We’ve just had
a Long Weekend and this time, J and I went down to Nyamup Village, an old mill town about 20km east of
Manjimup.
It was a bit of
a last minute decision and I really only started looking for accommodation on
Monday, which is usually a bit late for a long weekend, esp at the start of the
school holidays. But I went onto Stayz
and found this place called Gum Nut Cottage and it was listed as available.
I made the
booking enquiry through the website and got the confirmation email. Because there wasn’t much time to play with,
I rang the mobile number listed in the email, but it was disconnected. I couldn’t find the place listed on any other
website, so I was very worried that it was no longer available to rent, but
they had just forgotten to take it off Stayz.
Feeling a bit
desperate, I started widening the search online and found a picture of what
looked like the same place listed on LJ Hooker’s website in Pemberton, not
called “Gum Nut Cottage,” but “4 Nyamup Rd, Nyamup.” And not for sale, just for holiday hire. So I rang LJ Hooker and asked if they knew
about this place on Stayz called “Gum Nut Cottage” in Nyamup and sure enough,
they did and they handle the leasing of it!
It was definitely still available (not surprising, seeing as it was so
hard to find).
J was keen to
add Friday night as well, but I had to wait until Tuesday to see if I could get
away from work early. By about 11am, I still didn’t know for sure, but I
didn’t want to wait any longer, so went ahead and booked it anyway, hoping it
would be ok. Then about an hour later I
got confirmation at work that I could leave at 3pm on Friday – woot!
So after a mad
frenzy of finishing candle orders and organising the house and food, at 3pm on Friday afternoon I left work and
went straight on to J’s to get going.
It was pretty
heavy traffic for the first few hours and we didn’t get to Bunbury until about 6.30pm.
And my oh my, was it cold! There
was a really strong wind blowing and it was freezing – made a bit of a shock
getting out of the car.
We ended up at
a Thai restaurant called The White Elephant which was fab. Really, really, nice food and decadant
ambiance.
We missed the
turnoff from Bunbury and had to do a little backtracking, but we made it to Nyamup
by about 9.30pm.
The place is an
old mill town that ran from 1939 to 1989.
I think all the little cottages are now privately owned and some are
available for hire, a bit like Donnelly River without the general store. Lots of kangaroos and emus hanging around
too, although not quite as tame as the DR ones, probably because they’re not
getting a steady supply of pellets.
We found our
cottage, number 4, and unpacked. I think
“delightful” or “romantic” are the best words to describe it. It looked like it has had a fairly recent reno and was gorgeous. It had a very modern Ikea kitchen and
bathroom, 2 big bedrooms with queen size beds in each, as well as a sleepout
with 2 bunks. The 2nd bedroom
was all florally and feminine while the master bedroom had a slightly more
masculine feel, so we settled in accordingly.
The loungeroom was really cozy with a big, built-in, slow combustion
fireplace and huge tv. Everything was
perfect.
So with my
electric blanket on and 2 quilts on top of me, I had a wonderful night’s
sleep.
The next
morning we cooked up a big brekkie and then went walking to explore our
surrounds. Straight across from our
cottage was a path that said “river,” so off we went. It took us past some old ruins of mill
buildings as well as over an old railway/tram track. Then on down to a tiny, rickety footbridge
across a river. It really was rickety
and about halfway across a tree was growing over it which involved some
interesting limbo action.
From there it
was a network of what felt like rivers and dams – I got a bit disoriented, but
J seemed to be mapping it in his head.
Lots of frogs and ducks and just a lovely secluded place.
We eventually
came back up to the house and then went out to have a look at a property that J
had seen online. [] There was no phone signal in our cottage, but
back at the highway J called the Real Estate agent and she sent us a little
mudmap of how to find it.
There was a bit
of light offroading involved, but we found it eventually and I really loved it. We managed to drive around 2 sides of it and
then had a bit of an explore through it, by car and foot. It was sort of on 2 levels and looked like
it had a temporary creek running through it, although that was dry.
[]
Anyway, we had
a good time tromping all over it, saw a big pod of kangaroos and a goanna, and
then went off to Manjimup to find some firewood.
The lady I
spoke to at LJ Hooker had told me that the Caltex in Manjimup sold bags of
firewood, but when we went, the man said no.
He suggested Mitre 10, so off we went there. They only sold these “ecolog” things and when
we asked the guys what they were like, they basically warned us off them,
saying they were pretty rubbish. They
suggested we try the petrol station at the “end of the main street” or the
BP. So we went to BP first (only
ecologs) then the other petrol station and yay! … the guy had 6 bags of jarrah
left!
So we got 2
bags and then went back home to have a late lunch of chicken waldorf sandwiches
in front of the fire.
I had grabbed
some dvds just before I left the house on Friday and J had brought a usb with
some tv shows on it. But we couldn’t
find a usb connection port on anything, so it came down to the dvds, which I
was a bit embarrassed about because I hadn’t put a lot of thought into
them. I had brought P&P, David
Copperfield, My Fair Lady, A Mighty Wind, and The Good Life.
So J chose
Pride and Prejudice to watch first. He’d
never seen it, but after having read the book while we were up north, I think
he was a bit curious. Top marks to him
that he got right through it and I think actually enjoyed it, even though the
endless feminine analysing between Lizzy & Jane must have been driving him
batty at times.
We had a pause
to make dinner (sadly the oven wasn’t working so I had to improvise a tray bake
in the electric frypan) and then finally made it to the end very late, must
have been around 11pm.
[]
We both crashed
pretty much straight away and got up around 7.30 the next morning.
J had commented
the day before that we had already done everything we had planned to do in the
first day, but I was still curious about going over to Moon’s Crossing. So we took Wheatley Coast Rd, heading south, but we couldn’t see the
MC turnoff. We ended up on Orchard Rd and did a bit of traipsying around the
tracks until we came across Moon’s Crossing Rd.
The crossing
itself was really full, tons of water flowing really fast. We climbed over a few rocks to get a closer
look, but the current looked way too strong so we decided not to try it.
We drove around
a few of the tracks for a while longer, found an interesting wooden bridge
along the Bibulmun Track at Wright’s campsite, and then found a concrete river
crossing which wasn’t too deep that we could cross.
That led us
past the Gloucester Tree and into Pemberton, where we had a quick lunch at the
bakery. I had a sausage roll and a
meringue thing that tasted awful. It
wasn’t sweet and was covered in hazelnuts … yuck.
[]
We decided from
there to take the Rainbow Trail past Big Brook Dam and then head up to Bridgetown to visit the Cidery. I’d forgotten how lovely that dam is. And somewhere along the way, I think on Channybearup Rd, we saw a sign to Tangletoe Cidery, so
we went off to find it.
They specialise
in organic wines and ciders and, after a taste test, J bought a few bottles,
including a cherry port and a cider liquer.
I have to say I
felt a little bit tipsy after that and had a lovely experience in the car of
wonderful contentment and happiness while driving through the green fields and
listening to folk music. J
We continued on
to the Cidery and made it there by about 2pm. J bought a
few more bottles and we sat for a while, J with a glass of scrumpy and I had a
sweet soft cider. Yum. We had parked next to someone who had a
“Foxwing” attached to their 4wd, so we were investigating those and other
awnings on J’s phone.
After that we
went back to the house to light the fire and watch some more telly. This time it was Mighty Wind and then, after
dinner, My Fair Lady. I hadn’t watched
it in years and I don’t think J had seen it since childhood. What an interesting and brilliant film it is.
[]
The next
morning was pack up day and my 40th birthday!
[]
It was porridge
for breakfast this morning. J challenged
me to a little cook-off where he wanted to make his in the microwave and I did
mine on the stove and we would compare the results. And I guess the less said about that the
better. (I won.)
After breakfast
we packed everything up and gave the house a quick clean. Then I said that I wouldn’t mind having a
look at Chindalup Pool and Lake Muir, which I had seen on the map, before
heading home.
We found
Chindalup Pool after a bit which turned out to be a lovely picnic spot on the Tone River.
Fairly hidden away, it would make a nice campsite, but there were a heck
of a lot of marchflies and bees hanging around.
That might just be because it’s Spring and everything is blooming
everywhere.
From there we
continued along to Lake Muir.
There is quite a posh visitor shelter and bird hide there and it’s
really quite lovely. The water is a fair
way off from the hide, but it was peaceful and beautiful. While we were there, a man and his teenage
son arrived. The dad wanted to take a
photo of his son with the lake in the background and told him to “not give me
that emo expression.”
They seemed to
be travelling alone together with a caravan.
Despite all thoughts to the contrary, I saw the son give his dad the
most adoring look back at the car – it was really heartwarming.
From Lake Muir we cut north on a gravel road and came
out onto Wingebealup Rd or something (I can’t remember the actual name because
J kept referring to it as “Whinge-belly.”)
That took us up past Tonebridge picnic/campsite and Heartlea, which was
an old settlement or something. All we
could find was a big old wooden shed and some dirt mounds.
Continuing on,
we landed in Boyup Brook around early afternoon, so we stopped to have
lunch. It’s really quite a cute town, I
hadn’t really paid much attention before.
Then on past
Glen Mervyn dam to Collie, then back to the sw highway for the last stretch to Perth.
All in all, it
was a great trip. Spring was definitely
in the air and everything was green and blooming. I had an absolute ball and
I’m so glad I spent my 40th in that way. []
