Wildflowers Midwest

It rained last night but we stayed dry in our tent. Grace even slept through the rain, and both of us slept in way past dawn. We woke when the sun was up, but it was still freezing when we emerged at 7.20am.

We attended the Mullewa Wildflower Show, and was approached by a lady who told us she owed us an apology. When we were looking for a suitable spot to start up our tent last night, we asked a couple if we could set up near their caravan. He barked, "there's lots of space here, no need to be on top of each other." We would have been at least 15m away,  and would have faced our tent away from them. Anyway, we left and returned to the first spot Grace found which turned out to be an excellent location. Now, in these free campsites, one just sets up wherever. Most people are in caravans,  campavans, or camper-trailers. Very very few of us are in  tents. There's lots more to consider when setting up a tent. We do not want too much wind, hopefully some shade, but no trees with wonky branches that might drop our tent. The ground needs to be flat, not full of stones, and easy enough to drive pegs in without breaking the drill bit. Yes, we have to pre-drill for some ground, and then use special screw-like pegs that are driven in by a cordless driver. In this peak wildflower season, there were not many suitable spots left, especially when we arrived at almost 5pm. Anyway, lady apologised profusely, and said that her husband was rather disturbed all night with his grumpiness, and hoped that we had found somewhere suitable.  The husband also apologised later that day. Ironically, we would not  have recognised them at all. We must stand out as a Chinese female couple, as we've had numerous come up to us, chatting away like ol' friends. After a while of very careful conversation, we find out that they were our camp neighbours, or we passed them along some hike, or even on the way to the public conveniences. Now, just because I nod and smile, or even have a casual chat with someone, does not mean I'll remember them. I'm dreadful with faces and worse with names. Grace is much better, and she does not even remember most of them. Anyway, it's always lovely chatting with people, context and history not always necessary.

Back to our day.

We went for a morning and an afternoon guided wildflower walk where I did not chat to anyone but actually paid attention to the guide. They were really old, and volunteer guides from Kings Park in Perth who came all this way as volunteers, so one must be respectful. We learnt that Mullewa is at the junction of 3 botanical regions in Western Australia, therefore the unsurpassed variety of wildflowers in this region. We also found out that the flower in yesterday's photos which Grace thought was Granny's Button is actually called Stinky Roger.

Highlight of today, and probably will go down as one of life's highlight, was the Wreath Flowers at Pindar. Read more