Wildflower Trip

Ken has sent me some of the photos he took during our trip. Two are of the cave which he climbed down to whilst I went for the high ground.

Some of the old timber from the mining operation.

We continued north in our search for wildflowers stopping for the night in Coalseam Conservation Park some 70km north of Mingenew. There are three designated camping areas in this location. As ‘seniors’ we qualified for a concessional price of $7 per night. However the Ranger didn’t visit and there was no honestly box so we kept our money.

Coalseam Conservation Park is renowned for its ‘Everlasting’ wildflowers. The name is quite deceiving as they only briefly appear and we were; according to Ken; four weeks late.

Note Ken’s sleeping bag drying on the bonnet of the 4X4. to the right of the photo you can see I’ve kindly loaned him my tarpaulin as you will recall he left his tent fly behind. Of course I could have given it to him last night; but then he wouldn’t have got wet! Smile We erected the trailer ‘batwing’ awning and settled down to wait for the flies to go to bed before cooking dinner.

A male Red Cockatoo kept an eye on us whilst his wife continued making a nest in the end of the broken branch below.

I tried for one of those marvellous sunset photos……… and failed.

That night we tried the trailer shower using the 12V pump and a 20 litre plastic jerry can of water. We separately stripped down to our birthday suits and promptly scared off all the native wildlife. During Ken’s shower he was trying to tell me something and I didn’t have my hearing aids in. This necessitated me walking around the shower side of the trailer and readers I have to tell you…… it wasn’t a pretty sight. No wonder the birds were screeching!

After being somewhat disillusioned with our efforts to find wildflowers Ken suggested we head 60km further north to Mullewa and look at the wreath flowers. There isn’t much to commend Mullewa, However the town church was very unusual. It is the Church of Our Lady of Carmel with a slightly strange history.

Designed and partially constructed by architect Monsignor John Hawes. Hawes was born in England and served as a priest in the Church of England before converting to Catholicism. Hawes designed and built churches in England, West Australia and the Bahamas.

Monsignor Hawes started sketching the design of the church in the 1920’s, whilst on holiday in England. He was reputedly quite upset when his design for the proposed cathedral in Perth was rejected and threw himself into the construction of Our Lady of Carmel. To me it looks quite Mediterranean, perhaps Greek. However parts of it also appear to be Spanish in appearance.