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A case in point. We stopped in Perenjori, having come from Morawa, answered the inquiry about where we'd been, described our destination, mentioned that the hire car people weren't enthused about having their vehicles travel off the bitumen (no insurance cover if you did and something unfortunate happened) and asked about the possibilities.

The response was a complicated briefing that would’ve taken us along a confusing array of dirt roads in search of a small array of orchids in a location identified by the presence of a blue sock.  And we'd have been heading back towards Morawa, rather than south towards New Norcia.

While we listened patiently, nodding sagely, and thanked the lady for her advice, once we were back in the car we were off towards Carnamah and Coorow with the possibility of lunch in the back of our minds. Neither township seemed to have much on offer in the eating department, so we continued south towards Moora, planning to call in to the Wildflower Farm to the north of town, where the information brochure suggested lunch might be a possibility.

The Wildflower Farm, once we'd found our way inside, proved to be an interesting operation in a number of ways. The entrance wasn't all that clearly identified (or maybe we were just in the wrong part of the car park) and we found our way inside thorough the entrance that provided access from what were obviously the proprietors' living quarters, to be greeted by the owner, who showed us around the processing part of the operation (fairly impressive, they apparently have an extensive export market), offered us a cup of tea or coffee in what looked like the eating section of the establishment, and left us to go about her regular routine out the back. 

The woman who looks after the front of house arrangements cheerily delivered the refreshments and didn't act as if payment was required, so we sat undisturbed for a spell with a specially commissioned Leyland Brothers documentary about Western Australian wildlife played out in the background at a relatively high volume level.

Inquiries about lunch brought an I'll see what I can do and the end of the Leyland Brothers DVD produced a welcome silence, interrupted by the return of Madam Proprietor, who volunteered to put it back to the start so we could watch the rest of it and advised that the catering only operates for coaches. 

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© Ian Hughes 2012