Coffee at the local helped to get the day off to a good start.
Katy remained with Grandad while Andy and I went to pick up Hippie. We returned home to pack the camper with our stuff at the same time as Ella was competing in the hammer event. We had hoped to see her on the live feed but they were showing the para shot put. Instead we received text updates from Nana. We received word / video that Ella's first throw in hammer was a PB 41m! What an awesome start!
Amongst these two things we kissed Nana (and Grandad) goodbye and wished Nana good luck. She was going in for day surgery to have her pacemaker adjusted - the bottom wire was not positioned adequately.
With the camper packed, we made our way to the local shop to pick up fresh and fridge food that we left off yesterdays list. Ella rang us while we were paying for our groceries. She was on a high with her performance 7th / 11 and a PB 41m! She had three other throws but they were all fouls! Lucky her first was a good one. Now she had to hang around for another few hours for her next event - discus.
We left Kardinya just before midday. Our first destination was Hyden, 340km due west. After an hour of driving we pulled into Christmas Tree Well for a picnic lunch. Not many native Christmas Trees in flower though. A swath of flies made lunch a quick affair and we were back on the road again.
Hippie is an older camper (the camper we wanted was booked out) - quite difficult to drive - we weren't comfortable about going above 100km given the tinny feeling and swaying of the vehicle. The drive was thus slow going but that was ok cause we are on holidays!
After rolling over the Darling Scarp, the road to Hyden was mostly farming - golden fields of wheat with the occasional granite outcrop and mallee scrub. Andy and I were listening to the audio version of David Attenborough new book - A Life on Our Planet. It was interesting. Reception was getting patchy but we received the occasional update about discus. Eventually the final result came in - 7th again from 12 competitors with a throw of 29m close to her PB. A solid performance which Ella was happy with. Again Ella called and we had a very patchy conversion about her discus.We arrived at Wave Rock Campground by 5pm - enough time to check in then do some exploring. As the campground pool was closed, we drove a short distance over to Lake Magic one of the many salt lakes in the wheatbelt region. The dried out parts of the salt lake system look dead as we meandered towards Lake Magic. However this is not the case - when significant rainfall occurs, these salt lakes spring to life and become a fully functioning aquatic system abundance with aquatic flora and fauna that usually lie dominant as buried seeds and eggs awaiting the right conditions. Lake Magic itself is a large naturally occurring gypsum based salt lake that has never been dry.
Adjacent to Lake Magic is Wave Rock Lakeside Resort (certainly not your typical resort) which boasts a Salt Pool. Constructed by a local, the Salt Pool is 20m in diameter and 6m deep. The water buoyancy and therapeutic properties are said to be greater that those of the Dead Sea. We were keen to test it out. Man it was salty!
We dropped off the edge and made our way to Hippo's Yawn. Katy was not impressed at all with this granite tor! We took an obligatory photo and retraced our tracks.
Wave Rock is an impressive multi coloured granite 100m long shaped as the name suggests like a wave! Katy and Andy attempted to surf the wave but were unsuccessful - slipping back down on the smooth surface. Photos taken and more taken by a fellow tourist who'd offered. She turned out to be a photographer! We chatted with this family for a little while before returning to cook and set up the camper for our first night!
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