Leaving for 3 weeks up north

We originally booked into Dongara for 3 days but after the third day we extended for a further 3 days. Dongara is now a major crayfishing (lobster) spot in WA. It is a pretty little town that was a key trading and supply port to the Fremantle colony in the very early days of the Western Australian settlement when sailing ships plied the waters. The main street is lined with magnificent 102 year old Moreton Bay Fig trees.

The Seaspray Caravan Park at Dongara is very pleasant. It is right on the beach. The first night the owners put on 3 good sized Snapper so having some fresh fish was fantastic.

The Irwin River reaches the sea here and at present is blocked by a sand bar forming a nice lake that is great for birds. There were about a dozen black swans in the estuary. We wandered around the estuary and down to Port Denison which is about an 8km walk. Along the way we came across a large group of pink and gray galahs resting in the trees.

The weather in Dongara wasn’t very good. The strong winds continued and it was still cold. We had patches of sun on the last few days but most of the time it was cold and windy as you can see in the picture of Brian. Even though the weather was not very good we still had a great time. A lot of it was spent walking around town. We only used the car one day while at Dongara to pick up groceries and alcohol. Anne got a chance to get her sewing machine out and using it in the van has worked out pretty good. Brian has to perch on the end of the bed to use the computer which is not too bad so we will need to think up a few different options for that. You can see the laptop perched on the small bench just above the sewing machine.

On Monday we left Dongara for Kalbarri with a visit to Horrocks and Port Gregory on the way. We ended up staying at Horrocks.

After the visit to the local “Patchwork” shop we pressed on toward Dongara.

On the way we stopped in at the Coalseam Conservation Park. This was the first place in WA that a coal seam was found that was of a production capacity. The founder was given 2,560 acres of land for his efforts. This is a lovely park and would be even more lovely during wildflower season. The park has good facilities for barbecues and a picnic day out. We saw a few kangaroos hopping around. The Irwin River “flows” through the park but as you can see it is very dry and in some places very salty.


After Coalseam we headed onto Dongara via Mingenew travelling down a few gravel roads. This area is also very dry as can be seen in the photo.


In Dongara we are staying at the Seaspray Caravan Park which is right on the beach. We took a long walk along the beach and around the river conservation area. Back at the park we planned to have a barbecue with steak sausages and salad. When we went to the park’s camp kitchen area the owners were putting on a free feed of sausages and fresh whole fish so we put our meat away and had fish and salad. The fish was local Snapper and was beautiful. We sat around for an hour or so talking with others there, sharing thoughts and ideas. A really great night. We have booked in here for 3 days so will be here until at least Friday, but who knows.

All is going well with the car and van. No more problems and we haven’t broken anything else thus far.

Northam had a Toyota dealer so we stopped in to get them to have a look at our fuse problem. The mechanic had a look and took some time to find the culprit. Eventually all was fixed. It turns out the mechanic was from Friesland in the north of Holland. He moved out here with his wife and 2 kids about 4 months ago and was living in Goomalling. We had a good chat. He was quite surprised to find that Anne can speak pretty good Dutch. We wished him the best with his future in WA and headed off.

After fixing the car we headed up through the mid-west wheat areas of Western Australia via Goomalling, Wongan Hills, Ballidu, Pithara, Dalwallinu and Wubin ending up in Perenjori. This area is where a large amount of the wheat in Western Australia comes from. Unfortunately this year they have not had much rain so it is quite dry and many of the farmers have not been able to sow their crops. If they don’t get rain with the next few weeks they will have no crop in for the year. Last year many did not get crops in either or had very poor crops that were not worth harvesting.
At Goomalling we stopped for lunch at the train station cafe and had a lovely, hot carrot soup followed by Devonshire teas. Outside the station was a magnificent white gum tree that had many forks and a lot of character in its bark.
The wheat silos at Goomalling are quite interesting as they are a conical shape rather than the normal longer shed style that is prevalent around most of the wheat belt area.

The Perenjori caravan park was empty. We had a choice of any spot we liked. The only other person in the park was in an on-site cabin. We walked into town (900 metres) and had a drink at the local pub. They had a great fire burning in the bar. We had a chat with a few of the locals and the barmaid who was an Irish lass over here on a working holiday. Once again it was very cold and windy but not as bad as in Northam. We didn’t need the heater on. Perhaps we are getting used to it.

We set out from Boddington around mid-morning but did not get far before we realized that the speedometer and the automatic gears were not working properly. This is a problem we have had previously. It is caused by some electrical feedback from the caravan to the car. We had disconnected the main power feed this time but it looks like the feedback may be coming from the trailer lights connections. The feedback causes one of the fuses to blow and the speedometer and odometer don’t work at all and the automatic gearbox will not go into overdrive. We hunted around the fuses for a while but could not find the offending fuse and decided to press on to Northam. The car was still safe to drive so there was no problem there.

We went to Northam via Wandering, Pingelly, Brookton, Beverley and York taking the inland routes to see some of the countryside.

York is a lovely old town that has been well preserved and maintains many of its early buildings and character. There was an arts and craft day at the town hall so Anne could get her fix. We got out pretty cheap, just a necklace and some lollies.

We wandered the main street and looked in the various shops and lovely old buildings in the town. It was a pleasant stroll.

We arrived in Northam around 4pm and set up at the caravan park. It was really windy and cold that night.Halfway through the night we had to have the heater on in the van

Today we got underway, with first a short trip to Boddington. Here we met up with Mabel and Arthur (our Aunt and Uncle) and our other 4 companions for the Canning Stock Route trip planned for August. This was the second of our meetings to discuss the plans and arrange all our necessities. We have agreed on a departure date of August 2. This is good as it now allows for some definite plans to be made. We stayed overnight at Mabel and Arthur’s.