Tomorrow we set off for our last great adventure for this trip in WA - we start the Nullabor Plain!
We spent 4 wonderful nights at Quaalup Station, an experience I won't ever forget and hopefully the kids won't either. We arrived on Sunday and stayed there until Wednesday morning. 4 nights with only one neighbour for 3 of those nights and the owners of the station for only 2 nights. We were left to "lock up". Can you think of places where that would still happen? I struggle to myself.
One of the most memorable experiences I have ever had was with Edna. For those of you reading this and know my background with painting emus, you will maybe get a glimpse of how I felt when Edna the Emu, a resident at Quaalup, decided I was the person to follow around. The below is a photo of Edna.
She was a constant companion for me, around the camping area and while I went bird watching and was even my "guide on the local Flora and Fauna walk. She seemed rather miffed when we packed up and left.
The resident kookaburra also thought they should advertise the Nature walk!
Although the flowers and the information were spectacular:
We also had kangaroos for company although every now and then they felt the need to show off who was the bravest! There were a few mums with joeys that came to feed next to our camp but the boys tended to stay a safe distance except at nightfall when they would happily graze nearby.
At nights, Annie would read the kids some of "The Hobbit" in the van while I sat outside under the stars. We have some video of the emu and the kangaroos sitting down next to me outside, calmly listening to the story. It really was a special place.The following photo is a shot of some of the buildings, the original stone ruins date to 1858, and the mountain nearby early in the morning, so it wasn't just the (wild)life that enchanted us:
Although there was that Splendid Wren whistling away on top of the Banksia:
We did manage to get across to Cape Anne, which was very picturesque:
We have thought about camping here, but had decided the Station was a better idea. After running across this guy in the camping area, we were both glad we did:
We eventually left Edna and Quaalup behind, and headed to Esperance. Cape LeGrande (Lucky Bay pictured below) was beautiful and we really needed to spend a week here we didn't have.
In Esperance itself the kids and Annie discovered one of the locals, Sammy the Seal. Not exactly dying of hunger but cute nevertheless and a huge hit with the kids:
Even though we feel quite sad our WA experience has come to an end, there are murmurings within the family such as "I couldn't learn anything more or read any more right now" or "I love Esperance." Why is that Moses? "It has lots of playgrounds!" or "I have really enjoyed WA but I miss my friends and school!" or "I really want to play cricket with my friends and ride my ripstick!"I'll leave it to you to work out who said what.
So thank you to those who have read this blog over the past 3 months. We hope you have have gained an insight into our travels.
We wish all a safe and merry christmas and hope to see all of you soon.
For those Twitchers in the world, we are probably going to make to 180 birds in WA, but we are not over the line yet.
For those looking for things to do on long trips, we have a new game called "Twitch". It starts off... "I went to the nird (sorry this was a typo but I left it in, it should of course say "bird") hide and I saw a ....." Annie and I love the fact our kids say things like "Red-eared Firetail" rather than a magpie or a sparrow!
Signing off now,
WF's
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