Ravensthorpe Musings 15 April 2022

‘It is good weather for ducks’ they say! Bollocks! There is a lovely flock of ducks that mooch around a pond in the caravan park. I love watching them and imagine the conversations that they must be having with one another. Perhaps they comment on the odd little woman beetling around the caravan park in the work truck – who knows? But when the heavens opened, they seem to have gone missing and heavens opening is an understatement for it rained cats and dogs for a full 24 hours. In that 24 hours we got 127 mls (which in the old lingo is 5 inches).

Never again will I under appreciate the work that caravan park staff do in wet weather! There were cabins leaking, linen getting wet, stranded drivers seeking accommodation, ablution blocks that almost needed hosing out, weird insects trying to find cover in cabins, water rivulets had to be diverted and mice were wanting to come in out of the cold. Road gangs had to be called in as roads were flooding and they needed accommodation now! Ahhhhhh! I thought I would go mad and on top of all that Bingley decided he didn’t like the rain and I almost had to surgically remove him from the caravan to ensure that he did a wee! All my prayers will go to good weather until the end of May!

All the work entailed is an excellent exercise and weight loss regime. Clothes that were snug are no longer and all the flexibility I have is coming into excellent use as I am running up and down stairs, tending to the myriad of tasks that need to be tended to in order to give the impression of a smooth-running operation. But perversely I have to say I am enjoying myself.

Ravensthorpe itself is a quiet little place. It has a vertiginous main street seeming to scale the side of an impressive hill and one that takes some determination to walk up at a consistent speed. The shopping leaves a lot to be desired so thankfully there is the little town on the coast Hopetoun. It is a gorgeous little place unaffected by the ravages of trendy tourism. The road into it stops at the ocean and there is a lovely park and decent shops – meaning a supermarket and pharmacy. Unfortunately, the supermarket in Ravensthorpe is not enthusiastic about stacking their shelves which can be mighty frustrating.

The drive into Hopetoun is gorgeous. Eucalypts line the road thickly with the underlying scrub. The road sits snugly on the natural undulations - it has left me wondering on more than one occasion how our First Nations people ever made their way inland – for the vegetation is mighty thick. Just before you get into Hopetown the Eucalypts disappear and there is the most amazing forest of Banksia trees. I have never seen such a site and have only ever thought of Banksias in a one-off setting. The biggest treat of all at the moment is that the Banksia Forest is in full bloom. The Big Bad Banksia men have not appeared as yet – which is probably just as well as there is no Snuggle Pot and Cuddle Pie anywhere to keep them company! It will be a great pity when the blooms disappear to the husks as the site just now is quite exquisite. The cemetery has been placed in part of the forest and it is the most peaceful lovely setting, from the cemetery you can hear the rumble of the ocean and with the whispering of the Banksia Forest I really couldn’t think of a better place to spend eternity.

As well as the ducks in the pond on the caravan park there is a colony of frogs. They keep up a symphony night and day. I listen to them while I am working and just sitting in the caravan I can hear them conversing and they lull me to sleep at night. They haven’t been chased off by all the rain – perhaps the saying should be ‘its great weather for frogs’!