July 15th

The Blue Sky has returned and the rain has moved eastward. How lucky for us as dry weather is much easier when you are camping.

The Mullewa area is undulating with crops growing well this season. Mullewa is a small township with few facilities..in fact the poorest Super Market I have seen. Hope we don't starve! John may have to drink green tea though. We went to the Info centre where the lady was very helpful and was able to identify a couple of the flowers in my photos. She also told us where to go to see the famous Wreath Flowers or Wreath Lechenaultia. Off we went to Pindar to find them. It is very early in the wildflower season for the wreaths to be very large and colourful. However we did see some lovely examples on the side of the road.

The roads are sealed so the driving to Yalgoo was made very easy. This little place is without many services either. From here we headed south to Payne's Find which is a Mining area. Along the way we saw the Golden Grove Mine. A large aeroplane was coming in to land..presumably returning staff to the mine after time off. The mine was near to Gnows Nest Range which consists of very rocky and rough 'jump ups' This evening I am probably linked into the Internet connection made available by this mine.

The roadside did not show so many flowers, in fact it was very bare in places. As we travelled over hill crests we could not help remarking 'what a big flat country this is!' All we could see was a landscape of low bushes.

The map noted that Thundelarra Station took Homestays and Campers so we drove the 11 km off the main road to the Station Homestead. The home was a modern 'rammed earth' building. The Station Manager's wife answered our knock. No, sadly they do not take Homestays at the moment, However she was very happy for us to camp in the Home Paddock. Evidently these new managers have only been in residence for about 10 days..what a mammoth task managing a big outback station.

Wreath Flower

Detail of Wreath Flower