SW Tour - Day 2

A long drive is on the cards today - from Hyden to Cape Le Grand NP 440km away. First though we decided to visit an area 20km north of Wave Rock - Mulka's Cave and the Humps. Katy was not impressed to have to do another walk and look at more rocks - a theme Ella expressed on our trip last year.

Mulka's Cave is named after an Aboriginal legend associated with forbidden love. A total of 450 stencils or painting have been recorded in the three chambers.

 

From Mulka's cave, we walked the Kalari Trail, a 1.6km loop that ascends to the summit of The Humps. At the top this huge rocky outcrop has 360° views of the surrounding farmland. Just glad we did this walk on a cool morning.

Back through Hyden we stopped to fill up and for the obligatory post walk ice cream before tackling the long drive. The highway was full of road trains, presumably hauling wheat and luckily for us they were travelling in the opposite direction. I think that Hippie would have had a hard time overtaking one of these 35m long vehicles.

A brief stop in Ravensthorpe for lunch - not much choice and unfortunately the food wasn't great. The lolly shop was way more impressive and I particularly liked the Qualup Bell sculpture in the front yard. Qualup Bells are primarily found in the sandy, rocky areas around Esperance / Albany especially in the Fitzgerald NP and flower between July and October.

Esperance a few hours away was our next stop where we refuelled. With good mobile connection, we called Ella who'd just finished competing in Javelin. It was very hot in Adelaide (35°) and Ella was disappointed with her performance throwing well below her best. She finished 13th out of 14 throwing 26ms.

Still another 45 mins of driving left in order to reach our campsite at Lucky Bay located in Cape Le Grand NP. The distinct shape of Frenchman Peak caught our attention and we were excited to be exploring it as part of tomorrow's adventures. By 4pm we rolled into the campground, selected a site in the upper part and were greeted by kangaroos! Hot and bothered after a long day in the car we made a beeline for a swim at the beach before unpacking.