Latham, Watheroo, Moora & Gabbin

A short stroll down the road found us in a very small village called Latham. It is still in the Shire of Perenjori, and the stop is next to the Community Centre building, providing free hot showers and flushing toilets, a few fire rings so byo wood. A nice touch in the bathrooms are the towelling floor mats to step onto after your shower. Amazingly quiet overnight, we eventually had around 7 other vehicles parked up with us. Of course, we were the first so got the best spot. It's the quick or the dead with these free/donation camp spots. Across the road we viewed the wall with the Pioneer Families from the area of Latham & Maya and some historic memorabilia. Ian spotted the cold fridge which was the book library in the area and like a kid in a Lollie shop he just had to have a look. Further on our walk around Latham we passed the Library but alas it was closed.




The next morning was when we decided our next nights camp spot. And the winner was Watheroo Station Tavern. However our journey there took us through Coorow, a place remembered from our Busselton Naturalist trip 2 years earlier. Ian likes to check Petrol Spy and top up when fuel is available so Coorow looked a good bet. Well we shouldn't have put too much on this horse as it declined our credit card. It then declined the next punter in the row. After some detective work at the local co-op it was discovered that the Hardware shop owned the 24 hour Bowser's. When confronted they admitted, under extreme torture, that it had been declining certain credit cards all week. But, no Notice had been erected to the effect. Luckily we'd only travelled 94kms since our last refuel so not an issue for us.
So we drove the 1km out to the Coorow Community Farm and did the Bert Mailey wildflower walk and saw these beauties.








Watheroo Station, which the Tavern has now been incorporated into, was built in 1894 when the train line from Guildford to Walk away was finished. The old locomotive shed, which is looking a bit worse for wear, is one of only 2 left in WA. The townsite also has an old community sheep dip, a sports centre and a community sheep dip.



On our second day we headed off to Jingemia Cave which is 5 kms north of town in the Pinjarrega Nature Reserve. A Cave which has now had a roof collapse so more open than enclosed. Still very speccie. Ian took a climb down into the bottom and the views from around the edges of the hole were also spectacular.


Nearly as impressive were the wildflowers, bugs and butterflies.

We even spotted some milkmaids, but no cows. 1, 2 and 3. Aren't they impressive?

Well what can we say we were driving out slowly along the road and the Roo spotter, Deborah yells out, "Stop".
We reversed up and there they were the first sightings of cowslips on this trip. The more we looked from this point the more we saw. They were delightful to see.


After 2 nights of Ian cooking, meaning, eating at the Tavern, our next stop was Moora RV stop and another night for Deborah to shine.However, before those culinary skills could be put to good use we asked the local Information people where there might be flowers a blooming. Candy's Bush Reserve was the bomb, and we weren't disappointed. From wildflowers to miniature donkey orchids, spider orchids and Green veined shell orchids it was beautiful.


Along our journey today we saw spectacular farms growing colourful crops of canola and wheat.

We had anticipated we might stay 2 nights at Moora but decided to up sticks and head to a free camp spot a semi ghost town called Gabbin. It had a small, a very well maintained and clean toilet and shower unit, all next to the community hall. So nice that we did stay 2 nights at this location. Although virtually deserted at the moment Gabbin, when it was gazetted in 1918, like many pioneering towns had an array of sporting ovals, including cricket, football, soccer, hockey, two sets of tennis courts and a boxing club. You can still see the old football scoreboard and cricket wicket when you walk through the bush. A school opened in 1922 but closed in 2000.


A walk around the bush near the hall and camping area provided some very nice wildflowers as well.

The local Shire and volunteers also have provided some fire pits, which we managed to make good use of. We started a fire at Happy Hour the first night and invited the other camper's. We had a lovely social gathering. The next day Ian tended to the fire and Deborah placed a delicious savoury bread on the fire for lunch and what a cracker of a loaf it was. This was followed by a dinner cooked on the same fire which was maintained overnight and during the day. Well we are loving cooking our food on the camp-fire, where ever and when ever possible. The fire also helped some other campers who stayed the first night, and a lovely homeless gentleman living out of his car (for many years), with his mate Wales the Blue Heeler.
In fact, before we left the campsite we left a pile of wood for our homeless friend, it's only neighbourly.