WILD FLOWERS GALORE

We stayed overnight in Esperance and the next day our tour bus headed west along the south coast to Albany for the next night. On the way we stopped a few times and each time we were surrounded by an abundance of wildflowers.

Blue Haven Beach

 The coastline was very scenic. The sea is an amazing colour here. 

 We stopped at Munglinup for morning tea but I was out snapping the flowers.

Acacia Tree or Wattle --our national flower.

Eucalyptus Tree and seed pods.

Then we drove on further through lovely scenery with much more vegetation than on the previous inland stretch. We came to the town of Ravensthorpe. 

A typical country home.

After lunch we walked through the town to the senior citizens hall where there was a flower show.

We passed this magnificent Bottle Brush Tree (Callistemon) on the way.

Ravensthorpe flower show.

FLOWERS AROUND SOUTHERN CROSS

On our way from Hyden to Kalgoorlie in WA the tour bus stopped many times for us to take photos.

The road followed this famous water pipeline which stretches 560 km from Perth through the arid interior to the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie. It was constructed by C. Y. O'Connor in 1890 and it was an incredible feat of engineering even by present day standards. The steel was imported from England. It took months for them to come by sea.

 We were surrounded by wildflowers.

 We pulled into a small town called Southern Cross for morning tea. It was one of the first gold mining towns to develop, supplying provisions for the miners trekking further on to the gold fields of Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. (Don't you love the sound of those names?)

The Club Hotel, Southern Cross.

I love the way these country towns have renovated the old hotels back to their original glory.

 The gardens in the town were awash with colour.

 Back on the road again, there were more wild flowers to see.

 I have never seen such a variety of native plants all growing together. In one square metre you could find dozens of different plants.

So many and so beautiful.

GOING WILD

Our tour bus left Hyden (WA) and continued travelling east towards the drier lands of the interior. At first we drove through beautiful green wheat fields but after many miles the vegetation changed into scrubby bushland dotted with colourful wild flowers. The passengers were getting excited as this is what they came to see.

We had a great tour guide and driver. They tried very hard to find places to stop on the side of the road where we could hop out and go wild taking photos of the wild flowers.

 I am not good at naming plants. I only have a limited text to help me and I have decided just to use the common names not the botanical names as I could easily be wrong. 

Flame Grevillea

  

Bacon and Eggs

Every now and then we passed a clump of trees with multiple trunks.