ACE EASTER RUN 2009
Thursday afternoon after getting
the last of our things put into Raid Oz we had a lovely visit from
Nan Rossiter, we had a cuppa and then Nan
left for a morning tea at UWA. Mid Afternoon we left
to meet up with Greg and Nina Bracegirdle but firstly we stopped at
the bottle shop to top up our drink supply and then off to meet at
the Gull Service Station in Karragullen. A lovely drive to
Brookton, the weather was glorious.
At Brookton we went to IGA for some hot cross buns and fruit
and then headed for the campground. Tilly and Cees Beemster, Ellie
and Herman Beckeringh, Michael and Wendy Mullany were already at the
campgrounds and set up. Chris
Reed arrived a little later followed by
Carolin and Janina Loos. We
all sat around and had drinks and after sunset we walked to the local
hotel for dinner. Food
was nicely cooked and servings generous.
Janina had a large T-bone steak all to herself.
The waiter was quite astonished at who was to receive the
large steak. Complimentary
tea/coffee finished the meal. We walked home under
the light of a full moon. A
few of us sat around for more drinks and then off to bed, as we had
an early start the next morning.
Up before 7am, showered
and breakfast.
It was a clear sunny morning but with a cold breeze. Al Roberts arrived at
8.45am so now we were a full complement.
Tents were taken down and shortly thereafter we headed for Mangowine
Station. Morning tea was
at Quairading and then we drove north and then east on the Old
Goldfields Road. It was just lovely
driving along. The day got warmer as
we drove along. We stopped at the Old
Doodlakine Townsite and were surprised to read and hear that this
town was a proposed townsite for the National Capital of Australia.
(hard to believe!)
We continued to travel along the dirt track which is the Old
Goldfields Road, when we got to Hines Hill (there were no comfort
facilities), we turned north onto the single lane bitumen road and
drove to Nungarin. We stopped in the township of Nungarin
and nothing was open so we continued north to Mangowine
Homestead 15 kilometres away. We
arrived there at afternoon teatime, so we relaxed with drinks and
coffee. Nina suggested we
have a long table and share our evening meal.
Greg and Ralph each cooked a campfire stew, Tilly made Nasi
Goring, Wendy had salads and topped it off with roasted chestnuts
roasted in the camp oven, Carolin had onion egg flan which she heated
in her hot box camp oven. A
delicious variety of food was had by all. Elly and Herman had
already eaten as they missed the discussion re having a long table
evening. They had a lovely
siesta. A small hiccup
occurred with Carolins flameup
with her Coleman stove. Flames
were extinguished with a 2 litre bottle of water which Ralph threw
over the flames. All in all no damage
occurred. We sat around and
chatted about old times under the light of a brilliant moon.
It was a very warm night and we were all in bed before 9.30pm.
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Up at sunrise and the left overs of
Greg’s stew was sampled for breakfast.
After breakfast most of the group visited the historic
homestead to view the old photographs and documents.
Bob the caretaker showed us through many of the old rooms
which were fitted out with furniture from the 1800’s.
We met the lady named Lurlene whose grandfather actually built
Mangowine Homestead.
Lurlene was 83 years young. The next stop was Mukenbudin. We stopped in town
and did a little shopping at IGA and fuelled up.
We stopped in a grove of gimlet trees for morning tea.
A lovely small break and a chat. Our next stop was Mount Marshall. Mike and Wendy in
their large Citroen mobile home stopped at the bottom of the rock
whilst we all drove up to the top. A lovely view of the
surrounding wheat fields under a cloudless blue sky.
We then joined Michael and Wendy and lunched under the shade
of the trees. Some people even had
a catnap. From here we drove
north to the Beacon Caravan
Park which had
modern facilities and a grassed camp area for us.
We set up our tents, showered and cooled off, had drinks and
catching up with everyone and just relaxing.
The local fuel depot opened especially for us at 5pm for us to
top up. We went to the
Country Club to tell them there would be 14 people for dinner that
night. Jenny came along
to collect camp fees and chatted to a few of us about the local
surroundings and farming, was very informative and friendly. The young lady cook
at the Country Club was amazing, the meals were excellent and more
than generous as well as cheap, most of us couldn’t finish our
main meal. We all slept
well until 3am when it started raining. The rain was very
constant and it took a while for us to realise that the reticulation
had turned on but Ralph put the camp table and
chairs
on top of the sprinklers, meanwhile Al had moved camp altogether and
Ralph eventually found the master switch and turned off the water.
Much laughter at such an odd
hour.
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We awoke the next morning to find
the Easter Bunny had been. Breakfast
included hot cross buns, bacon and eggs for some, others just cereal
and coffee, and of course Easter Eggs.
Michael and Wendy drove east to ”Dajoing”rock and we drove north to
“Billiburning” rock stopping on
our way at a stand of young gimlet trees where Greg cut himself a
flagpole and a few others got themselves a walking stick. Next stop was Mount Collier
this was named after a Premier of Western Australia and here was the
Collier Dam. Greg and
Ralph went for a swim, Carolin and Janina and Hanny had a paddle the
rest of us sat in the shade and not much later had lunch.
We then drove through Kalannie there was no-one to be seen and
no cars until we were almost at Dalwallinu.
The weather was always very warm to hot.
So we reached Dalwallinu and stopped at the local deli for a
coffee and drinks. A short stop and cool
down and we were off again to the caravan park.
Michael and Wendy were already there and Ralph saw the lady
caretaker who assured us the reticulation was turned off.
We all put up our tents on the nice lawn and enjoyed the brand
new facilities. Herman went to book
us all in at the local motel restaurant as there was
12 of us. In contrast to our
earlier meals this evening left us a lot to talk about.
We all think the restaurant’s new owner will not be
successful. We walked back to the
caravan park and finished our evening meal with whatever alcohol we
had left. Lots
of laughter about a rare steak that was well done and a fillet mignon
that was actually a sirloin.
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It rained a little overnight but we
awoke to just clouds and a cool morning.
Tents were dismantled just before the rain came again.
Mike and Wendy made their own way home.
The rest of us travelled towards home passing through Pitharra and stopping at Wongan
Hills. We sat under the
shelter of a gazebo as it rained again quite heavily.
We then visited the information centre where there were lots
of friendly locals chatting about our cars and where we had been. We all put on our
jumpers and had a warming cup of coffee before heading towards
Goomalling. Our next stop was
Gabby Quoi Quoi lookout.
From this lookout you could get a really good view of all the
local surroundings. Heading
off again towards Toodyay to our final stop. Greg announced on the
CB radio that he was going to have a “dogs
eye and dead horse for lunch”. Hanny and Ralph had
the same, a very nice meat pie and sauce.
We all stopped and had a look around the town for about 40
minutes before leaving for Perth.
An Olde Lolly Shop was visited by
most of us. Herman and Elly took
the Toodyay Road to go home and the rest of us travelled on Julimar
Road to Chittering Valley Road Tourist Drive to Bullsbrook and then
onto Midland and home. Al
left us at West Swan
Bridge to go home to
Bayswater. The rest of us then
made our own way home. We
all said our goodbyes and thanked one another for a great week-end.
A big thank you to Denise
McGillivray for suggesting we travel north for Easter as it was a
very good weekend. The weather was fine
and hot, ending with rain only on the Monday.
How good was that eh!!
Let’s
do it again sometime!!
Hanny
Hibble
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