The Wildflower Trail, WA

Sunday, September 12, 2010

The 'Penguin' & the Landcruiser Campsite at Mingenew

Travelling day today.Breakfast was completed rather quickly this morning when we realised it was about to rain & we should get  packed up before the rain! I dashed off to the camp kitchen with the washing up while John completed the internal pack-up & wind-down of the 'Penguin". Just in time, too. The just washed dishes travelled in car today to avoid putting camper up again. Todays drive, from Mingenew to Wongan Hills, took us through more beautiful rural country with fields of wheat & bright yellow canola fields, & again we were treated to colourful displays of wildflowers along the sides of the road.

Roadside flowers & Canola Fields

The early morning showers persisted for a while but by afternoon there was some sunshine. The wind was really quite cold & the temperature only got to about 17 deg -beautiful in the sun, if you could find a spot out of the wind! Decided Sunday not a good day to travel - nothing open in the small rural towns! Did stop in Coorow & found their community centre open  offering free coffee & biscuits! The lovely lady there gave us information & map on local wildflower drive suitable to take van in, so we did & spotted some lovely little Donkey & China Blue  Orchids. Great fun trying to take photos of these tiny orchids, especially in the wind! Got some nice pics as you can see! Have included pics of orchids seen on other days too.

Clockwise from top left: Donkey Orchids; Lemon-Scented Sun Orchids; China Blue Orchids; Pink Candy Orchids

Clockwise from top left: Ant Orchids;Common Spider Orchid; Dainty Blue Orchid; Cowslip Orchids

Arrived at Wongan Hills Caravan Park & selected nice sunny site. Set-up van before heading to Information Centre for details & maps of flowers in this area & a bit of food shopping at the IGA.

 To late to go for walks today, so bit of computer time, photo downloading dinner etc filled in the rest of the afternoon & evening. Quite cold! Heater on tonight!

Monday, September 13, 2010
It was a cold night! Heater stayed on all night & we were lovely & warm under the doona! But... had to go out to ablutions block, of course, & it was chilly! Nice hot showers, thankfully!
Walk around bush block next to caravan park while the washing was drying - saw more orchids, Donkey orchids & Spider orchids, as well as wattles, bright blue Dampiera, white Hakea bushes & lots more small flowers & plants. Sorted dry washing before heading off on 2.6km Christmas Rock walk starting just over the road from caravan park. Took us about 2 hrs, but we did walk fairly slowly & stopped a lot to look for orchids etc & take photos. Saw more Donkey, Spider, Cowslip, Lemon-Scented Sun & Pink Candy Orchids as well as a beautiful stumpy tailed Blue tongue Lizard! Have not downloaded these pics yet, so you will have to wait for them! Back for lunch, afternoon sleep for John & computer time for me!
Now it is almost dark & time to organise dinner, so will say bye for now & put the heater on again!

Dinner & clean-up finished. Email sent to 'launch' blog! Photos downloaded, so here are a few to look at!

Todays Pics: Christmas Rock, one with John, one with Heather; Spider Orchid, flower & plant; Bee with full pollen sacs; Cowslip Orchids; Blue tongue Lizard; Bright yellow Verticordia [Feather Flower]; 
Small Red flower [vine, unidentified]; Donkey Orchid Plant;
Pale lemon flower [unidentified]. The lens cap in two plant photos is to show how small these orchid plants are!