Friday 13th and on returning from Dee's to get ready and to collect Vicky for our Supper Party at Dee's - Craig was - I discovered - home early it was lovely to see him, but he had to refuse our invitation to the Family Get together as he was leaving at midnight for his 18 hour round trip in his Road Train - they are such huge vehicles, and to be honest I can't remember the Mine he was hauling for - its out in the real outback miles from Perth !
Vicky drove us back - obviously not 100% concentrating as I had to remind her to turn off onto Warwick and then were to turn into Dee's road - bless her - I think its way too late to blame the anaesthetic - more likely the Canadian Club she had been drinking with Craig !
Foolishly, forgetting that although there is air con in Dee's family room, its NOT as cold as the fridge - and therefore it would have been more sensible to liberate and decorate the chilled lemon flan at the last possible moment rather than before the guests arrived. Suffice it to say I have yet to see a more athletic dessert - however it tasted fine - should have been eaten with a straw - but you can't legislate for temperature in this neck of the woods.
A very convivial evening was enjoyed by all the family - lots of giggles, and very little silences - no silences in fact, a normal family get together with very, very palatable wine - Oyster Bay anyone ???
The following morning, I walked the dogs whilst Vicky packed up their bags with food etc etc, and we set off just 5 minutes later than we had intended, but arrived at Dee's at the prescribed time to collect Kethrine and transport her back to Balingup - where we were staying for the night.
I should explain for those who don't know our family that well. Kethrine (one of my many nieces) and Chris (her husband) moved out to WA about 17 years ago when they got married, and bought a lovely hill with its own genuine "bush/forest" of Jarrah, gum and other native trees, as well as a resident Kangaroo, that was home to some Cedar Holiday Chalets. K and Chris spent a fortune bringing these slightly run down chalets into the 21st century with all mod cons and beautifully furnished and decorated. They reaped the benefits and became very well known in the WA Tourist Guides winning many accolades and prizes ! Mel and I have stayed there many times and love it down there, snakes, fires and other hazards excluded ! K & Chris also bought Settlers Cottage, still within the boundary of Balingup but about 6 k from the Hill Top Idyll ! Vicky and I were to stay in Settlers as K & Chris sold Balingup Heights (as the collection of Holiday Cottages were called) some 5 years ago. However, they retained the "Gallery" a property they built to "retire" to as well as a portion of the Bush plus several acres of land that boasts the most amazing views over the surrounding countryside.
Chris & K NEVER stop working - they are an amazing couple and are now in the process of finishing off the extension (that doubles the floor area) that adjoins the Gallery - it is an unusual but glorious extension - a bit like a fairy tale castle from one side and a village church from the other ! All built with recycled material, wood (from an old sheep shearing shed) or from their bush/forest, recycled windows, reclaimed stone - they are amazing.
Settlers Cottage is just lovely it was built about 100 years ago on an original homesteaders plot of about 6 acres with the Balingup Brook running through the paddocks. The garden surrounding the three bedroom property is just divine - with really mature lemon, lime trees, roses beautiful shrubs and mature specimen trees - its beautiful and the original homesteaders "house" is still standing in the grounds, it makes you wonder how in the heck they lived there with children in such a small abode. The Cottage is surrounded by a lovely veranda and decking areas where you can sit in the shade at any time of the day, its beautiful. So that was to be Vicky & my home for the weekend. Fabulous - in fact we were the last guests to stay there as Chris & K have sold that property too, it was a rental property and they no longer want to play that game. Its such hard work. Not that they are shy of hard work believe you me.
On our way down to Balingup - about a 3 + hour drive down a new Freeway ( built since Mel and I were last out there) - we have to pass the Miami Pie Shop - well you don't have to - but you would be oh so foolish if you did, because their pies are to die for. The original Miami Pie shop was sited on the old main road down South to Bunbury and beyond - so when the New Freeway was in the planning stages, the owners of the Pie Shop bought an acreage from a farmer on the planned route that had a couple of big barns - converted one in to toilets - the other was for storage and they put a mobile food "caravan" on the site with Freezers and Fridges in the container at the back - and into business they went on the NEW Freeway - not too much of an outlay - but boy is it busy - from 7am in the morning till dusk - there is always a queue ! They also serve coffee and other beverages but NO alcohol ! It is a gold mine. Needless to say we stopped on the way down (and strange to relate - we stopped on the way back - probably more of that later !!!)
After a lovely lunch Vicky & I drove out to Settlers to meet one of Vicky's old Balingup friends - but of course she had to stop off at this shop and that place en route - catching up with all the folk she knew from when she lived out there in 1999 & 2006 ! It took a while to get there ..........
Eventually we arrived and settled in - K had already arrived much earlier than us - so she and I had a great catch up whilst Vicky caught up with her friend.
We were expected back at The Gallery for dinner and duly arrived - I was driving as Vicky and Lizette had celebrated their reunion fairly copiously ! The drive up from the Nannup Road to Balingup Heights is a challenge incredibly steep with a series of hairpin bends and a sheer drop one side and the hill (solid rocks and that sort of unforgiving stuff) on the other ! In the light its not a problem but in the dark coming down, the headlights don't actually point where you want to see !!!
It was raining - something that was welcomed with open arms by the residents of Balingup they had NOT seen any rain since October and they had experienced lots of fires - this rain was heaven sent. Unfortunately I was NOT aware what came with the rain - water is lovely and cooling and thirst quenching but there is something entirely revolting that comes with the rain in that location. They are Portuguese Millipedes - they are black, with an armour coating and they wriggle and squirm - and they invade every property where there is a light - and NOTHING kills them other than sweeping them up (in their thousands - I kid you NOT) and drowning them or burning them and they smell disgusting ! One resident was so appalled by them (I know exactly how he felt) spent hundreds of pounds having a trench built all round his property - basically a small moat - had it lined, water proofed and filled with water - no worries they just slithered into it and drowned but more followed until they made a bridge of dead relatives and continued to slither across them and headed into the house - and this happens every time it rains and a light is on in the house. The agricultural agency have agreed that NOTHING will kill them, even pure thick bleach has no effect on them at all, they continue to march !
K hates them - and I fully understand her revulsion - I couldn't wait to get away and back to Settlers - because she assured me that they don't live down by Settlers - oh yes they do - when we got back - and we had left a light on in the house and on the veranda - they were there to greet us. If I could have been transported back to Shipham there and then I would have gone without a second thought !
Vicky and I switched out ALL the lights bar one - being the furthest away from our bedrooms - and swept up these devilish creations whilst I found more and more for her to sweep up - from the walls, the skirtings coming in through the closed doors - they were like a nightmare science fiction B movie - they were gross. I cannot emphasise just how ghastly the whole scenario was.
Sleep didn't come too easily and trips to the bathroom during the night was fraught.
The next morning we were awake by 6am and out of the house on the veranda - waiting until we could go up to the Gallery for breakfast at a more sociable time for a Sunday. I elected to spent the time with personal hygiene - the plumber had been there fixing the loo or some such task ready for the sale to go through - so the water from the bore hole was probably not as clear as it should have been ! The speed of the water dribbling out of the hot tap indicated that it would be a ducks puddle rather than a full blown bath ! Sadly I didn't have War and Peace handy to read whilst the bath filled - and the cold tap was producing distinctly earth quality coloured liquid. My face cloths suffered seriously when I washed my feet !!! Its ALL and adventure living in the Sticks - if ANY ONE even remotely tells me that Shipham is a backwater - please stand back for my reaction !!!
On leaving Settlers - I suggested to Vicky that she drop me at the road when we reached the drive so I could walked up the mile track with the dogs to give all of us some much needed exercise. What did I discover ? Those dreadful black things were still progressing upwards to the dwellings at the top of the hill ! I must have stepped on hundreds of them but I kept walking there was NO way I would stop in case they crawled up my trainers ! Oh yuck, yuck, and double yuck !
My love for Balingup certainly took a dive - there is no way I could ever live in those conditions.
Mel always said I would NOT have made a good 'Early Settler" I am sure he would have given me away for a string of beads that's if of course anyone would have wanted to give something as valuable away in payment for me !!!
After a tour of the property and lots of photo taking - which I cannot down load onto Dee's computer because I don't have the necessary equipment with me - ok I know it should be all on Google + but it doesn't seem to want to work and I'm not a technical sort of person as you ALL know by now ! So the photos will have to wait 12 days until I get home and get it sorted for my final blog.
We went down to the Packing Shed - owned by Chris & K and Birdwood Vinery - to catch up with folk I know from my previous visits to Balingup and to have a lovely salad and (whisper this - a large bowl of chips to be shared between us all) for our lunch and then we left about 2pm to drive back to Perth and civilisation once more. The Packing Shed, K's brilliant idea, was a thriving collection of bijou shops and outlets in the old Packing Shed, including the Birdwood Vinery, it still houses the Balingup Museum as well as a lovely café - sadly many of the lovely little shops haven't survived and K has decided that she is to retire at the end of June this year.
My phone decided it really didn't like being in the sticks and although Vicky had good service on her Telstra driven phone - my Telstra driven phone said there was NO way it was going to work, probably it had heard about the Portuguese invasion ! As soon as we got out of the area and to a wonderful Vinery where Vicky purchased a crate of glorious white wine - my phone decided that the threat to life and limb was now over and came back to life - just how weird is that ?- so I was able to contact Mel - who had been in blissful ignorance of the ordeal his beloved wife and daughter had endured - and Ben - who wished me Happy Mothering Sunday and sent me a lovely photo of Archie dressed ready for another Party - what a social animal he is turning out to be, love him.
A fill up of fuel was necessary to ensure a safe trip home, and then to look out for Midway - and the Miami Pie shop on our way home. Midway is the name of the area - its obviously mid way between somewhere and another - but not too sue what or where ! Shock horror - we drove past - there isn't a sign on the North side of the Freeway - only on the South side - so we had to drive up to the next intersection down a the road and do a U-turn where the road was wide enough and back onto the Freeway South - apparently its illegal to do a U-turn at the freeway intersections - even when a pie is the reason for such drastic actions.
The glorious smell of the pies in the car on our way home was almost too much to bear. Vicky had bought Craig - a box of uncooked prawn pies (at his request) she bought me a steak and kidney pie, she had a sherried lamb pie and a cooked Mushroom Pie for Craig ! They were so worth doing the extra miles ....... I must ask why did Craig get three pies and Vicky and I only one each ?????
So lovely to be back in No 7 Wishaw Drive, a shower to remove the Balingup Red dust - I had to soak my face cloths in Vanish all night and it still didn't remove the stains my filthy red dust stained feet had left ! So another weekend bites the dust - literally !
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