Spring Trip 2024

We left home a day late thanks to the wet winter we have been having. Apparently the wettest winter in Perth for the last 28 years.

The rough plan for the day was to head for Waroona to check out a few interesting things and then continue south to Burekup where there is an overnight RV rest area.

There was a final bit of drizzle as we headed south but soon enough the sun came out and most of the clouds cleared away.

Our first stop in Waroona was the Anglican Op-Shop. One thing we make a point of doing in most small towns is checking out the local op-shops to see if there is anything interesting. It is amazing the things you find and the bargains you get from time to time.

Old shops opposite op-shop

The op-shop was well set up and quite well stocked. Plenty of bric-a-brac, and that is what we usually like to see. Out side was a table full of freebies and immediately the thing that caught our eye was a series of Asian Cooking guides. A total a 6 big volumes. Of course it was impossible to pass that by even though we really didn’t have much room available in the Coaster.

After the op-shop we went to check out the overnight self-contained RV rest area aty the showgrounds. It is a big enough area and unlike the RV sites in the Shire of Harvey, you don’t have to pre-book a place.

There are toilets within about 100 metres and most things are within walking distance.

After we stopped to take some pictures Dorothy noticed that there was a split in the sidewall of one of the trailer tyres. The took priority and photos had to wait. It was just past 11am and everything in small towns tends to close at mid-day so we shot up the road to the tyre discount shop and luckily had time to get a new tyre put on.

Tyre replacement

Back to the RV rest area we went to get those pictures and while we were there we saw a cafe across the road. As lunch time was calling we went over and got some chips and cake.

A big box of chips for $5 and a thick slice of black forest cake for $7.50 was very reasonable and so we sat and ate in a pleasant covered area by the side of the cafe. As I am off sugary things at the moment I had to avert my eyes from the cake and leave it for Dorothy to eat.

From there we moved a little south and stopped in to check out the Magic Barn Fairy Garden. This is set up for parents to take their kids to and it was very cute. It looks like you can book birthday parties there or just go in and let you children enjoy the garden and check out the range of fairy merch in the shop.

Magic Barn Fairy Garden

It was interesting enough even for us oldies but if you have kids, it is really worth going to.

Note: The RV rest area at Drakesbrook Weir has sadly closed down so the only option now is the one in town.)

It was a short drive from Waroona to the Hamel Wetlands located on the west side of the raod. At this time of year (early spring) there is plenty of water in the lake and we were hoping for lots of birds and wildflowers. There were birds but mostly well hidden ones and some wildflowers but nothing spectacular.

There were a number of hungry mozzies that enjoyed munching on my legs though.

Hamel Wetland

The walk was pleasant enough and driving further along the track (we were at the northern end of the wetland) we found a big enough spot to turn.

Further south we briefly dropped in to Harvey to check out their RV rest stop but I can’t say I was much impressed by it. The area is located at the northern end of the sports ground but it is surrounded by houses and there are only three sites jammed close together that need to be pre-booked.

Harvey RV rest area

From there it was on through Brunswick (where there is yet another RV stop (that we didn’t look at) and eventually to Burekup. The RV area there is next to the local hall and has three sites. Stopping is only allowed for 24 hours and there is no pre-booking at this site. There is only room allocated for 3 rigs but there is a toilet nearby at the hall so it can be a good option. Plan 'A' for day 2 is to head up towards Collie and then just see what the day brings :)

Burekup RV rest area

The RV rest area at Burekup is pretty close to the train line (as is the whole town) so train noise is just something you have to get used to.

Because there are railway crossings, the trains all have to sound their horns as they pass so peace and quiet isn’t something you can come to expect here.

Thankfully there seems to be a cut off point at night when the trains stop so you can still look forward to a peaceful night’s sleep.

Having a flushing toilet nearby is one of the benefits of this site and there are also bins available. We had a good night’s sleep and took our time getting ready to move on.

It was a short back-track to the Collie turn off and then it was a long grind up the hill.

Good job there are overtaking lanes going up this hill or there would have been a lot of frustrated drivers sitting behind us doing 50 kph.

The first goal of the day was to check out the new day use and campsite areas at Lake Kepwari. These were both still in development the last time we were three so we wanted to check them out.

Lake Kepwari

It was a bit of a surprise to find a few orchids scattered around the bust near the day use areas but there wasn’t a lot in the way of other wildflowers.

We dropped back into Collie a did some shopping at Coles, buying essentials like knobs of salami and different cheeses :) By the time we had finished it was already mid-afternoon and time to head for our intended campsite.

Shotts River is an unauthorised site but it is still in Wikicamps so we thought it might be worth looking at.

Shotts River

It turned out to be a nice campsite BUT the entrance track furthest east is NOT the best option. There is a track going in west of that that is a much better option.

A track runs along side the river and from what we can see on the satellite view, it goes for quite a long way.

There were plenty of birds and windflowers so Dorothy was very happy and wandered off to take pictures while I got the campsite set up.

Shotts River was such a nice campsite that we decided to stay another night and take the time to look around properly.

The morning was a bit on the chilly side so early movement was done with long pants, coats and gloves on and the cloud cover didn’t start to lift intil almost lunch time.

We got the scooters out and followed the track along hoping to find more flowers and interesting spots that might also be good for a campsite.

Shotts River

It turned out that the spot we were camped in was about the best as far as we could explore and the track eventually got too wet and muddy for the scooters so we didn’t get to explore as far as we would have liked.

A return trip in dryer weather is on the cards I think.

We did find more wildflowers including a zebra orchid that we have never seen before. There are heaps of white spider orchids and a good variety of other wildflowers scattered around the bush above the campsite.

The sun eventually came out properly and we did get some decent solar power for the batteries.

All in all it was a nice relaxing day spent in a lovely location.

Up nice and early and by 8:30am we were on the road and headed for Boolading Nature Reserve. This has been mentioned as a good place to find orchids and well, is was, but only donkey orchids while we were there.

There is nowhere really good to park but there is one open area accessible from the main road that would do for most vehicles but the turn in is a bit tight as it is right next to some signs opposite Rajander Road.

Boolading Reserve

We took a walk along what appeared to be an old railway embankment and up to an old wooden bridge but there was nothing much in the way of wildflowers to photograph.

Our next stop was Darkan where we picked up water from a tap at the rest area in town and then had a stroll around.

The park and rest area are very nice and over closer to the shops is a big under cover area with seating and BBQs.

There is also a really nice children’s playground.

Darkan

From Darkan we continued east to Arthur River where we filled the Coaster before going south along Albany Highway to Kojonup .

We had a look at the Renew Op-Shop before having lunch. Then it was time to empty the porta potties at the local dump point before heading for the day’s destination, Godron Hall.

The hall is not in good shape sadly and looks like it hasn’t been used for a long time. The area around it was ideal for an overnight stop with plenty of flat ground and some nice spots right by the river.

There was even Telstra signal and that was quite a surprise as the hall is quite a way from the nearest town. Although there was signal, it wasn’t strong enough for anything but texts.

The Gordon Hall

We had planned to move on to Lake Poorrarecup today but the campsite at Gordon Hall was just too attractive and we decided to stay one more night. Sometimes it is good not to have too much of a plan for these trips :)

It was time to do a quick spring clean inside the Coaster so I started on that while Dorothy headed off to see if she could find any wildflowers. As she is the one with the good eyesight, finding wildflowers and bird photography are her tasks while I get the fun stuff like vacuuming the Coaster LOL.

As it turned out, stopping for another night was a good decision as there were some nice wildflowers scattered between us and the bridge.

New ones for this trip included an orange sundew, sun orchid, dancing spider orchids and cats paw.

There were other flowers including cowslip orchids, and donkey orchids but most were ones we have already seen in the last couple of days. We have already seen all of these on other trips but we now count new species for a trip as a good find :) When you have been photographing wildflowers for a few years it gets harder and harder to find anything really new.

As we had time to enjoy the campsite, it was time to get the Weber Baby Q out and cook something interesting for dinner. Roast potatoes, marinated beef brisket, carrots and beetroot were on the menu.

Near the river at Grodon Hall

Morning dawned rather damp and foggy but the sun soon burned off the fog and as our next destination wasn’t that far away we took our time packing up.

The Gordon Hall is one of the most attractive campsites we have ever stayed at (at least it is at this time of year).

Once everything was ready we continued south along Shamrock Road across the one lane bridge busily discussing the orchids we had found. So engrossed were we in talking about orchids that we went sailing past the next road we needed and we had to find somewhere to turn around. Not always an easy task in something the size of the Coaster.

Eventually we made our way to the next destination, Lake Poorrarecup.

We have camped at the lake before, although it was quite some years back. Not much had changed except that the toilet block that used to be down near the lake shore has been removed.

Poorrarecup Lake (Note the Stirling Range in the distance.)

The campsite isn’t a freebie but at $10 a night is still one of the cheapest paid sites around.

The toilet block is a good one and there are flushing toilets and in theory cold showers. (We didn’t test them to see if they are still operational.)

Bins are provided and there is even a boat ramp for the times the water level in the lake is high enough. It certainly seemed high enough this time as we have seen the boat ramp high and very dry on previous visits.

Sadly for dog owners, dogs are not permitted at this campsite.

There is a day use area with a shelter and a concrete seat and table but not much else besides bins.

It was a stunningly beautiful spring day and the lake looked magnificent.

Wandering along a track we found some nice wildflowers including three different types of orchid but nothing new to add to our collection of photos.

An interesting find was a large heath monitor (a type of goanna) that rushed up the trunk of a tree when we came along the track. It stayed put long enough for us to take a few pictures.

As it was my 64th birthday I was very pleased to spend it in such a lovely place. I remember with some angst my 60th birthday when I broke a bone in my right foot when we were to Petrudor Rocks. Today was infinitely better :)

Poorrarecup Lake

We were up early and on the road in order to get to Mount Barker, do some shopping, check out the op-shops, fill up with water and dump the black water. Then we planned to head in to the Stirling Range and see what wildflowers we could find.

Originally we had planned to go to Cranbrook and go through the Stirlings from that direction but we changed out mind after finding that Mount Barker had op-shops.

There are two op shops in town, the Red Cross and Anglican Church. Both are worth checking out if you like to look for bargains.

A big spend at IGA and another one almost as big at Mitre 10 plus filling the Coaster saw us leave well over $200 behind in Mount Barker.

We had to get another length of drinking water hose as some councils seem to think that putting potable water taps as far away from RV parking spots as possible, is a good idea.

Mount Barker

Then we were off toward the Stirling Range. Time, however, had got away from us and it was already mid-afternoon. Not enough time to do the drive through the park and look for wildflowers so we decided to head for Borden and the RV rest area to give us plenty of time for exploration the following day.

Borden Sportsground

Up by 6am after a nice quiet night at Borden sports ground.

We retraced our route to the Stirling Range and turned on to the gravel park road.

Thankfully the road was well maintained and not a nightmare of endless corrugations that National Park roads can be sometimes.

The drive through the park was spectacular when it comes to the scenery but as for wildflowers, not so much.

We did find some interesting specimens but they were widely scattered and there were no impressive displays.

Stirling Range

The Coaster is very poorly sealed when it comes to dust, despite many attempts to make it better. The more we drive on dirt roads, the more dust gets in, and so it was on this drive.

By the time we were back on the black stuff the interior of the Coaster, all the way to the front, was coated in fine red dust.

We headed for Cranbrook to check out the wildflower walk and discovered that is was better than anything we had seen in the Stirling Range. Lots of orchids and other species along a 2 kilometre walk trail.

Cranbrook wildflower walk

There was also a 24 hour fuel station in town with reasonable diesel prices so we filled up before moving on to our destination for the day.

On the way we passed an interesting rest stop at the corner of the Northam-Cranbrook Road and Albany Highway.

The area is huge and has special truck rest areas but the most interesting thing are the hot showers. That is quite unusual in rest areas in W.A.

Finally around 3pm we reached Lake Nunijup and settled in for the night.

We have stopped at this place before but not in wildflower season so it was nice to find a number of orchids flowering.

Although we had only driven 150 kilometres or so, it was a long and tiring day and nice to stop in a quiet picturesque spot.

We didn’t actually plan to come to Nunijup but our plans have been changing almost daily on this trip.

Lake Nunijup

Another glorious spring day and a rest day at Lake Nunijup for us.

Nothing more to do than get the scooters out, explore the tracks near the lake and see what wildflowers were blooming.

Again, not much new for us but still some lovely flowers to enjoy. When you have been taking pictures of wildflowers for many years it gets harder and harder to find anything new. At least we do have a few new species from this trip so far so there isn’t anything to complain about.

Dorothy switched from wildflowers to photographing birds but we have similar problems there too as we have already got shots of many common species.

Not a lot to report as the day was all about just enjoying nature and soaking in the peace and quiet.

Dinner; marinated roast beef, roast potatoes and carrots plus peas and some mushrooms fried in butter. Not the most healthy meal but will go back to eating boring things that are good for me after the trip. :)

Our next destination is currently a mystery as we haven’t made up our minds which way to head home. Denmark and Walpole were supposed to be on the list but we have changed out minds and are contemplating another couple of nights just vegging out at Gordon Hall. We really loved that campsite and there are another couple more perfect days weather-wise, forecast, so that seems likely right now.

Not far from Nunijup Lake is Kenny’s Tank Nature Reserve. We weren’t the only ones checking it out as there were other vehicles parked up when we arrived.

There were some nice wildflowers in the reserve but nothing that was new for this trip.

After a quick look around we moved on to Gordon Hall.

It took all of about 5 minutes for us to work out that the mosquito population had soared in the last few days and now in the middle of the day we were being assaulted by hoards of very aggressive mosquitoes.

We left in rather a hurry and made our way to Kojonup where we stopped for lunch and topped up the Coaster’s fuel tank.

There is a nature reserve just north of Kojonup named Myrtle Benn so we decided to go and have a look at the flowers that were in bloom.

Myrtle Benn Sanctuary

The reserve was very pretty and there were a lot of wildflowers of varying types. The highlight was probably a few lovely enamel orchids that were right at the end of the track.

Then it was on to our final destination for the day at Changerup Hall.

Changerup was the only place on the trip to this point that had no phone signal of any kind.

After we settled down we finally came to the conclusion that Potter’s Gorge might be the best campsite to spend the few nights we had left of the trip.

Changerup Hall

A VERY cold morning at Changerup but the blue sky and lovely sunshine quickly warmed everything up.

A quick fly with the drone to get some piccys of the area and we were on our way.

The temperature gauge in the Coaster wasn’t working and I stopped a couple of times to clean the contact on the sender but that didn’t make any difference. As the Coaster is fitted with a low coolant alarm and the coolant level was fine we kept on going.

For some reason I can’t explain the gauge started working again part way through the drive.

We were passing Lake Towerrinning on our way to Collie and as Dorothy hadn’t been out to see it before we decided to drop in and have a look.

That was enough to decide to stay at the campground overnight.

At $25 unpowered and $30 powered it is good value these days and the sites along the edge of the lake are beautiful.

Lake Towerrinning

With hot showers, toilets and a great camp kitchen it is a very nice campsite and people aren’t crammed in as they are in ordinary caravan parks.

It is a favourite place for people to waterski and is generally popular on weekends so we were really happy to be there mid-week.

We enjoyed the day relaxing by the lake and taking pictures of various birds.

The scooters came in handy for doing a bit of exploring around the lake. It is apparently possible to walk around the entire lake, a distance of over 6 kilometres but we were satisfied with a ride up to the peninsula and back.

There is a great day use area here with toilets, BBQs, seats, shelters, a wooden walkway and a boat ramp.

We still plan to go to Potter’s Gorge before heading home so the trip still has a bit of life in it :)

I think I would have enjoyed another day at Towerrinning but the boss wanted to move on so we waited for the early chill to clear and then packed up.

We drove north and back to Darkan where we had stopped briefly on the 10th. We refilled the tanks and while I was doing this one of the locals came over and told me that the local op-shop was open. Well we can’t resist having a look at any op-shop we find and so we crossed the road and went in.

The dominant features were books and clothes and there was a shed with larger items that we didn’t have a look at.

I came away with three lovely books, one about the Flying Doctor, one by Les Hiddins and one by Harry Butler. (Let’s see how many people remember that name.) Those plus a pair of warm trakky daks for Dorothy and a small unpainted model bear for my collection came to the grand total of $5. A happy time bargain hunting by any standard :)

We wanted to have a look around the area to see if there were any likely campsites and we found one that doesn’t exist on WikiCamps. We have a policy of only publicising sites that are already listed on WikiCamps so unfortunately we wont be sharing the location of this one.

Our secret campsite

We did find some nice wildflowers including what we think is a spider/cowslip hybrid orchid that Dorothy spotted.

Clouds were rolling in from the west so we decided to stop for the day at the spot we had found. It is obviously known to some people as a site of historic significance and there is a table and chairs provided for picnics.

The second last day of the trip dawned with quite a bit of cloud but as the day progressed the weather got better and better.

By the time we reached Stockton Lake most of the cloud had cleared and we got the scooters out to explore a few of the tracks near the lake.

Sadly there were very few wildflowers and even sadder, they have blocked off the tracks to back areas where there were some nice campsites.

The day passed peacefully enough until about 4pm when the ubiquitous yob arrived with its stupid doof doof music blaring out for everyone else to ‘enjoy’. Thankfully the knob head has parked at the other end of the campsite away from us but undoubtedly where there is one, more of its breed will follow.

Stockton is a place to avoid like the plague on weekends and holidays but we had hoped that during the week it would be fairly noise free. Thankfully when closed up, the Coaster is fairly resistant to outside noise so we are hoping that will save us of more yobs arrive.

Stockton Lake

What Friday night will be like at Martin’s Tank Lake is anyone’s guess but as one gets closer to more populated areas, the camping experience steadily degrades.

So far all the other campsites we have stayed at have been beautifully peaceful so I guess we have done pretty well with that and with the amazing spring weather.

We only just worked out that this coming weekend is a long weekend. Perfect planning to be going home tomorrow and avoid most of the crowds even if we didn’t really plan it that way.

Thankfully Stockton wasn’t too noisy last night and the Coaster did insulate us from it pretty well.

It was a cold morning but we planned to head in to Collie and check out the op-shops. Yes this really is a theme with us :)

Collie

There were three op-shops open, Vinnies, Red Cross and All Saints up near the big church on the hill.

Of the three, All Saints was by far the best and is better than many that we go to regularly in Rockingham.

We did pick up a few bargains including some bear models to go with my ever growing Christmas collection. Dorothy found some nice recipe books so we were both pleased with the results.

From Collie it was just a run down the hills to the coastal plain and the across to Forrest Highway.

The track in to our campsite for the night was corrugated (as it always seems to be) as national Parks never seemed to be troubled by something as complicated as a road grader.

We arrived at Martin's Tank Campsite in Yalgorup National Park a little before lunch time and after setting up and having lunch, we got the scooters out to go and explore.

Martin's tanks Lake

Although we have been to this campsite before it is a place I am less than impressed with. The campsite is nice and pretty enough but there isn’t a whole lot around it to add to the attraction. Unless of course you have a 4 wheel drive and are planning on doing some beach driving.

Access to the lake is limited to one small track with absolutely nothing at the end of it.

It would be nice if a picnic area by the lake was developed as there is nowhere to sit and just enjoy looking at the water.

There are currently a ton of savage mosquitoes here so repellent, sensible clothing and mozzie coils are the order of the day.

Being a normal national park campsite, all the usual rules apply including no dogs and fees.

There are currently very few wildflowers around the campsite but there are a lot of birds.

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