After a quick seminar on which fluids to keep topped up in my van by Alex Richards, I waved goodbye to the Pinjarra Hills house and headed west, to Atkinson Damn. A few days earlier I had decided that having stayed with the Richards family a month, things were just a little too comfortable, and it was time I moved on. Atkinson Damn was just a little spot on the map that happened to contain the closest caravan park to Mt. Glorious, where Katie and Tony Hiller’s place was, and where I had been invited to visit on Thursday. Since Wednesday was the day I had spontaneously decided (while in the shower one day) would be my last day, I stuck to my plan. Atkinson Damn Caravan Park was where I decided I’d spend my in-between night, and RACQ’s camping guide described it as “lake-side camping.” And lake-side camping it was, only the lake looked like it had been dried up for quite some time. Though my camping spot was quite near the shore-line, I had to squint and gaze way out into the distance to make out the ant-sized cows lurking at the waters’ edge! At any rate, the place wasn’t too bad, and I slept pretty well all locked in my van. This morning I woke up to an over-cast and cool day worthy of a sweatshirt. After a shower I hoped into the drivers’ seat and followed the map up Mt. Glorious’ steep and winding back road to the Mt. Glorious Biological Center. Katie and Tony had promised to take me down to their other property, in Caminya, where hopefully we could do some insect collecting if the weather was right. Of course, the weather wasn’t right, but we went down there anyway to water the plants in their ‘tunnel houses.’
Tony and Katie are amazing people. Katie, like myself, grew up in New Hampshire and left the United States after college to visit Australia. That was thirty years ago. Soon after arriving in Australia, she met Tony, an Englishmen, and they’ve both lived here happily ever since.
Though today’s visit to Caminya wasn’t everything it could have been, as always, I learned a great deal anyway. Tony is a wealth of knowledge. He takes great pride in the protection of the animal and plant-life on his two properties. It’s just amazing the things he notices about his environment, even as he’s driving. On our way to Caminya, Tony told me to keep an eye out for Eucalypts with blossoms, because “they’re quite attractive to beetles when they’re floriferous.” Of course I wasn’t even sure which trees were Eucalypts, and I soon discovered I had no idea of the difference between a flowering one and a non flowering one! Once in Caminya, we pulled down a dirt track through some forest, 4-wheel-driving over downed branches and around termite mounds. The Hiller’s property had once been the weekend place of a corriner and his family. The man’s sons had helped him assemble a make-shift building out of logs and corrigated steel around a small camping trailer and a shed. Once enclosed, the trailer and shed became like bedrooms and the erected walls and ceiling created the rest of the house. It’s the type of place I’d dream about finding out in the woods as a child- the ultimate fort, complete with a stove and bunk beds!
After spending the day in Caminya walking down the dry river bed, and watering plants, we headed back up the mountain to turn on Tony’s light trap and see what we could attract. Unfortunately, not much. It’s apparently too cold still. I’m a bit sad that the weather hasn’t been cooperating. I thought for sure today I’d be able to tag along on some real field work. Tomorrow Tony has some insect displays to finish up for customers, and Katie and I are going for an early-morning walk with friendly pooch Zammy. Then I’m off, to unknown and still undecided more southerly places than here. Tonight I will rest safe and sound in my van within earshot of the Hiller’s house. I wish camping would be this safe every night.
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