On the 3rd July 2017, Rebecca and I went on a road trip heading south. Setting off at 5am sharp, much to the delight of Rebecca, we travelled on the Great Southern Highway for the majority of the journey. It was pretty cold, and the temperature was still set to drop. Thankfully the weeks leading up to the trip, there were many visits to Kathmandu (the shop). It was good timing considering they were having their end of financial year sales. I got my fair share of winter weather gear, a first for me since arriving in Australia. I was ready for the arctic with my many thermal layers and my super awesome jacket. Also, a beenie hat. My only beenie.
Our first spontaneous stop heading south was Wagin. I always discuss with Perthites that Perth needs something unique to stand out from the rest to attract tourists, and in the absence of something unique, do something that everyone does, but do it better than all of them. Wagin obviously went for the former, because Wagin is “Home of the Giant Ram & Woolorama”. I’m not sure what Woolorama is, but it’s probably something to do with Wool.
At 8am, Wagin was fairly deserted. Shops were open and everyone in the shops knew each other (not in a creepy way, just in a close knit country town kind of way. We didn’t stay long.
Next stop was Katanning. Not the town, but on the outskirts was the Murderous Katanning Playground (not the official title). It caught our eye from the road because it just looked so depressing and a little dangerous too. Two signs erected at the bridge to the playground, one which said “Children using this playground should be supervised at all times” and the second which said “People using this playground do so at their own risk”. There was even a moat that went round the park. It was almost like this was the dumping ground for the rejected slides etc. Everything was depressing dark metal. No colours, slides that stopped mid way up, and structures that really weren’t very stable, and upon exiting we spotted a mural depicting a train taking people of the world away from this Horror Playground…
Our accommodation for the night was to be the Yardup Shearing Shed. We found it on Airbnb and it seemed like the closest place to the north side of the Stirling Range that didn’t involve camping. It was a bargain at $100/night for the two of us.
A shed of three bedroom with two beds in each and the shared lunge/kitchen area, Rebecca and I were lucky that we had the place to ourselves. We got a bed each, but we would later learn that we would experience the worst beds ever known to mankind. In freezing cold temperatures! It’s probably lovely in…spring. We stopped here with just enough time to dump our luggage and change into our hiking gear for our hike up Bluff Knoll.
The phone was doing a pretty good job of documenting the journey so far, but for Bluff Knoll, it was time for the DSLR to shine.
To be continued…
