June 2012

After breakfast we donned the walking boots and prepared for a full day doing the tourist things around Wave Rock. Wave Rock is a granite outcrop formed about 120 million years ago and since shaped by erosion to look like a breaking wave.

Di at Wave Rock

Wave Rock forms part of Hyden Rock, and we climbed to the top of the Rock to admire the view of the surrounding countryside. A low wall has been built almost all the way around the rock to collect fresh water when it rains and channel the water into a dam that provides Hyden with its fresh water supply. Not sure that the greenies would let them do that now!

View from the top of Hyden Rock looking towards The Humps

Di with a new hat

Walls around the rock to trap fresh water

Hyden's reservoir

Our next stop was a large rock formation at the base of Hyden Rock known as the Hippo's Yawn for obvious reasons - see the photo below.

The Hyppo's Yawn

From the Hyppo's Yawn we continued across a salt lake to the newly constructed Wave Rock Resort, which it is hoped will bring more tourists to the Rock.

Wave Rock Resort

The beach on the lake at the Wave Rock Resort

The area is part of the WA wheat belt, and because of land clearing to grow more and more wheat the wheat belt has lost about 11% of its area to salt pans. The local farmers now understand the problem and are engaged on a tree planting campaign to lower the water table and reduce the impact of salt. It is estimated that 30 % of the wheat belt will be lost to salt before an equilibrium is obtained. A harsh lesson learned from excessive land clearing.

Salt damage near Wave Rock

A farmer's fence through the salt pan

On the way back to the caravan park we passed the local airport that services the resort.

Wave Rock Resort Airport

Back at the caravan park we checked out the local souvenir shop before visiting downtown Hyden for a trip to the bank for a bit of cash before buying some papers at the local IGA supermarket. We were surprised to see a NAB sign in the town - it turned out to be a sub-branch of the NAB Branch at Kondinin - 60 kms away. No ATM and no computer link to the NAB banking system, but they still gave us a cash advance. The NAB seem to have a good network in WA - Kurly and Frosty please note!

The NAB at Hyden

We continued on to The Humps, another rock formation that includes Mulka's Cave, the Kalari Trail, and the Gnamma Trail. Aboriginal legend has it that Mulka was born illegimate and as punishment he was cross-eyed and could not throw a spear to hunt. He was reputed to be very tall and would abduct young children at night to eat them. His hand prints in the cave are much higher than other aboriginals, and the moral of the story is that young children should not wander off at night or Mulka will get them.

Mulka's Cave

Aboriginal hand prints in Mulka's Cave

From the Cave we made our way to the top of The Humps via the Kalari Trail that follows a fairly steep climb to the Peak before coming down the other side. There was an outstanding view from the top. But it was quite cold and windy.

The Humps

Life on the Rock

Wanna-be wave on the Humps

View from the top of The Humps

Who's that over there?

After climbing to the top of the Humps, we followed the Gnamma trail on a shorter easier walk. Gnammas are water holes in the rocks that were expanded and looked after by the aborigines, to provide almost permanent water supplies.

Aboriginal water hole, or Gnamma

A larger shallower water hole

Aboriginal lizard trap

Back at the caravan park we settled back with a QLD as a well deserved reward for our walk of about 10 kms all up.

White Gum tree on the road back to camp

Heavy dew this morning that did not help the packing up process. We dried off the awning as best we could, but still rolled it up wet. We will have to unroll it and leave it out at Hyden when we get there.

We got away at about 9:30pm and headed west to Ravensthorpe, where we stopped for a coffee and some toasted ham and cheese sandwiches at the local cafe - possibly the best we have ever had with great slabs of ham about 1 cm thick - yum! We filled up with diesel before turning north west towards Hyden. As it was a holiday for WA Foundation Day there was not too much traffic on the roads.

We arrived at the Wave Rock Caravan Park at about 4:00 pm, the park is located only a few hundred metres from the rock itself, and is about 4 kms east of Hyden. We checked in for 2 nights and were allocated one of the largest sites in the park - an advantage of being a 5th wheeler. The park is quite well appointed, lacking only some grass.

We put out the awning again mainly to dry it off after the dew at Esperance. The TV signal at the park is recieved from the satellite by the park and re-broadcast on UHF frequencies, but the quality not too good becasue of the trees in the park, so we set up our own satellite dish. Must be getting better at this as we found the satellite fairly quickly.

Wave Rock Caravan Park

Cleaning up day today - washed the ute and the van, and also carried some maintenance jobs, on both the ute and the van. Later in the day we went shopping, but WA is worse than SA on a Sunday - closed up tighter than a drum. Someone should tell the WA Premier, Colin Barnett that if he wants a bigger share of GST, he should introduce 7 day trading so they would collect more GST, instead of giving Tassie a hard time.

Still windy - 15 to 20 knots off the water. Temperature started at 14 and reached 21 by lunch time. There are plenty of whitecaps on the bay, but we get some shelter with the trees in the park, and our awning is holding up well. Drove into the town centre for the papers this morning and David updates the Blog while Di did a couple of loads of washing. After an early lunch we made a quick visit to the supermarket before doing the Great Ocean Drive, which follows the coast to the west of Esperance.

The scenery along this part of the WA coast is just magnifcent - We think that we might come back in the spring in a few year's time. David was talking to a surfer on one of the beaches, and when he commented that the beautiful beaches with the white sand went on and on, the surfer said that these beaches go all the way to South Australia.

The Great Ocean Drive started at the Rotary lookout near the town centre, then took in West Beach, Blue Haven, Salmon Beach, Fourth Beach, Twilight Beach, Observatory Point, then 9th, 10th and 11th Beach, before returning to Esperence via the Pink Lake (which was not pink).

On 9 December 1792 the Recherche under the command of Captain Antoine D'Entrecasteaux and the Esperance under the command of Captain Huon Kermandec sheltered in the lee of Observatory Island - those Frenchmen got about a bit! Anything that they did not find and name was named by Matthew Flinders.

Di at Rotary Lookout

West Beach from the Lookout

Blue Haven looking east

Surf fishing very popular

Salmon Beach

Di at Twilight Beach

Twylight Beach

The monster at Picnic Beach

Observatory Point in the distance

Observatory Island

Looking west along 9, 10 and 11 mile Beaches

Surf fishermen on the beach

Pink Lake

Forecast for today was 11 to 20 with showers later, which did not eventuate. By 10:00 am it was clear skies and sunny with a temperature in the low 20s. After breakfast we walked to the town centre for coffee and papers again, and some fresh bread rolls for lunch - only 4.4 kms today.

When we got back to the caravan park we packed some lunch and headed for the Cape Le Grand National Park. The Park has a number of attractions, including Le Grand Beach, Frenchman's Peak, Hellfire Bay, Thistle Cove, Lucky Bay and Rossiter Bay. The park is about 50 kms east of Esperance with access along excellent sealed roads, apart from the final 6 kms in to Rossiter Bay ,which was gravel.

Cape Le Grand National Park

Approaching Mt Le Grand

Cape Le Grand and Boulder Hill

Our first stop was the Le Grand Beach camping area and the realisation that we could have travelled about half the distance by driving along the beach from Wylie Bay near Esperance. Have not done any beach driving yet as letting down tyre to a lower pressure and pumping them up again seems too much trouble, without the need to wash the salt away from under the vehicle.

We could have driven the beach from Wylie Bay

Di on Le Grand Beach

Le Grand Beach - very white sand

We walked through the camp sites, most of which were big enough for caravans.

Caravan spaces in the Cape Le Grand camping ground

We arrived at the camp ground at about 12:00 noon to find the camp ground about half full, but an hour later only one site remained.

Camping Ground filling fast

We had lunch on the beach before climbing up to the lookout for views of the camping ground, the beach and Frenchman's Peak in the distance.

Di enjoying the view

Next stop was Hellfire Bay and you guessed it - more white sand.

Hellfire Bay - more white sand

Hellfire Bay

As we drove out from Hellfire Bay we realised that Frenchman's Peak had an arch near the top of the peak.

Frenchman's Peak with its arch

A closer view of the arch

The view from the Frenchman's Peak car park

We continued on to Thistle Cove and Whistling Rock, which has a crack in the rock that whistles in the wind.

Whistling Rock at Thistle Cove

Di at Whistling Rock

Waves breaking in a gulch at Thistle Cove

Thistle Cove Beach from above

Thistle Cove Beach - more white sand

After leaving Thistle Cove we headed for the Lucky Bay Campground, which has separate camping and caravan areas, although the caravan area is a bit cheek by jowl, unlike the separate areas at Le Grand Beach.

Lucky Bay

Lucky Bay caravan spaces in the camping ground

Our final stop was Rossiter Bay before we returned to the caravan park.

Rossiter Bay from the carpark

We finished the evening with a lazy tea, then sat back and enjoyed watching Richmond beat the Saints off the satellite.