Yalgoo to Morowa

We were up early due to a very hot night and the sun started streaming into the tent before 6.00am. Then the local owners friendly dog was out and about looking for some petting and tummy rubs. Tracy duly obliged, and we had a coffee/tea and then headed out on the open road.
We discovered the old restored St Hyacinth's Chapel. A beautiful little Chapel in the middle of nowhere. On our way out of Yalgoo we came across a stunning rather large monitor lizard going for his morning stroll on the not so busy highway. He was scraping breakfast up off the bitumen and was not impressed that we disturbed his morning

feed. Nevertheless, he sauntered off the road allowing us to capture some great close up shots.

We headed due west to Mullewa. On the way we came across an old town called Pindar,
Pindar had only the hotel remaining, but at some stage it was a town of 200 souls. Now there was only one local living in squalor and an old hotel building that was turned into a holiday home. There was an old recreation center that seems to have been used at Christmas, but nothing else. The interesting thing is that the site is the beginning of the Wool Wagon Pathway and the Mullewa De Grey Stock Route. It was part of a cattle and sheep route that brought animals from the northern stations to the old end of the rail terminus and then the animals were shipped on to Perth. The plaques show the history and show the route. There has been so much work put into these plaques along the way - a clear sign they are trying to reinvigorate tourists to

the area. It looks fascinating, but there are no fuel stops on it so you would need to have another car to be safe. One for a future trip.

The towns along were similar to this, and we saw many where now only the rail terminus is left. Once the kids go, the school closes and then the families leave and then the business closes, and soon there is nothing left but closed buildings and old memories. It returns to what it was just farm land.

At Mullewa we got some cold milk supplies and had breakfast beside the new pool. The pool attendant arrived and looked like he was a grisly old timer, but that was just the deep tan, he was really in his 20's. The town was bigger than we expected, but still the shop was run by Indians. That's common as they arrive in Australia and buy a regional store to get started. Without the new Indian immigrants many towns would be smaller and have less shops. We then had a

look at the history plaques and headed south. The first stop was at an old school site that showed how the students lived and worked at the turn of the century. The school closed in the 1930's. The route also took us by a spot were some local aboriginals were hanged for killing a white settler that took their land. Not an unreasonable position from their point of view, but the big guns won and a few of the locals were rounded up and hung as an example and so that sorted the problem out.

We headed south and headed on a small side road to a lovely park called "Coal seam" conservation park. They had coal seams in the side of the hill, but they were not commercial enough to mine. The heat was building, but the forecast stated showers. Looking at the blue skies it seems improbable and we did think the radio announcer had a bit too much holiday drink taken. However, an hour later some clouds appeared and soon they had connected and then turned dark,

and so when we arrived in Mingenew the sky was looking like rain. We got to the local IGA in time to get some lunch stuff and had lunch in the settlers park. Just as we finished the skies opened up and the wind howled and the rain came in sheets. It lasted about 10 mins and then was gone. The temperature fell from 43 to 25 degrees. The sun came out quickly again and the steam rose and within an hour its like the rain had never happened.

We then headed to Carnamah. There they had an old settler house restored. It was closed, but we went anyway and could walk around the outside and could visualise the way of life. They had a great selection of old machinery outside. The road to Perjoni was now full of huge wheat fields and abandoned farm houses. We saw not one car on the whole road. Arriving in Perjormi we got to the town camp site, but the electricity had gone and with no pub food and the supermarket closed we made the decision to go north to Morawa.

That was a good call as they had electricity. We put up the tent and the only other people in the camp site were a Swiss couple driving around WA for 6 months and an old timer in a caravan, most likely working in the area. We walked to the pub and had a great meal and sat watched the local patrons. There was a few guys from the local pipe line company, some of them Irish and a few farmers. The bar maid was German and was back packing round Australia. We got the local news about the owners ( large house and needs the pub money to pay for it!) and then went to walk home. Tracy forgot the umbrella!, and the rain was intense as a storm decided to visit the area and we got drenched on the way home. The local farmers must have been trilled as this was real rain and should have helped to fill a few dams in the summer heat. We managed to get changed under the roof of a new park lodge and while leaving the tent open compromised between being too hot with no air flow or getting wet by the rain. Not a problem you would expect in summer in the wheat fields.