Coalseam reserve

The first stop this morning was Coalseam Reserve which has displays of everlasting wildflowers. We took the caravan into the reserve as we were heading further south after we were finished. The dirt road into the reserve was rough and the caravan got a good shaking. The caravan and ute are once again dusty but with the rain later in the day the dust is now caked on. The reserve is on the Irwin river and had in the past had several attempts of coal mining, none of them successful.

The flowers were spectacular but possibly 2 weeks past their prime. They were mainly yellow and white and there were still plenty to imagine how incredible it would have looked. We did a 3 km walk and took plenty of photos. We drove onto Mingenew for a lunch stop. It is a public holiday here in WA so nothing was open.

We had thought we might stay at Mingenew but decided to push on further. The next “town” was Three Springs where there is a talc mine and the beginning of a series of salt water lakes called Yarra Yarra lakes. The next town was Carnamah which is rural supply town for all the grain farms around here. On the road down there were wheat, barley and lots of canola. The fields that these crops grow on are really large.

We decided to stay here and went to the info centre where a very helpful fellow kiwi told us all about how he had ended up here. He also told us the local wreath flowers were much better here than Pinder. After setting up the caravan in the very tidy camp we headed out for another drive to photograph more flowers. Bush flies were prevalent again today.

The flowers were perhaps younger than yesterday’s but there weren’t nearly as many. I did take some more photos amongst the rain showers. The roadside flowers on the way out were certainly worth the drive. Regan tried to catch some of the flowers on a video. My wildflower exploring is done for now although Kings Park is on the hit list when we arrive in Perth.Read more