Extraordinary escape?

I’m in Dwellingup for the weekend with the Bushwalking Group. Recently, I’ve been watching the TV series Extraordinary Escapes in which Sandy Tostvig and a friend stay in remote but luxurious places, with stunning views of lakes or sea and equally stunning architecture. I would say that my accommodation here is at the other end of the scale. I’ve chosen the cheapest place I could find, since I’m saving up for my trip to Japan at the end of October. I’m in a “Bushwalkers Room” at the Caravan Park, designed for people doing the Bibbulmun Track. There is an ablution block and campers’ kitchen just across the way, so there is everything I need and absolutely no frills.

It’s a beautiful afternoon and the forecast is good for the rest of the weekend - though the nights will probably be very chilly. I noticed that Sandy Tostvig was always very well wrapped up in many layers of clothing: the British weather never seemed to favour them (but that’s why I’m in Australia!)

My little room

Dwellingup is a timber town

Wildflowers in the caravan park

PS. Reply to JN on previous post:

Yes, the most recent ones are here. The problem is that 2 months worth of photos have disappeared from my posts from early April. The reason I use an app is that it’s easier to post with a small-screened iPhone.

Testing

Something bad has happened with Blogger (or is it with Blogtouch, the app I've been using to create posts?) All my photos have disappeared for my Camino and Kimberley trips earlier this year, going back to April 9th. This is a short test to load a post directly into blogger, together with a couple of photos:

Taste of Japan

It’s C’s birthday on Monday. We celebrated in advance at Hayashi, the best Japanese restaurant in the neighbourhood. The first thing I did was to photograph the artwork as it reminded me of some I have hanging on my wall at Burswood:

We enjoyed sashimi and deep fried octopus for starters. For mains, E had salmon, I had a duo of prawns and scallop, C had barramundi.

The high light of the evening was the robot which served our food. Her name was BellaBot. She spoke with a soft female voice. We googled her and discovered she cost maybe $17,000 or $26,000 depending on the model. C said it’s cheaper than paying a human waitress, but the restaurant had plenty of those as well. Maybe she needed a more Japanese name.

In two months, I’ll be going to Japan. This was just a taste… Watch this blog!

Hamilton Hill bushwalk

Sunday’s bushwalk was around the former Manning Estate south of Fremantle. This area originally belonged to one of the early pioneer farming families in W.A.  We met outside the Azelia Ley Homestead and proceeded to do a roundabout route with many up and down stretches on crumbling limestone tracks. I really wish I’d taken my poles! We had a good turnout of about 20 people; I think the idea of it being a shorter than usual walk attracted more participants (such as myself).

There were some panoramic lookouts, including the former South Fremantle Power Station. It has been decommissioned, but is now listed on the Western Australian State Register of Heritage Places with its Art Deco Industrial Design.

It has stood empty since 1985 “home only to urban explores and street artists”. One of our group said the graffiti paintings were excellent.

These are some of the wildflowers we saw:

No-one had ever seen this one before and we wondered if it was an introduced weed:

We passed by the ruins of another of the original farm buildings, quite spacious and luxurious for its time, but it was burned down in a fire that swept through the area:

Over lunch, Lutz entertained us by describing his grandmother’s method of making sauerkraut in order to preserve cabbage throughout the winter, when no fresh vegetables were available. She had a special pot to ferment the mixture and kept it in the cellar, where it was cold but not too cold. This story reminded me of my own grandfather who was a POW in Germany in the First World War. He said they all had to live on cabbage and potatoes and furthermore the guards were on the same diet.

Rats

There is a self-seeded fig tree in the garden at Como. Over the years we have enjoyed figs every February: till last year. In one week an abundant crop was decimated: in fact, every fig disappeared before we could pick any! Rats ran along the top of the fence and onto the tree. They must have alerted all their friends to come and feast. 

This year, it’s not going to happen! I went round to Como to help C prune the tree into a more manageable shape:

C about to prune the tree


Big pile of clippings 

Then it was off to Bunnings to buy some netting. We pondered for a while as to what size to buy, ending up with 4m x 10m. When we got it home, it took a while to stretch it out from the tightly bound up roll. It was definitely a 2-man job to wrap the tree. C brought out two ladders and did the wrapping, whilst I held the netting and fed it out to her:

The finished product

Rats can now dine elsewhere: we hope!

Wireless Hill

Yesterday was a lovely still and sunny day, so I made the most of it by driving up to Wireless Hill, our nearest wildflower reserve.

General view of the reserve

At this time of year, everyone starts looking for orchids. These are few and far between, so you have to walk slowly along the paths, glancing carefully from side to side. JL was much better at spotting them, having grown up in the country where he and his sister used to pick bunches of them for their mother.

Cowslip orchids


These spider orchids are my all-time favourites but I didn’t manage to find any:



These were the most prolific:

Donkey Orchids



Kangaroo Paw

Native violets

Parrot Bush

Running Postman

Zamia Palm

As I was about to leave the reserve, I was rewarded by the sight of two blue-tongue lizards sunning themselves just beside the track. I must have spooked one of them and he slowly moved away to hide:

On the road

Not much to report: just driving south. There is a lot more traffic going north, very little going south. Somebody once advised me to avoid the inland route because of all the road trains and trucks with massive “oversized loads” and their pilot vehicles which clear the way for them. This is true, but there are far fewer caravans which makes life easier.

I only took one photo: it’s called a Camel bush:

Meekatharra is not a place you’d choose to visit unless you had to. All of the possible accommodation looked pretty grim. I selected the Royal Mail Hotel. Was it the best choice? Maybe not! All these former hotels now have little units round the back, as opposed to the main building which just has a bar and fast food. My little room was cold and miserable. The temperature was forecast to drop to 2 degrees overnight, but fortunately I had my down sleeping bag in the car to supplement the bedding provided. The TV did not work: there were two of them, but I couldn’t fathom either of them out. There was no microwave. The shower was really hot, though.

I went to the bar and ordered a seafood basket and a glass of white wine. When the food arrived, it was a big plate of chips and a salad! The young manager soon sorted this out and brought me the seafood. He turned out to be from England and working in the regions as a way of obtaining Australian residency. Then the white wine ran out before my glass was full. He said he hadn’t ordered it this week as wine was not very popular round here.

I slept quite well in my cosy Camino sleeping back, till the departure of a truck woke me at 6.30 am.  It was too cold to make breakfast in my room as I normally do. My hands were freezing after clearing the heavy dew off the car windows. I needed to get fuel, and again there was no 95 octane. The woman charged me for diesel by mistake. This costs less than unleaded petrol, but I said nothing as I was eager to get away from Meekatharra asap! She did make me a good flat white, so I was able to warm my hands on the takeaway cup.

I’ve just stopped at Paynes Find to make myself a cheese sandwich for lunch. I first came here years ago with 3 girlfriends when we were looking for wildflowers. At the roadhouse, they unearthed a bottle of Mateus Rose for us, but had no idea what to charge as it had lain in their fridge for so long. It was on the way back from this trip that we heard about the crash that killed Princess Diana: that’s how long ago it was.