Our trip from York to Bunbury was a little shorter than he long days that we had travelling to, and from, Geraldton. The weather was often overcast with periods of drizzle and the temperature as about 20 degrees.
The hotel in York served the biggest plate of breakfast we had ever seen. There was no ordering – just a gigantic plate of eggs, bacon, tomato, sausage, hash brown and a huge croissant served to every person. We left town after a quick look at the swing bridge that crosses the Avon River and a stop to purchase some more fuel. I am concerned that I might have underestimated our fuel costs. On the positive side, I had budgeted for $2.20 per litre and the real cost is only about $1.57. However, on the negative side, we are using 18 litres per 100 km instead of the 11 that I had assumed. Still, our Toyaota Rosa bus is still a very economical way in which to travel as a group. I might just need to ask for a further small contribution from everyone further into our trip.
In the morning,we travelled through the little wheat growing town of Pingelly and stopped at Wikepin. This place had a post office, pub, general store and a fuel station. What attracted us to stop here was that it is the location of the humble four roomed homestead of the famous author AB Facey. He was an uneducated farmer who faced incredibly tough hardships on the land, and through drought in the early part of the last century.. He wrote very simply and none-the-less, his book is titled “A Fortunate Life”.
We stopped for another picnic lunch at Narrogin – the centre of this extensive wheat growing district. Most of the crops grown here are wheat and canola. The wheat looks as though it is growing well – green and dense and the canola seems to be at a stage where it is ready to flower. Many of the enormous paddocks are covered in yellow – not with canola as we first thought, but with Cape Weed – that yellow daisy like flower with a black centre. It certainly looks rather pretty, but I suspect that it is a real nuisance.
In the afternoon, we finished our tda by travelling the last 150 kms or so through the towns of Williams and Collie to finally reach Bunbury. Again, we made a number of stops along the way to look at some of the wild flowers.
Tonight, we are staying at the multi-storey Lord Forest Hotel in Bunbury. It is rather nice, except that because the swimming pol is in in the middle of the large central atrium, the whole place has a very strong smell of chlorine. I took the opportunity of washing a couple of T Shirts in the bath before heading around the corner to the main street to find a restaurant for dinner. Even after the large meals at York, it is surprising that you can still be hungry at the end of the day.
