Wheatbelt Way October 2020

 NARROGIN 

Thursday, 22nd October, 2020.  

Our first stop after leaving home on Thursday, 15th October was at Bakers Hill Pie Shop 

where we consumed an excellent pie each, followed by hot coffee.  It was an overcast, cool day but by the tine we reached our overnight stop in Goomalling, the sun had made an appearance...and so had the flies!

A walk along the track behind the caravan park, and then into the town to sample the beer on tap at the Goomalling Tavern

 before returning to cook dinner, after which we happily settled in for a quiet night.

In the ensuing week we have visited Dowerin, 

calling in for coffee and cake at the combined Bakery/Cafe/Post Office, 

stopped at the old Bakers' Oven at Minnievale

found a small selection of wildflowers along the way, through Wyalkatchem to Trayning where we refuelled,

then on to Nungarin for a refreshing beverage in the Woolshed Hotel,

                                                    

before heading to Mangowine Homestead where we camped overnight.  Our neighbours were a lady with a motorhome and a couple who were tenting.

In the morning we were taken on a tour of the National Trust homestead by Bob the caretaker.

Mukinbudin was the next stop where we visited the dinky little tourist info 'shed'.

The road to Bonnie Rock was a good, sealed road but from there to Beringbooding Rock was a bumpy, unsealed one....we climbed over and around the rock

which has a reservoir which stores the rainwater run-off

then it was more bouncing around on the bumpy road to Elachbutting Rock

where we camped overnight

and explored the next morning

finding Elachbutting much more interesting than the better known Wave Rock in Hyden!

Luckily for us, although there was thunder and lightning along with a few heavy drops of rain while we were at the rock, we managed to escape before the serious weather set in

and had a reasonably comfortable drive along the unsealed but graded Elachbutting Road,

 

back to the sealed road which led us into Mukinbudin where we bought take away coffee from the cafe, planning to sit at a pinic table to drink it but had to take refuge in the caravan as the rains came down, and stayed with us for most of the way into Westonia, where we stayed for two nights.  

While in Westonia we visited the Edna May mine site, Sandford Rocks, 

Baladjie Rock

and Lake Baladjie, and in Southern Cross we visited the museum where the very helpful volunteer ladies showed us a book about Koolyanobbing which we found very interesting as we lived there for four years in the early 1970s....the book contained some references to us from those years so we bought a copy.

On leaving Westonia, we travelled to Narembeen, stopping for coffee and cake at the Co-op Cafe

followed by a stroll up and down the main street before continuing on to Kulin

where we drove along a section of the Tin Horse Highway (In 1995, to promote the annual Bush Races  held 15kms east of the town, local farmers built tin horses from bits and pieces found on their                farms and scrap heaps and placed them in paddocks en route to the race track...and the idea took off).

This is just a small selection of the 'sculptures' on display.

We stayed overnight in Kulin and before leaving drove to nearby Gorge Rock & Pool

and on to Narrogin with brief stops in Dudinin and Harrismith.  

In Narrogin we visited the Shire Office where another lovely, helpful lady was able to tell us exactlywhere my great grandfather is buried so we'll visit his grave before we leave the town.

After breakfast this morning we strolled into town, visited the library, the supermarket and bread shop, returned to the RV stop to collect the caravan and drove to the cemetery, where we easily found my great grandfather's grave, thanks to Wendy at the Shire Office. 

Leaving Narrogin, we drove just 14 kilometres to Cuballing, 

where said great grandfather had lived for four years before his death in 1905.  We stopped there for a while, made lunch and ate at a picnic table (without flies, yay!) drove around the small town, found the street where he lived and hope that the form I filled in at the Narrogin library, requesting more information if  available, produces results.

YORK. Friday 23rd October, 2020.

Having decided not to travel any further south at this time, owing to the cold and wet weather happening there, after leaving Cuballing we headed to Pingelly, stopping for a stroll up and down the main street and a lemonade icy pole each from IGA.

Next stop, albeit a brief one was in Beverley where we thought we'd stay overnight but after making coffee, we changed our minds again and headed to York.

The RV site here is relatively new,  it was originally situated on the town side of the river but is still only a short walk into the town across the swing bridge which Mike took great delight in shaking as much as he possibly could when we strolled in after dinner last night.  We ambled in again after breakfast this morning, the shops were busy, the cafes crowded so we made our way back to the caravan and set off for home.

A few factors contributed to our decision to go home from York : we were accosted by flies nearly every time we ventured outside : the weather in the south was too cold and wet for us : a very hot weekend was predicted in the north : the AFL and NRL Grand Finals are to be held on the weekend and as York is just a short distance from home, home was the obvious place to be to watch both games in airconditioned comfort!

The flies and the sometimes iffy weather, though annoying, did not stop us from thoroughly enjoying our mini trip and in a couple of weeks, we plan to head south on our next trip.