Good Morning Augusta!
Low 5°c (41°F) – High 17°c
(63°F)
Well not good morning Augusta for very long – after not sleeping until
at least 3.00am worrying about the ever increasing weather warnings we woke
this morning to the advice that the warning had been upgraded from Gale to
Severe Gale and winds up to 100km/hr – even receiving text messages from the
weather app stating we were in a severe weather event area. It didn’t take long to decide to pack up very
quickly and leave with a view to getting inland as much as we could before the
winds made it unsafe to drive. Aside
from the torrential rain we had during the night, this morning it was hard to
believe a storm was on the way as there were clear skies periodically and not a
breath of wind. Literally the calm
before the storm.
Not bothering with showers, breakfast or even to make the bed, we
packed away the necessities and headed off around 8.45am with no clear
destination but not before I raced over to the amenities block to take some
photos of that amazing wood and stone work.
We were blessed with virtually no wind most of the trip with the
exception of about the last 20 minutes.
Driving through heavily wooded areas certainly helped but there were
some really heavy downpours along the way.
Initially we were thinking of stopping at a little town called Nannup
but with the weather warning area having been extended by almost double the
size it was yesterday, and given it was pouring rain still, we decided to keep
driving. There’s no point stopping and
just sitting in the van in the pouring rain.
We’ve almost always tried to drive as far out of those weather events as
we can.
We pulled over in a parking bay around 10.30am to have some breakfast
and a coffee which also served as a nice 20 minute break from a particularly
rainy section. Tempting as it was to
just crawl back into bed, we had to keep moving to put as much distance from
the coming winds and ourselves as we could.
The countryside along this route is so incredibly green with lush grass
and still lots of vineyards dotted amongst the grazing and pasture lands as
well as a large number of pine and bluegum plantations. We also love the little towns you pass
through and wish we had the time to visit them all as every one of them would
have a story to tell. We passed by a
farm that had dozens of caravans and it wasn’t until we got closer that we
could see the vans were being used for free range chickens to roost in. There were thousands of chickens roaming
around the paddocks, each with their own holiday home to take refuge in.
It was well after 1.00pm when we reached the town of Williams and the
sleepless night and heavy rain had really taken its toll on my driving. I was tired and we were hungry and so we
decided to book into the local caravan park for the night. On arrival Shane went to the office but there
was no response even to his phone calls.
We drove around the back and there were only 2 vans parked up in a
relatively small park. We selected a
site and got set up but with no intention of going anywhere we left the car
attached to the van, and we’ll try to contact the owners tomorrow since we were
informed no-one was on site today.
With a population of 411 in the 2016 Census, Williams is named after
the Williams River which passes through the town. After the building of Albany Highway by convicts in
the 1850s, Williams became an important stopover point for passengers and
changing of horses, and became the main centre in the district. The
bridge over the Williams River was completed in 1855 and the Williams Hotel erected
in 1871. A Road Board (predecessor to
the current Shire Council) first convened in 1877. The original town had been built on the
Albany side of the river, but was subject to increasing floods due to the
clearing of the land for intensive farming; therefore the town was
relocated to the Perth side of the bridge.
Today the town is a centre for the wool, cattle and coarse grains industry,
and serves as a stopping point on Albany Highway and weary travelers such
as we three who need a sleep!
The rain continued on and off all afternoon and into the evening. We’ll head off in the morning with our
intention to be spending a couple of nights at Wave Rock and then on to Kalgoorlie,
which will actually put us back on schedule with our travels with just 4 weeks
to go until we get home.
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