Wave Rock, Mulka's Cave at the Humps to Albany

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Wave Rock is a spectacular granite formation which is 15 metres high and in excess of 2,700 million years old. Formally known as Hyden Rock, the formation looks like an enormous wave ready to break. It is the sandy grey colour with red ochre streaks which give it the rolling motion appearance.
Just nearby are the rock formations called Hippo's Yawn, The Humps, the Breakers and Mulka's cave.
The name Mulka comes from an aboriginal legend who was born cross eyed because his mother was not allowed to marry his father, Mulka was unable to throw a spear and hunt and became ostracised from his community. He made the cave his home and turned to hunting little children. Believed to have killed his mother the aboriginal community hunted him down and speared him. The Cave contains aboriginal orche paintings, mostly of hands stencils

Our day started 0610hrs with fog and damp, but cleared to a beautiful sunny day. Kate and Tom got up to photograph the sunrise but were disappointed.

At 0815hrs we took the 1.4km walk to Hippo Yawn Rock and watched the fog lift. Quote of the trip so far - When Kate was observing orange fungus - "mmm bears ear wax"

0910hrs we hitched up the van, temperature quickly rising to 21 degrees, odometer 79367. We didn't get far (just up the road) and had morning tea of coffee and ice creams. The shop was a great information place, displaying old wares, wild flowers and farm animals.. We checked out the swans in the small dam out back.

A short 18km drive to Mulka's cave and The Humps to check out the aboriginal paintings and on to Hyden.
The area around Wave Rock had experienced 11 inches of rain in recent days and is was wet. Farmers all busy getting their crops in.

We arrived Hyden 1120hrs, fuelled up 124c/l, odometer 79410kms.

Hyden is the closest town to Wave Rock, it is a tough community that lived with out proper telecommunication, water supply and Secondary School until the 1990's.
Surviving on the agricultural industry and tourism.

1210 hrs we ate our lunch in the small town of Kondonin, here we checked out the metal farm equipment sculptures and the tile mosaics used in the toilet block. Salad sandwiches for lunch and temperature 21 degrees. it appears that all the small communities contain welded or mosaic art forms.

The 13km stretch of road out of Kulin the most interesting. The road is named Tin Horse Hwy and there is many amusing tin horse sculpture in the paddocks along the edge of the road. I got out to photograph most of them and walked most of the 13kms.

At 1550hrs we made a quick toilet stop at Borden, where the shop closed at 1500hrs on a week day
We passed through the Sterling National Park at 1600hrs, where the giant peak of Mt Sterling was covered in cloud, Temperature 19 degree Celsius.

On the road this day we passed through several small towns in the Wheat Belt, Hyden, Kondinin, Kulin, Lake Grace, Pingup and Borden.
Wheat, Barley, Oats, Lupins, Peas and Canola the main crops planted here. Every town has very large grain handling and storage facilities.

On entry to Albany at 1615hrs, we filled up with diesel 107.41c/l (back to civilisation)
We settled in for 2 nights at the expensive Middleton Beach Big 4 Caravan Park, right on the beach.
Expensive, but no drop toilets, running water and electricity. Bathroom rating 8/10.

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Photos

image.
Our 4 kangaroos hopping us across the country side