Mellenbye Station Stay has been an excellent choice. Even though it was just two degrees this morning the morning quickly warmed. Our Station Host, Shelley, came to our door around 9am to see if we would like to tag along on a Wreath Flower Tour. Of course! So along with another two vehicles we set off down the road with Shelley leading the way.
Around ten kilometres later we turned off the main road and followed a fence line for a short distance before Shelley stopped and we all parked our vehicles. Just a few metres away was the beginning of the Wreath Flower Trail that stretched in front of us for about a kilometre. As I mentioned previously, the flowers love disturbed soil and as we were walking along a fence line that had only been erected a few years ago it was the perfect soil for the dormant flowers to grow.
They really are a beautiful flower and after the little disappointment of not seeing them fully opened yesterday this was amazing. The perfectly round shape is what really grabs your attention, the absolute shape of a wreath. Shelley said that they are an Australian Wildflower not found anywhere else in the world and only grow in Western Australia. There is another variety of wreath flower in the South West of Western Australia with a different colour so we may even see some as we journey further south. They flower from July to September before finally succumbing to heat.
After we had got our fill of flowers, Shelley led us further down the road to the main homestead where we were shown the grain growing and harvesting system that they have installed. To give you the shortened version, Barley seed is scattered into long troughs that are watered with an overhead spray system. The troughs are inside giant cool rooms and when the doors are closed it creates the perfect environment for the seeds to sprout and within a week they are ready to harvest and feed to the cattle. It is quite an ingenious system that I watched on Landline some time ago.
Our host talked about the cyclone that passed over them a couple of years ago. It really wreaked havoc on their property destroying houses, sheds and anything else in its path. This is not the first time we have heard about this cyclone as they also mentioned it at Port Gregory where it shifted the sand dunes back many metres.
The tour was terrific and we all thanked our host for taking the time to show us around her property, all for no charge. I am saddened that there are not more people staying here and Shelley is disappointed that she has no forward bookings whatsoever. It seems that half WA is holidaying in Bali!
After a light soup lunch (homemade chorizo, corn and Potato) we then jumped back into the car to drive the twenty kilometres to the “Rock”. We were told it is Mellenbye’s answer to Uluru, albeit a much smaller version! The Rock is quite stunning but what is truly amazing is the giant bronze horse statue sitting atop the Rock. Shelleys brother owned the property before she took over when he died and apparently he was a bit of an eccentric. We did notice the merry-go-round on our drive into the camping area and commented that the owner must love kids! We didn’t realise that he was in fact the big kid……
We have met some lovely people here at Mellenbye and one couple, Frank and Pauline, have given us some very good information about where to go and what to see as we make our way further south. They are of the same opinion as us that we should base ourselves in a couple of places and explore out from them.
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