Part 2 – Playing the Tourist in WA

Once again I’ve got lots of photos to share.

Norseman is the first town you encounter once you get to the west.  I loved these camels.  We didn’t see any real ones and actually saw very little wild life on the way over.  We saw 2 roos in our top paddock, a couple of goats, a few eagles, lots of crows, a couple of lizards and a few emus in the distance.  Apart from one section towards the west of the Nullarbor there was very little road kill as well.

From about Norseman the landscape changes again and is dominated by salmon gums.  After the scrubby stuff on the way across it is just beautiful to see such majestic trees.  I just loved all their different forms.

We visited the mining town of Kalgoorlie.  This is the “Super Pit” just on the edge of town.  It engulfed all the smaller mines.  If you zoom in you will see a tiny matchbox toy  truck.  Well, this is actually one of those humungous mining trucks. I’ll have to compare with photos we took in the late 90s.

There were also excavators at the bottom of the pit.  They were also really tiny.  This photo might put things a bit more in perspective.   This is the bucket off one.  Mick is 6 foot tall and and it is 5 metres across.

The main thing we wanted to visit this time was Wave Rock.  It is near the small wheatbelt town of Hyden in the middle of nowhere.

On our way there we went through a little town called Nerembeen which just happened to have a lovely patchwork shop.  Unfortunately, it is closing down, but I squeezed into my pannier a small bundle of fabrics.  I’ll show you when Mick brings them home.

Most of the small towns in WA were neat and tidy and looked like the locals really have some civic pride.  It was great to see.

Now to Wave Rock.  The “wave” itself is 100 metres long, but the granite rock itself covers 29 hectares. It came to international fame in the 60s after a photo of it won a competition and was published in National Geographic.

The pioneers of the area were ingenious and built a low concrete wall around the edge of the rock and dammed the water for their town water supply.

Hyden could have been one of those rural towns that have died, but the locals have capitalised on the rock.  There is a great caravan park only a stones throw from the rock, a hotel motel in town with fabulous bistro and a new resort is being built.

There is a complex over the road from the rock which houses Australia’s largest lace collection.  Not what you would expect to see there.  I wasn’t sure if you could take photos so I didn’t.  There is lace dating back to the 1600s.  I tell you, I was drooling! It was beautifully displayed on the walls and in gorgeous jarrah chests of drawers.  There were beautiful vintage dresses displayed throughout the museum as well.  If you get the chance, visit this collection.

We had morning tea at the Hyden Bakery and got talking to some other Ulyssians.  (Yes, there were Ulyssians wherever you went.) We ended up there for nearly 2 hours! A lovely social day.

There is an op shop in Hyden to raise money to start a Men’s Shed.  No matter how much stuff we have on the bike, you can always add a little something from an op shop and I found treasure.  I’ll show you later as it is still coming home with Mick.

Just north of the  town there is also the most significant aboriginal art site in the south west of WA.  There are 450 hand prints. It is called Mulka’s Cave. If you go to the link, you can read the legend of Mulka.

Back in Hyden there is a collection of quirky sculptures depicting the history of the area.  They were really well done.  Many towns seem to have community art installations.

In the late afternoon we went back up on Wave Rock to try to get sunset photos, but the sun was not in a good spot.  However, the colours were lovely and golden and we had the whole place to ourselves.  It was so very peaceful and quiet.

We really enjoyed our day in the area.  And, to top it all off there was a free concert in the caravan park that night.  Bonus!  The music was fabulous, but finished all too soon.

From here we travelled south to Mount Barker where we met up with our friends from Rockhampton.  It was really good to see them again.

Then it was in to Albany for the start of the AGM…but that is another instalment.