Leaving Denham, we had nearly 500km to travel to our new digs just outside of Dongarra. We did this in stages, ensuring rest breaks. Most of it was highway driving, mostly big empty roads but I did have to overtake a 4 trailer Road Train at one stage which was mighty hairy.

Once past the national park areas, the scenery opened up into rural scenes, flat undulating fields filled with of canola (bright bright yellow), oats (green and white) and wheat and barley as far as the eye could see. It was variously overcast/showery but during the drive we saw all sorts of weather. The roads were in good condition and overtaking lanes reasonably placed, we made good time.

We stopped for lunch and a bit of a stretch at Northampton in cutie little garden park that was clearly a Mecca for caravan pullers. It is interesting how often we have seen public waste traps for vans to empty into, clearly they have geared up to support touring visitors.

Arriving in Dongarra, before going to our accommodation, we visited the visitor centre and went on a walk down by the Irwin Estuary. The Irwin is another of the major rivers here that seems to meander all over the place. The walk took us down beside some soft low sandstone cliffs,  to our surprise we encountered 3 honey bee hives, 2 of them with visible honeycomb tucked away in recesses in the cliff. So interesting. The beach was pretty windswept and covered in chopped up seagrass, am sure it is nicer in summer months.

Our digs for the next couple of days is a self-contained apartment that is part of a large shed – spacious, well appointed and very comfortable. 

We checked in late, quickly settled in and did some food prep for the next couple of days, melted into a pair of dangerously comfortable recliner rockers and rested after a long day on the road.

Next morning, refreshed, we drove to Mingenew, spoke to a helpful staff member in the visitor centre, they suggested a number of locations within range for us to explore wildflowers. She suggested the scrub behind the hockey fields, on and around Mingenew Hill, and a journey further afield to Coalseam Conservation Park.

Parking behind the local hockey field, we set off into a wedge of bushland adjacent and before too long we were finding abundant examples of many wildflowers we had not seen. I was particularly driven to look for native orchids, especially spider orchids, and it was not long before we started finding little clumps of them. Finding them is tricksey – I am used to large blooms on orchids, some of the natives are teeny tiny, spotting them involves a technique of standing still and systematically scanning for changes in texture and colour. The spider and cowslip orchids we found were beautifully delicate, had lovely fine markings and seemed to proliferate in the shadows of more established plants. So chuffed to see them in the wild.