The Camino Diaries

What to do during lockdown?  Or in my case, during lock-in, since our West Australian borders have been closed for two years?

One answer is to reminisce about past travel adventures - and maybe even write a book about them! So this is exactly what I did.  My e-book is now available on Amazon.

Book cover

On the Camino, somewhere in France

Read an excerpt here

BBQ

The annual Nats Club BBQ was back at Herdsman's Lake Wildlife Centre after its renovation. Everyone is getting older and not necessarily wiser, but they just keep going. We claimed a spot out front, where the lake stretches out and the waterbirds drift past:

Enjoying a drink before the BBQ

A moorhen with its big feet wanted to join in

View along the lake as the sun went down

Time for the traditional stroll along the boardwalk

The path wanders through the paperbark trees

Life in the shallows

Close-up of a paperbark

At the BBQ, I cooked some meatballs which are very forgiving. Someone else was cooking prime pieces of fillet steak; she asked my advice but its several years since I bought such an expensive cut of meat!

Blocking the view

There are plans afoot for more building in front of us. It will block out much of our view. We live on the sixth floor and understood that future structures would only go up to six storeys. It's now become apparent that the rules have changed and there will be eight storeys. The new building will be called "Ador". At the weekend, Mirvac opened a display unit at the stadium to showcase their plans, hoping to get lots of sales off the plan. I went along to glean what information I could.

This is our current view:

This is an artist’s impression of the new building to go in front of the row of white town houses:

Other photos follow from the Mirvac display:

Pretty classy, I have to say! This is a mock-up of the kitchen. The penthouse suites even have a butler’s pantry that opens off to the right of the kitchen. If you are into entertaining that is a necessity, I suppose! I was shown around by a very charming salesman, but he seemed to lose interest when I said I was only thinking of downsizing into a one bedroom apartment. He did provide me with a rather splendid brochure, in which I discovered that there were to be charging stations for electric vehicles. That’s a facility which is non existent in our present building.

The most useful bit of information was that building will not start for 6 months, as construction is to go out to tender. It will be at least another 2 years after that before the building is finished. This means that my view is safe some time into the future. I can live with that.

Katanning to Perth

In Katanning, I stayed once more at the lovely Premier Mill Hotel. This is a beautifully converted historic flour mill, proud of its heritage, and now owned by Dome. The pleasant American guy who checked me in turned out to be the manager; when I checked out he was keen to chat about my impressions of the place. I said the only thing wrong was the minuscule fridge: everything else was perfect. There is an informative booklet about the history of the mill and of Katanning, a souvenir to take away. This has been expanded a lot since I was last here. I also told him how much I appreciated the super-fast wifi in the hotel. He took me outside and pointed to a nondescript building with a big tower. This is Telstra’s back-up station for the whole of WA. If the state network fails, this back-up station can take over! That’s why the signal is so strong here.

Part of the original flour mill machinery.

Small kitchen on every floor for tea and coffee.

More about the hotel here

Check this out: beautiful shots by a professional photographer. I was in a Boiler Room.

Railway line going south.

When this railway was built in the nineteenth century, it was an important link between Perth and the port of Albany. Katanning was a halfway stop. Now it is only used for goods transport. It would be great to bring back passenger trains.

Just outside the hotel, there is a new charging station for electric cars. I saw three of them later at Williams (these ones owned by Tesla). The charging stations are popping up everywhere, to encourage the purchase of electric cars. I don't know how much it costs to charge your car or how long it takes. When my 15 year old Prius dies, I want to buy an electric vehicle.

One of several murals around town.

Inside Williams Woolshed, where I stopped for coffee.

Albany to Katanning

The small and compact cabin at Middleton Beach caravan park appeared to be brand new. It had everything a weary traveller might need, including - wait for it - an electric blanket! That says a lot about the weather in Albany. When I checked out, she said the cabin wasn’t new: that was the standard in Big 4 Caravan Parks.

There was a small gas fire in the corner which quickly raised the temperature from 15 to 23:

When I went out next morning to load up the car, my neighbours came out to show me the two lizards that lived under their cabin:



After breakfast I drove 3kms to Emu Point. A pelican was guarding the entrance to the boat pens:





Back along the scenic route from Middleton Beach to Albany, I stopped to take a few more pics:

Next stop was the Albany Farmers Market which takes place every Saturday. There seemed to be far less stalls than usual. Locals get there at 8.00 am, so I was quite late arriving at 11.00 am. Blueberries were sold out, but I came away with a big bunch of asparagus and some macadamias:

The majority of stalls were garden plants and veggies.

On the road to Katanning, I stopped to visit the Sandalwood Shop which is just north of the airport. Earlier in the year I had checked out their Kununurra establishment. They have diversified their inventory but everything is rather pricey:

I finally bought some soap; Cleopatra used it to keep her skin beautiful.

Denmark to Albany

This is only an hour’s drive, but we were tired after our long lunch. Pepper and Salt was extremely busy and the late bookings were queuing to get in. The nice waitress begged us to vacate our table, as two other clients were jumping up and down with annoyance at having to wait! 

In the afternoon, Val wanted to call in at her son's house in Albany. He was away working but his wife was happy to give us a cup of tea and show us round. It is an absolutely stunning house, designed by them, and worthy of an appearance on Grand Designs. It has an incredible view over the water. M is an artist and has her own studio, linked to the house. There is also a restored cottage for guests. I should have taken photos, but I felt a bit awkward about doing this and anyway it was pouring with rain and blowing a gale at this point.

We continued on our way to our Albany accommodation: My Place.  That's its name! This is a converted colonial house just off York Street and in walking distance to the town centre. I had stayed there before and knew it was OK. I'd like to have booked for 2 nights, but it was fully booked at the weekend. We later discovered that the Albany Agricultural Show was on. It was a freezing cold night, just like the middle of winter, so no photos were taken. The owner had put on the heating for us in advance, for which we were very grateful.

Next morning, Val was booked to fly home, so I drove her to the airport which is only 15 minutes out of town.  She was keen to get back to her dog and her husband who has Parkinson's. After that I was a free agent so I had a coffee and went to the new public library to warm up and blog. I made a quick foray down to the harbour:

The Police seem to be interviewing people on this boat.

The new Hilton Garden Hotel.
It opens next week.

It was too cold to linger, so I went back to my car and drove to Middleton Beach (10 minutes away) where I had a cabin booked in the caravan park. The route along the cliffs had amazing views. I stopped at an information board:

Some history about Albany Port.

View from the same spot.
Piles of wood chips waiting to be loaded.

Across the road, I took a few pics of the wildflowers:

A wild and windy view of Middleton Beach.

Denmark galleries and lunch

We visited a couple of galleries in Denmark. There are many artists, potters and other craftsmen resident in this area, keen to display and sell their wares. The following are from a textile and needlework exhibit:

Detail of the collage above.

Needlework picture of a waterfall.

Placemat made from rope.

The next 3 pics are in the Old Butter Factory gallery:

Then we drove to Ocean Beach and sat in the sun for a while watching the surfers:

Sun is rare in these parts!

Same spot.

We had a splendid lunch at Pepper and Salt, a top restaurant at a winery. I’d booked it two weeks ago as it’s impossible to get in at the last minute.

Val is enjoying her entree here:

Scallops.

Lamb rump in black bean sauce.