We are on holiday!

Friday 9th September 2022

We went about our usual pack up day routine, enjoying the company of friendly travellers in the camp kitchen over breakfast. They were preparing for a day of walks and sightseeing so we shared photos and orchid locations. Then our tent neighbour gave us Nullabour recommendations and his website (redbanksia) to further peruse his art! He spends a lot of time in WA from Melbourne to source material for his art. It has us dreaming about a feature top for our kitchen island!

We drove to Hopetoun to pick up a couple of supplies at the IGA after deciding that we would bypass Esperance. Whilst I’m sure it’s beautiful there, we would just stop for shops and coffee, and we would rather cover a bit of ground instead. We stopped briefly at Gibson Soak for fuel and coffee at the servo/pub/cafe. A really gorgeous place with massive old fig trees out the front that the kids climbed. The sort of place that felt like a good place to stop a bit – if there was time! 🙄 Very much unlike our next fuel stop, Norseman, which did not have a good feel at all! I had toyed with the idea of taking a different route to check out wave rock and staying at Norseman – very glad we decided not to!

We stopped at Newman’s Rocks, recommended by our camp neighbour, in the Fraser Range, arriving around 4:30. A pretty quiet campground about 1km off the road, with only a few other campers. We are not yet in the treeless part of the Nullabour yet, and the campground is surrounded by some tall trees and lots of shrubs, including two really beautiful species of Dodonea I’m wondering if we could grow. Much prettier than our local species! There are huge flat granite outcrops nearby, with lots of little waterholes – it looks like there has been a recent downpour. Also a larger waterhole nearby – I think a dam. Lots of bird activity though hard to see in the thick shrubs and fading light.

The kids and I went for an explore and dragged back some firewood. Richie got a fire going and cooked up the remaining two fish for dinner – so good to eat Tommy again, a fish we caught often when I was young! It was a lovely evening by the fire – not quite as cold as on the coast (though perhaps having a fire helped!). Some light rain fell around 11, but otherwise it was a calm, dry night.