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.
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