Sat, 30th Nov, 2024 Bush camp by Blackwood River, near Eulin Crossing to Bush camp by Collie River, 10km from Collie, WA (exploring Lake Towerrinning & Darkan)

15 degrees min, clear sky and no wind.

Headed back out to the main road and headed towards Arthur River (township). The wind has picked up again.

Turned off at Moodiarrup - only a house on corner that looked like it had been a pub or shop. Further along then turned off to check out Lake Towerrinning. 256ha close to but not directly part of the Arthur River. It is semi-freshwater. There is a campground on private property further around and a picnic area with two jetties for the swimmers and boat ramp.

The dam is used for water-skiing etc but only good for tubing today with the strong wind.

We walked down to the jetty. View across to the campground. The water is clear.

There are hundreds of bright blue dragonflies with brown dragonflies attached behind them (mating season). I think these are baby dragonflies.

As we walked along we saw a few wrens enjoying a dragonfly breakfast! Got a blurry photo of some single blue ones.

Found a map at the boat ramp. Only swimming around the jetties and there are shade shelters on the edge of the water this side of the boat ramp for skiers.

Back up the top to another sign which shows the lakes proximity to the Arthur River.

We headed back out and I said to Steve, take a left to head to Arthur River township. I had my head down writing my notes. As there wasn’t anything of interest along the way I didn’t put Wikicamps back on. When we got to the t-intersection I saw a sign saying Collie and realised we weren’t at Arthur River as it is on the Albany Highway. We realised Steve should have turned right first to get back to the main road then left but it’s all good as we wanted to check out the township here. 

Drove back a bit and into Darkan. The sky has cleared overhead but there is still a band of low cloud in the west. Still windy of course.

Stopped at the picnic area that has been done up along with another amazing playground. The cut-outs looked better looking out. Another great playground on the other side.

Got our hats and followed the path of the history trail. Well, we will do some of it that is.

Nice display of history, town information and photos in a hut. Found the dragonflies too.

Another display going up the path of things to do and see around here.

Found some more history at the Pioneer Memorial. There are plaques with pioneers names and occupations etc on raised platforms that is in the shape of the original surveyed location of the area in 1894.

Back to the history trail.

Back to the railway station that is now a small cafe and crafts shop.

Back to the camper and we headed back onto the main road towards Collie. More grass trees along the roadside. Into more natural forest rather than grazing land now.

Across the Collie River (marked incorrectly on Wikicamps as Shotts River as the area where the mine is was called Shotts).

Passed the Big Shovel by the big open coal mine pit which we checked out in 2017.

Turned off onto a gravel road into forestry area and along a road to the river. Down a little track to a big pool area of the Collie. Popular spot as there is a big open area for camping etc near a swinging rope in the tall tree. We went a bit further along to the end of the lagoon (it narrows after that) and parked up making sure we didn’t have any big limbs over head as the wind was still blowing.

Another couple drove in as we were setting up and went down further and crossed the river to come back and park on the other side of the lagoon. They set up and then went in for a swim - must be locals.

It has warmed up a lot, 31.6 degrees at lunchtime even with the wind though that is up in the top of the trees here.

Sent a text to Kev and Linda to say we will be calling in tomorrow to see them.

Forecast for the start of summer tomorrow will be showers and max of 22 degrees, really!!

Lots of birds and crickets to listen too as we relaxed for the afternoon - Steve read and I did my blog. It climbed to 34 degrees and I put the fan on as the wind isn’t getting into the windows as it is still up high.

We heard a blast so figured they are still working on that coal mine area.

Had a lovely video chat with Jon, Annalise and Beau who was staring at our pictures on the phone. He is crawling everywhere and was funny to watch as he climbed over Stella the labrador. Bandit (border collie) stays out of the way. He pulls up onto things and stands and has 4 teeth (nearly 9 mths old) so he will be walking before he is 1 year old.

Steve put the chairs down by the water and we had our drinks out there watching the wrens flit about. Saw the one bright blue male as he flew over the other side of the water.

6.30pm the wind above us stopped. Sky clear and all quiet.