owning up to it so we presume it was an illegal movement of an oversize load. Then explaining to us how it was a bad place to stop, on a  bend etc. he wished us a good trip, and we carried on to Kondinin.
What a surprise, you could not get a more different place to Kulin than Kondinin.
Kondinin was grimy and grisly compared to the open, friendly atmosphere of Kulin, we checked out the caravan park and were not impressed. The public toilet block was in the middle of an open area which was the caravan park, not a good idea. We drove on.
We drove east towards Corrigin and stopped at Gorge Rock Reserve for the night.

 We found a nice shady spot and sat out in the late afternoon sun for a while. Another couple, in a caravan, pulled in, set up and then took off for a stroll around the rock. It was still quite warm so we decided to walk the rock in the morning.
It was just the four of us for the night but around 10.00 pm a car drove around the parking area and then drove off. Maybe they were a couple looking for a quite spot for a little 'romance' or maybe they wanted to do burn outs we don't know, but they left us alone. The next morning our caravan neighbours had gone by the time we had breakfast and then it started to rain so we didn't go for that walk over the rock after all.

We had a very pleasant leisurely breakfast and then headed into Corrigin for some fresh bread rolls and the weekend newspapers. We got the local rag but the national paper would not be delivered until Sunday and the shop would be closed on Sunday, so in Corrigin you get the national weekend newspaper on Monday.
That used to be the norm for rural WA but we thought it had improved in 2014. When in Brookton the newsagent there didn't know what I was talking about when I was talking to him a couple of weeks ago and mentioned the old state of affairs. There's only about 90 kms between Corrigin and Brookton but they obviously get deliveries by different couriers.
Sometimes the courier to our local shop has a fit of something and doesn't deliver the national paper either, at one point a few years ago it was so bad and we'd complained so many times and the distributor posted the paper to us. How come the local rubbish rag gets delivered but not the quality paper?
Anyway, time to continue on back towards Cuballing.
We couldn't remember ever being to Yealering so we headed that way. Nice little town, it's little caravan park is right on the lake and looked quite nice, will have to visit and stay sometime. We drove around the houses stopping for a chat with an interesting character who was sitting in his shed. A shed full of 'interesting stuff' (what some would call junk). Then we headed on towards Pingelly but had to detour because of road works/road closure. That detour took us about an extra 30kms on gravel roads but we did see a couple of huge Wedge Tail Eagles sitting in a tree by the side of the road, something we would have missed on the main road.
We eventually got back on the bitumen and drove into Pingelly where we stopped for lunch (those fresh bread rolls from Corrigin - very nice). Then we drove down to Cuballing to check out the arrangements for the Motor Mart in the morning.  Well, they had moved some big rubbish bins onto the oval so they were obviously expecting a crowd. We were driving back to the overnight RV parking spot when we spotted a sign advertising a garage sale - couldn't miss that. We eventually found it, on the edge of town but sadly there was nothing we wanted. Michael got chatting to the guys who lived there and asked about any old Citroens in the area. "No, no Citroens around here, no Renaults either, nothing around here" one man said then continued chatting and asked if we wanted to look under the sheet in the corner. "It's a Renault, if you're interested". He told us the history of the car, including it's many repairs and replacement bonnets that had changed from a Renault 10 to 8 and years later back to 10!! An interesting tale but we weren't interested in the car.
We drove back to the overnight area. The weather was a little grey and there was a slight shower. We were parked opposite the roadhouse so thought we might buy a bag of chips, Michael walked over but came back empty handed. No chips this afternoon. He asked if they'd have chips tomorrow.
 No, no chips tomorrow, in fact they wouldn't have chips until Tuesday! (today is Saturday).

We were pleasantly surprised to find a full range of tv stations so settled down to a full evening's viewing.
We were up nice and early the next morning - 6.45am  it was actually quite cold, and looking out of one window the sky was very dark and stormy but out of the other window the sun was shining. Fortunately the storm was moving away from us and by 7.30 the sun was shining in Cuballing.
At 8.00am we drove around to the oval. Parking was not a problem, there were no crowds. In fact it was quite a sad affair, only about 6 stalls and one of those consisted of just a tractor For Sale.

It did have an interesting sales pitch - a sign saying that it came complete with exhaust, tyres, seat, battery, gearbox and a few other items, but no asking price.
By 8.10 we were back at the overnight area, emptying our tanks and then we got on the road and headed homeward. We drove back through Pingelly, Brookton and then our 'usual' route through Beverley (a morning tea break), York, Northam, Toodyay, Bindoon, Gingin and then home.
We got home around lunch time which gave us the afternoon to unload before getting settled down in front of the telly.
Michael spent the next couple of days cleaning the van, including all the windows inside and out.
 It's two weeks until Easter and our next outing....The Apple Festival in Donnybrook.