It was different waking up to silence this morning after 8 weeks of Esperance traffic just 30 metres from our van. Today was our first day of touring after our Esperance hiatus but first we had to get thru the police roadblock to get into the next region of WA, where Hyden and Wave Rock was located. Fortunately our passes were correct and we got thru and also when we returned this evening. It was a 400 K round trip, fortunately without the vans as we left them in the park at Ravensthorpe.

After getting thru the checkpoint (it felt like we were in a WW2 war movie, “show me your papers”) we travelled to Hyden with a quick stop in Lake King, about half way to Hyden. The country side really reflects the drought conditions, its no wonder the farmers are doing it tough. We travelled thru the Wheatbelt of WA so it was mainly “grain” farms but we did see some sheep flocks but there was very limited food on the ground for them, unless it rains soon their future looks bleak.

Into Hyden for a quick lunch, it looked a nice and clean little town, obviously successful from the tourist trade to Wave Rock but certainly feeling the pinch at this time with limited tourism happening.

Wave Rock and the surrounds was great, certainly worth the hours of travel to get there. Wave Rock is part of Hyden Rock and its unique in its own right when you walk up on top of the rock, as there are large boulders sitting there. The whole place is like a mini Uluru and the Olgas combined on the one site. A few hundred metres up the road is Hippo’s Yawn, another interesting site. To finish of our trip, we travelled another 18 K’s further out from Wave Rock to Mulka’s Cave, a large Cave of Aboriginal heritage with cave drawings. Sunlight was diminishing, so we didn’t tour the whole cave, just the entrance area.

All in all it was a big day of travel but worth it. Not a place to miss if you are in the area (within 300 K’s) I would suggest.