Mingenew, Morawa, Dalwallinu and New Norcia
17th September
Our journey to Mingenew for a two night stay, is quite short this morning and we decided to have a stop on route at a small tourist point of interest called Depot Hill. Here, we had a walk along a made pathway and saw such beautiful sight of Gods own creations, an area that looked like a blanket but with the most amazing colours, it was stunning. This area only takes about 30 minutes to walk and take photographs which is a must.
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| Many different colours |
We found the little Shire Caravan Park where we managed to get hooked up to electricity, surprisingly, as there is an Expo in town and we expected the CP to be full. We set up and then took off on a little tour of the area, we climbed up to the local lookout on Mingenew Hill, then looked at the Expo but Richard wouldn't pay the $20 each entry fee!! We found the wonderful bakery that everyone talks about on Wikicamps and had a coffee but we didn't succumb to the amazing looking cakes, the bread looked very good too.
A trip the following day (Friday) was taken out to Coalseam Conservation Park a journey of 120kms round trip. Here, we found two new camping grounds, one near the old Miners shaft sites. So much history here and so many flies, once again our headnets were used.
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| The fly nets are absolutely essential here! |
The Coalseam Park has been laid out really well by the Conservation people and we had a walk along another pathway that again showed amazing views of this area... there was the Irwin River that had no water just the dried up river bed. Today is Friday so this evening we decided to treat ourselves and partake of the caravan parks evening meal of fish and chips at the cost of $34 for the two of us, very nice too.
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| Stunning wildflowers |
Morawa
On our travels south we had many conversations with other Grey Nomads as to their journeys into the WA wildflower regions and it is during these conversations we were told about the very rare and beautiful Western Australian Wreath flower. The plants flourish on disturbed ground, at the roadside, where a grader has been levelling the dirt. Flower fanatics come from all over the world to catch a glimpse of these beautiful plants that's if they can be found. We found the Morawa Shire CP, it is being looked after by Bronwen and Ken who have a 3 months contract. Bronwen never stopped, the CP had some very nice cabin/unit accommodation that is used by various people who come to the area and here this week would be the school dentist and their assistants....
Whilst Richard organised and set up the caravan Helen ventured out to the local IGA as it would close at 12:30, it is Saturday in the outback!! Helen also found a very nice Tourist information office with a lovely lady who generously gave us a mud map of the area and she pointed out where our Wreath flowers would be found, we had two places to visit. We were soon on the road, it was as the lady said about 34km trip to our first location, no one was on the road this afternoon it was very, very quiet.
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| A very rare Wreath Flower |
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| Another amazing Wreath flower |
We were so pleased we had actually found these amazing plants. We looked at our mud map and plotted another route along red dirt roads to find the next location of wreath flowers. On route we spied a few more motorists, obviously looking for the same plants and flowers that we had found. We stopped at a touristy spot and found a large cairn that is said to have been erected by an explorer John Forrest and his Aboriginal companion.
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| We found this Cairn, a tribute to an early explorer, Sir John Forrest. |
A top of this hill was again the most amazing abundance of wildflowers.
We ventured on and looked intently for our next wreath flowers, we thought we had missed them or they just weren't around, so we decided to drive very slowly and at last we sighted another row of them. We think ourselves extremely lucky that we have seen this wonderful species.
Our next town for one night is Dalwallinu and what a lovely little town and once again we visited the Information office for a local map and any info the kind ladies who work in these remote offices, could give us. We had intended to have a good look around the area but we made our way to the local Hotel and had a spot of lunch and ended up talking for over 2 hours to a lovely couple from Mandurah. They too are touring the local area by using Bed and Breakfast establishments. We swapped names and emails and said goodbye, hopefully we will see them again.
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| Dalwallinu, the main street and another old tractor! |
New Norcia
Even though we have been to WA a number of times and have relatives here, we have never heard or been told about New Norcia until recently on our travels. It was a must visit for us. We arrived early, well for us 11a.m. is early. We found the camp ground and set up using what looked like a cricket wicket as a nice slab for us to step out on. We had some nice neighbours too. We knew we had to book for the tour that was at 2pm and so headed off to the Information Centre and Museum where we could book and pay for the tour and our $10 for the campground. We also received a voucher for 10% off for food at the Hotel and so we decided to treat ourselves once again this evening.
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| Our pitch and the cricket wicket! |
New Norcia is the only Monastic town in Australia. It started in 1847 by two Spanish Benedictine Monks, the town has amazing Spanish architecture, including two schools, an Abbey and Old Mill, a wine press, a hotel and the Monastery. At the moment there are 11 monks in residence including the Abbot, the schools are now closed but are used for visiting school parties and accommodation. Some of the buildings were used as an Aboriginal Orphanage, there is now a Museum and Art Gallery. There was an exhibition of past competition winners who had loaned their works of art. These paintings, mostly, depicting representations of many verses from the Bible.
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| The Good Samaritan, Helen's favourite |
Another area of the Museum showed paintings that have been bought and collected by the Monks over many years. It was quite something and we highly recommend a visit.
Our walking tour of the town took 2 hours with our guide giving lots of useful information on how the town began. Back at the Information office we placed our order for bread (to be collected in the morning) that is baked to the original recipe of the first monk who resided here. Please take time to Google the town, you will be fascinated.
We enjoyed a very pleasant meal at the hotel and a nice evening with some people from our tour.
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| The Monastery |
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| The tomb of Bishop Rosendo Salvado of New Norcia |
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| The Old Mill |
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| Picture of the boys orphanage |
The next morning we left late as Richard once again went off chatting to some new neighbours who arrived early. They are Kiwis too... again swapping of names, emails etc was done and we headed on our way further south to a Bush type camp for a week, here we will be closer to our son and Grandson. After this week we head off to our house sit for the month of October!
