Toodyay and Avon National Park:

From New Norcia we set off for Toodyay which is a historic town.
We travelled through some beautiful countryside with rolling hills and rich pasture.
It wasn’t too far to travel so we arrived in time for a morning coffee and explore of the town.

We weren’t too sure what to expect as we had heard there were fires here where many people lost their homes. We didn’t actually see any evidence of it.


There are lots of old buildings here which lined the main street including an historic old mill which was unfortunately closed so we couldn't see through it. Toodyay is on the Avon (pronounced A- von) (not like the cosmetics) river but was only small. After walking down the street we decided to go on to the Avon National Park.

On the way there we saw lots of bright blue flowers on the roadside.
Turning off
the highway we went about 23 klms on dirt road and we down and down till we came to a campsite. There were table and chairs,and the camp was surrounded by lots of wild flowers and was rather remote. This is a harsh area with high temps in the summer so the vegetation is very hardy. There are lots of grass
trees which seem to be very tough. We were so lucky as we were the only ones here for two days – spent lots of time reading and doing crosswords. We walked down a path through a mass of wildflowers. The birds were plentiful but I always find them hard to locate. That why I stick to wildflowers.

We had a fire each night and were able to cook our meals over the fire which is always a bonus.

We went for a drive to the next campsite just to check it out. There was lots of wattle here but we liked our area better. We were able to get a good view of the valley.
On the way back we came across an echidna on the road. We couldn’t make him budge but as he was in the middle we risked driving over him-with success. No spiked tyres and an unharmed echidna!!

There was a walk to a waterfall but when we got there we realised it only flow when there is rain. You could see across the valley where the water would flow. There is
a very deep valley made by the Avon River and this is famous for the Avon Decent – a race where people can challenge themselves to go down the river in any sort of craft - canoes, kayaks or speedboats or whatever. Apparently there was not much water in the river this year so competitors had to carry their craft over some of the distance.










From there we headed to Mandurah which is about 70 klms south of Perth. There is a new freeway which makes the journey easy. Mandurah is about the same distance as the Gold Coast to Brisbane and has experienced a similar growth rate.

Here we were visiting with Brain’s sister and her husband and we really enjoyed their hospitality