Wave Rock at Hyden

I had read about this place called Wave Rock and seen photos so I talked Geoff into detouring there on our way to Kalgoorlie.
The countryside as we headed inland from Albany was so varied from undulating hills and valleys, to far stretching plains and salt lakes, simply unbelievable views!  Sheep, Cattle abound and crops of wheat and canola patchwork the landscape in varying shades of green and gold.

Most of these pics were taken while the car was moving at about 85kms an hour and through windows dappeld with raindrops and yucky bug bits.

 Canola crops.

Stirling Ranges.

We were really suprised to see this dutch style windmill in the middle of nowhere really.

Wheat crops enjoying the rain.

There are lots of salt lakes in Western Australia and in South Australia. Ancient reminders of inland seas, these lakes had some of there water replenished by the recent rain. The amazing thing about these salt lakes is  that they are totally landlocked and have such a high salinity content that even today they continue to poison the surrounding areas.

Grain Silos are a common sight in the crop growing areas.

 And so the landscape changes again and again.

 Finally the drive ends and we park up the big beast of a caravan at Wave Rock Caravan Park, situated less than five minutes walk from the rock.
Once the van was all set up we set off to go look at this supposedly wave type rock.

 Suprise, suprise!  It really does look like a wave!  It's tiger coloured stripes just add to the uniqueness of this granite formation.

Geoff decided to try and surf this wave! Mind you this was the biggest wave we'd seen.  In all our travels the ocean had been flat as a mirror, so it's ironic that we had to travel inland to find a decent wave.

The wildflowers were just starting to flower, creating a speckled carpet of colour.

I was very intrepid and climbed up some stairs to a lookout on the side of the large rock formation which is home to Wave Rock.  It gave me a great view of the surrounding landscape. I thought I was very brave cause it was very high and I was by myself and heights aren't really my thing.

Water reservoir

Salt lake. It has a similar salt levels as the Dead Sea.

 Looking across the top edge of the rock you can see the colour variations in the  rock. On the right hand side of the picture you can see a concrete wall - this continues along the top and acts as a barrier wall to stop the tourist walking around on the top from falling off!

This is a shot of the wave from the other end.