Wave rock

Sunday 8th May
Today John has the day off and it is mothers day so we are heading out for the day. Our destination "Wave rock" in  a town called Hyden, approx 130kms from Newdegate.
It was a great drive up here. I think the car really enjoyed the trip without the caravan, well I know the fuel consumption was so much better than we have had for the past month.

We pull into Hyden there are a row of shops on one side of the road and a railway on the other side. The local have gotten together to build a time line of Hyden and invention that had come during these years. All the creations where from recycled steel, tin and iron. What a creative bunch, it was really interesting and the kids enjoyed it to.

Being the country of course the bakery is closed. There goes my mothers day lunch treat. Never mind the trusty roadhouse is open so we can grab a bite to eat in there. 3 homemade sausage rolls and steak and mushroom pie, a pastie and a 1.25litre bottle of lemonade, $32.00. Would rather have gone to the pub for dinner for that sort of money (yes I know its one meal but it would be a good one), I even looked for the gold that surely must have been hidden in the ingredients somewhere. Not to worry luckily it was a treat and we don't do that sort of thing often.
From here its only 2kms down the road to Wave rock, pulling into the car park in the middle of no where we are greeted by a parking ticket machine, not unlike the ones you see in the city. $7.00 to park the car and look at the rock. Well I felt that was reasonable so paid my money, put on the aeroguard as the flies where trying to carry us away and then set along the path to fine Wave rock.
Gorgeous was my first thought, followed by amazing and beautiful. It was so worth the drive to see. This amazing rock that had been formed by mother nature over the past how ever many years was just incredible.

Wave rock stands 15 metres high and 110 meters long and over millions of years water has caused erosion. Lichens,mosses and algae cause the orange and black striped stains and look so dramatic. I stood and took it in whilst of course the children tried to climb the huge smooth walls, to no avail. We walked the length of the wave before climbing the stairs to the top. Its a great view of distant salt lakes and farming land surrounded by a few nature reserves. The rock itself is used as a catchment point for Hyden town water.

From here it was a small walk to whats called the Hippos yawn, another rock formation. The kids thought this was cool and where very relieved to see it wasn't a real hippo.

Our last stop for the region before heading home was a place called Mulkas cave. Mulka was an aboriginal boy, the illegitimate son of a woman who had fallen in love with a man whom marriage was forbidden and as a result was born with crossed eyes. Even though he grew up to be an outstandingly strong man and huge in height, his crossed eyes prevented him from aiming a spear accurately and become a successful hunter.The legend says that out of frustration he turned to catching and eating human children and became a terror in the district.It is then that he lives in Mulkas cave, leaving his hand prints much higher than that of the average man.
His mother became concerned and scolded him for his anti social behaviour,he turned on his own mother and killed her. This disgraced him even more and he fled the cave and the area heading south. Aboriginal people where outraged by Mulkas behaviour and set out to track down the man who had broken all the rules. They finally caught him 156kms South West of Hyden. Because he did not deserve a proper ritual burial they left his body for the ants.
So a pretty grim story lies behind the cave. We wondered if this is why there was no extra surcharge to go in and if the humiliation he brought to his people was why you could come and go as you pleased. Never the less very interesting.

Our day out was done and it was time to head back to the farm. But what a perfect Mothers day, me and my boys, learning new things, seeing new places and having adventures together. I did stop and think of Kaya all grown up and how I would love to have given her the same opportunity. But at the age of 22 she has her own life and family holidays would be so not cool. Besides she knows how much we love her, and she did get some pretty cool holidays as she was growing up to.