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Published: September 2nd 2009
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Having picked up a hire car we decided to head out to ‘wheatbelt country’, the south eastern region from Perth. This area consists of vast open fields with granite outcrops dotted between bushland and wheatfields as far as the eye can see. Most of the fields were being seeded at this time of the year but we could just imagine what it would look like in November around harvesting time. We follow the Great Eastern highway through Cunderin and onto Kellerberrin before turning south for the little town of Bruce Rock. This town definitely has ‘pioneer town’ written all over it - the town consists of only a row of shops all in clapperboard style with even the cars being from a bygone age. We stopped to fill up the car with petrol and at first thought the petrol station was closed - until realising that you had to ask in the shop across the road for someone to come and fill up your tank for you!
Continuing south we head through Narambeen, named after its aboriginal heritage as “the place of female emus” and realise we are now in the true farming country. The roads are wide and long, traffic
is almost nonexistent on this stretch of road (one car passed by in an hour) and the kilometres just seem to tick by. With the late afternoon sun still high we roll into Hyden, home to Wave Rock. Our intention was originally to do this as a day trip but at this point we both realised that we wouldn’t be driving back tonight so head for the Wave Rock caravan park. Even though we had thrown the tent into the boot of the car we suddenly realised that we hadn’t bothered with anything else...pillow, blankets or duvet, sleeping mats etc.... in other words we were totally unprepared for spending a night outdoors. Luckily the caravan park had backpacker accommodation...ie a breezeblock built room with 2 single beds, fridge and TV which seemed a lot warmer than a tent. After booking in we headed over to Wave Rock and as we arrived at the base so does a coach tour group. No matter how quickly we try to walk ahead of them they continue to catch up and as we listen to their chatter we hear a teenage boy remark “is this all it is”.
Wave Rock is a granite cliff
15m high and 110m long. Its rounded shape makes it look like a giant wave and it was formed by weathering and water erosion of the granite which has undercut the base and left a rounded overhang. The water from the springs running down the rock during the wetter months dissolves minerals, adding to the colouring of the wave. Crystals from the rock have been dated as being 2700 million years old, amongst the oldest in Australia. As we climbed up to watch the sunset the view beneath us stretched in front for miles and miles. As the sun slowly dipped down beneath the distant hills we sat and watched mesmerised as the sky turned first orange and then shades of pink. Truly awesome.
Clambering down from the rock at twilight was no easy feat but having made it down we drove over to the roadhouse for fish and chips and had our first Brownes vanilla milkshake...hooked so completely on them (why don’t they sell them outside of Oz?)
Wake the following morning in a sweat as its been so hot last night...so much for us wrapping up and thinking it was going to be cold! Went for a
stroll around the base of Wave Rock, passing a place called “Hippo’s yawn” - self explanatory once you saw it! Heading back into the town of Hyden we pass the scrap metal “townsfolk” before beginning our long drive back through Kalgarrin, Corrigin and then Quairading before stopping at York. York reminded me of a wild west town from the movies...it again had one main street dominated by the town hall at one end. Apparently York is also well known as being a bit of a biker town and as we strolled down the main street we were fascinated by the huge number of shiny, well looked after Harley Davidsons parked by the curbside with their leather clad owners not too far away. All of the shops were quite quirky and we spent quite a while in the old curiosity shops remarking “we used to have that” to quite a few of the ornaments and nic nacs!
After stopping for lunch at Jules cafe (absolutely gorgeous) we walked across the river on the suspension bridge and walked following the river for a while before heading back.
The drive back to Perth was fairly quick and straightforward and, apart from getting lost
once as we hit central Perth we made good time. Crashed out as soon as we got back to Claremont as another long drive up to Geraldton tomorrow.
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