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.
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.
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.
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!!
No comments:
Post a Comment