30/4/19 - Dwellingup to somewhere past Collie

160km today.

First stop was the public loos at Dwellingup.  The find of the day was that there was a shower in each of the toilet blocks – one for the girls and one for the boys, so we took turns having a free 5 minute shower (40 degrees) and were very happy with that.

Oh joy!! A shower!!! Yes please.  

Just a little further down  the road we discovered the dubious pleasure of combined corrugations and pea gravel surface together – just a bit skatey around the bends.  Lucky we were in no rush. We also passed under a couple of these tunnels (conveyor belts on top for the mines) 

Morning tea was under the powerlines as that was where the track took us – huge pylons carrying 330,000 volts in a broad cleared area.  Ross picked out an owlet nightjar sitting up in a tree hollow about 30m off off the ground and I even managed to snap a photo of him. He looked like a furry animal peering down at us.

a pretty section of track

We stopped at Hoffmans mill campsite to check it out – really lovely old mill site with large cleared campsites – only open between October and Easter. ($8/adult).

playing poohsticks?

We stopped on a bush track off of the road for lunch. Just stuck our nose in and decided there was room to get through into a wider area.

...and just a little later on found a sign at checkpoint MC48 pointing to a picnic area!!!One of the troubles with this plan is that  the track notes don’t say much except turn right , turn left, go straight on, so you don’t know what you are missing or what might be a great site coming up.  It would also be really interesting to know some more about the vegetation and the history of the areas that we are travelling through too. It would also be great to be able to calculate in driving time (if we knew how many km) and time for walks etc if they were in the day. 

We stopped at Collie to shop and stocked up on what was needed before heading onwards.

We continued on to our planned stop (map on the phone, track notes on the old ipad) . The plan was to stay by the side of a dam, and to be there by about 4pm, but unfortunately as we drew near it was clear that some controlled burning was going on.  The road to the campsite itself was closed off completely and the smoke was thick, so, with no other plan in mind, we made the best of it and  we headed onwards out of the smoky area and checked out a few bush tracks in various locations off of our route, before eventually finding one with some flat areas out of the smoky part and away from the road a bit.  We have our own private bit of heaven for the night.

I hope that the wombat who owns the hole next to our vehicle doesn’t decide to nibble on our toes in the night. Once again the foxwing is out (sides attached to different places this time) and providing shelter.