Well it’s Thursday 26th February and we managed to get away before 1000 but not before our temporary cottage dwellers nearly cost me the call out fee for an electrician.    Harry (the Croatian cottage dweller) “the pump not working”.    So I rang my next door neighbour who just happens to be an electrician, luckily he was at home and came over to check the power supply, the relay had power, the fuses were intact but there was no power from the retic box.    I went into the cottage to check the supply to find Sana (the Croatian cottage dweller’s Croatian wife) had turned the power off!!!!!

Anyway, as always, once we are on the road, everything is fine, a lovely day, particularly in an air-conditioned car!    However, we seemed to have acquired a rattle from the cargo area which we haven’t heard before and which we can’t pin down, even though we’ve stopped several times to investigate.

Of course, the countryside is brown and scorched at this time of year any in many places burned by bush fires, this is particularly true once we get over the ranges and into the wheatbelt.    We actually passed one fire which had fairly recently been extinguished by the firies, who were still damping down.

By sheer good fortune we are approaching the Olde Quindanning Inne at about 1230 and stop for a leisurely lunch and a glass of wine.    The food is really quite good and it is a very popular venue at the weekends, when we were returning from our last trip we thought we’d stop there for lunch but couldn’t get near the place!   It is certainly old, by Australian standards, probably late 19thc, dark inside with no air-conditioning, they have recently built a new extension with a new toilet block.

  Having satisfied the inner persons we head off at a leisurely pace in the direction of Williams, no there’s no apostrophe, it’s the name of the township where we join the Albany Hwy and head south for a 100ks, we often go this way when we’re heading to Esperence although there are a few choices.    We will be in a place called Broomhill by mid afternoon and will stay there tonight.    There is a neat and clean site here run by the Shire and there are usually few people around, having said that there are two other caravans here tonight but I don’t think it’ll be very noisy!

I think I may have fixed the rattle, there was a bolt missing from one of the spring mounts for the Engel, I’ve replaced it and we shall see tomorrow if it’s worked.

We have been surrounded by thunder storms all evening but so far have had only one short sharp burst of rain, really novel for us.

Friday, an odd sort of day, very grey, overcast and damp, not a good start but then yesterday we were thinking it would be nice to have it a bit cooler, as they say, be careful what you wish for!

For the last two or three days I have had this sort of tender spot under my bottom left side rib, last night it was a bit iffy so as we were passing Gnowangorup hospital and were in no hurry we’d thought we’d drop in.   Bear in mind this is a country hospital and the nurse happily told us she was 70 and thinking about retiring!   The doctor was somewhere else on a long weekend, so this nurse gave me an ECG, a blood test, BPs left and right and lots of other things.   The ECG had to be faxed to another hospital for the duty doctor to see, she was in ‘resus’ (apparently this is an emergency) anyway apparently I’m quite fit, so fit in fact that she couldn’t find a pulse!    There were no problems with the ECG so she let me go!    Now the amazing thing is that all this took a little over an hour from parking outside to leaving the car park!    Good eh! but still don’t know what’s wrong!

The rain is getting worse as we head east and a little south and we stop for lunch just west of Jerimungup.   We’ve decided to head for Stokes Inlet, probably for the weekend if there’s a good spot, ‘cos it’s a long weekend, another left wing holiday I think.    Approaching Ravensthorpe I spy the old blues n’ twos in my mirror and pull over, apparently I was doing 60 through several ks of coned roadworks, of course no-one was working and no other cars around, but I had no excuse, anyway, he let me off with a caution!

The rest of the afternoon was uneventful, we checked out a potentially useful gravel pit just before the Stokes Inlet turn-off, which might useful in the future as an overnight stop.

Stokes Inlet is in the, surprise, surprise, Stokes NP about 70 ks to the west of Esperence, we’ve not been here before but will hopefully do a bit of exploring tomorrow and be able to report back.

The place is overseen by volunteers, usually travellers like ourselves who spend most of their year travelling from NP to NP where they spend a month or two looking after the place and ensuring that visitors don’t ruin it as happened a lot in the past.

We are met by one of the hosts called Wendy and no doubt we will know more about her after tomorrow, but as it is raining she quickly tells us about generarator times, fees and the best site for our caravan.

Saturday, today started with similar weather to yesterday but quite soon the rain stopped and we had some bright periods.    We spent a very leisurely morning, reading and having another look at the ‘rattle’.    Being able to look more closely at it I think I can see what the problem is, ie; the car freezer is mounted on springs and whilst it was in for repair recently someone had clearly started to remove the springs before realising that it wasn’t necessary.   Unfortunately they hadn’t bothered to put them back together properly.    Anyway we’ll see if this has fixed it.

After lunch we decide to pop into Esperence to pick up some essentials, like The Australian, so we’ve got some Times cryptics to do over the weekend!   Yes! the rattle has gone and it’s suddenly quite peaceful in the troopie again!    Esperence is quite a pleasant little town, though it is spread about a bit.    Got the paper, got the milk, got the bait.   On the way out of town we stop to buy some yabbies, these are fresh water crustaceans, a cross between a lobster and a prawn only smaller.   The place where we get them is a bit run down but we know the yabbies are fresh because we go and catch them in the tanks.    The people who farm them keep an eye open for when each one is starting to get ‘soft’ (their shells get soft as they are about to shed them)  because if they are left in the tank the others eat them before the new shell can harden! Not much profit in that.  We chatted to the couple who run the place and find they tried to open up as a camp site but were shut down by the shire – not their favourite people. 

We bought some yabbies from the mid size tank and a a jar of pickled ones which tasted very nice when we had them as a starter in the evening and the Maconnais went very nicely with them!

Sunday morning –  it’s actually quite chilly and Pat gets the duvet out to replace the bedding more suited to Perth temperatures whilst I decide to roll out the awning that I’d put away last night but I need to put the guy ropes on the corners because it is pretty windy – the ground is like concrete and the pegs don’t want to go in. Fortunately, breakfast calls, providing a bit more incentive and I’ve worked up a bit of an appetite by the time I get round to cooking it.

This is a view of the inlet (Stokes) from our camp site, the middle shot is where the inlet (the Young River) used to flow into the sea but is presently blocked off by a sand bar (so much for rising sea levels!).   We can drive along the beach out to the sand bar although we haven’t done so yet, maybe tomorrow.

We met a few of the other campers this evening, hearing stories of big Black Bream, King George Whiting and even a salmon, so must give it a proper try tomorrow.

Monday dawns grey and with a dampness in the air that bodes more, though the wind is still strong from a little south of east.   We decided to go fishing this morning in case the weather got worse this afternoon.  I caught one with almost my first cast but although I got a bite every time I cast my line I couldn’t quite get anything ashore.    After an hour or so I change the hook to one slightly smaller and almost immediately started catching fish, I put two back (too small) and then caught a couple more, so we had enough for tea.    We called it a day and returned to the caravan for lunch

These are Black Bream, or brim as the locals call them.    They’re pretty strong ’biters’ and good fish to catch, you know you’ve got something on the hook with even the small ones. 

A bit of reading in the afternoon and it was time to think about tea.

We cooked the fish in foil with some white wine and a few other things and used the very clean and efficient facilities in the camp kitchen to cook them, saves firing up my bbq.

Tuesday a sunny start to the day and we are heading into Esperence again to see our friends Dave and Jane.    Dave is the brains and the driving force behind the design and building of the ‘Esperence Belltower’ (there are details in one of the previous blogs so I won’t repeat it).    He has two henchmen and we caught up with them for morning tea at Dave and Jane’s house.    Dave himself is in his mid’ 70s and had heart surgery last year, Bob is about the same age and had cancer two years ago, then there’s George who is 83.    This trio are amazing and work on the tower and surrounding projects five days a week, yesterday was a public holiday but they were still busy working.  What are they working on?     Well, the main project is the belltower which they have virtually built themselves, including all the granite paving you can see in the foreground.    The bronze statues at each corner are cast in bronze and are the work of these three from concept to commissioning.   The two on the right are work in progress!

             In addition to the bell tower, they have built three pagodas, all in granite and with beautifully carved panels that are in keeping with the children’s playground and model railway station (next on the list to be rebuilt – in granite of course).  

      These three have you in stitches, the repartee is hilarious and they suck you into they’re world easily and are great fun to be with.    They do all this work for nothing but currently they have been stopped from continuing to work on the tower by, yes, you’ve guessed it – the Shire Compliance Officer!   We  go down to the foreshore to admire the work that has been done since we last visited and then return to the house.

                On our way back we admire the new foreshore design/renovation with its many pieces of artwork strategically placed along the way.  This whale tail was described by Dave as a bits of RSJ with bits of glass hanging from the top – guess he thought at a $180,000.00 it was a waste of money!

We have a lovely lunch with them, hearing about the weddings of their daughter in January and the son’s in February, Dave’s heart surgery, their trip to Scotland and Dave’s moaning on about what an expensive year it has been (well, he is Scottish).  We then return to the workshop for another look at some equipment and the automaton.    The latest part of this project is to have five or six automatons, little figures going round and round at the bottom of the belltower, to a very slow version of Chopin’s Funeral March – a tribute to the officers on the Shire Council!

We’re back at the caravan in time to cook tea in daylight at the camp kitchen once again, a great day.    We’ve decided to stay here until Saturday and then head for Albany to arrive on Sunday morning in time to visit the farmer’s market.