It’s a beautiful drive leaving Margaret River. We made our left hand turn and headed east. That means we’re homebound. But there’s still heaps to do in the  next few weeks – just wait and see.

The nearby Blackwood River has a number of good white water paddling sections. I left the boys to experience some of the river at the put in at Sue’s Bridge and waited at the get out, about 17km downstream. All the rain over the past week has washed out many of the rapids, but they still had a great time. It took them less than two hours. The place I picked them up is usually a quite drivable river ford. But as you can see in the photo below, you’d be a nutter to try it today.

Blackwood River, Great North Road ford

It was all green grass, fat black cows, full dams and tall, tall trees. This area in the south west is the home of the beautiful karri trees. The Boranup Forest we drove through just south of Margaret River was just a teaser. We had even better to come.

Like where we camped, right next to the Warren River in the Warren National Park. The trees towered over us, and the wind had dropped off – for now.

John suggested a fire tonight, especially as they supplied the wood. He had a wee bit of trouble getting it started.

Determined. Tenacious. Built for endurance.

There’s no Queen’s Scout who will let a pile of wet wood get in the way of a good fire. After an hour and a half, lots of swearing, and a few restarts, there was success. We all got to sit around a rip roaring fire which John said was giving out a fair bit of warmth. In fact he said this four times – just in case we hadn’t noticed. Nice fire John.

Meanwhile, the water in the river was rising. I took this photo when we had just arrived to set up camp – about 5.30pm.

And in the morning, it looked like this.

But there was more rain to come!