Tues, 7th Jan, 2025 pm Bush camp near Jingemia Cave, north-east of Watheroo to Eco Van Park, Three Springs, WA (history walks & talc mine)

Returned to the main road and continued northward. Passed another big grain bin area. Harvesting must be over now.

Into Three Springs (I googled and found there is a town starting with a number from One to Ten).

Went around to the dump point first. I found a plaque of the history walk so will park up and do that now.

Found a shady spot to park near an armoured personnel carrier by the railway line and the big silos. They would be great for a silo artist to paint.

Found more history plaques. The sun is very bright on the plaques.

Nice murals - the truck with ore is from the Talc Mine out of town to the east. Will have to do a trip through this area when the wildflowers are in bloom but we are usually still in the goldfields trying to find rocks, not flowers!

Further along looking back at the silos and the other storage area.

Found the start of the heritage walk - going the wrong way but oh well. Also the Midland Route info.

Two lovely murals.

Bricks with local's names makes a nice memory path.

Will drive out to where one of the 3 springs is and the old well.

The fence along the rail line is covered in different coloured bougainvillea.

Across the road and we headed back along the street reading more history. More photos on the rubbish bins too. The other side of the park of the old town hall where I read the first plaque.

Good use of timber from the cyclone damaged church.

Outside the Visitor Centre was a huge hunk of Talc.

The centre isn’t open but there were some brochures in a box which we checked out. Unfortunately the lovely mural on the front is now covered by the trees. They used the silos as a big TV screen for an Offroad event in 2023.

Another photo of the murals and silos.

Continued down the street. More great photos on the bins.

Some of the talc mine too.

Across the road and back down the path by the rail line in the shade of big gum trees.

Back to the truck and out a side road to a Wikicamps history mark but it was just a sign by a paddock where the first wheat crop was harvested. Very red soil around here - not the sandy ground closer to the coast.

Back to town then out the other way to one of the springs the town is named after. The spring must be up this way as there is water and lush plants. An old homestead is up from it. The farmer has a nice water supply across the road too.

Took another road and continued on to the Talc Mine. First we pass through lots of small salt lakes, some green, some light brown and all being blown by the strong wind which is still blowing! These are all part of the Yarra Yarra Lakes system.

There are 4 steel trees out the front - Blue for Mental Health Awareness (we see lots of dead trees painted blue), Green for Environmental Sustainability & Prevention of Salinity in WA, Pink for Cancer Council and White for Support of Road Safety in WA.

We continued past the mine.

Turned off onto a gravel road to go around to the back of it then up the hill to the lookout. Great view from up here across the lakes and pastures too. Even windier up here.

There were big rocks of it here and lots of little bits too. Steve used it as chalk for a game of noughts and crosses - I was about to win but he put the x in my spot on my turn, cheater!

More nice views as we headed back down the road.

Back into town - very quiet, everyone on holiday or hiding out of the heat. Around to the Eco Caravan Park which is actually an area behind the swimming pool (which has a lot of people keeping cool) with trees and a couple of picnic tables. Free for 72 hours so we found a nice spot and set up. No big limbs to fall on us with this wind which is good.

Up to 37 today but the wind is quite cool still when you are in the shade. Lots of corellas about but hopefully they don’t like these trees.

Had a cuppa outside - feels a lot cooler compared to yesterday.

Worked on my blog for a while and Steve read. Lucky we found him some more books. Annalise sent some videos of Beau hard at work in his car towing the garden waste behind him. Daddy is having too much fun with the remote control, he will have the car worn out before Beau can drive it himself!

Drinks and dinner outside which is now feeling quite cool in the wind though the thermometer still says 30 degrees in the camper. Obviously it takes longer to cool down.

In the end we had to close the windows about 9pm as it got too chilly for us! No one else has pulled in - bet it is a busy place when it is wildflower season.