Saturday 12 March 2011

Day 11 Kalgoorlie to Lake King

Set off this morning and drove through Coolgardie.  It was much smaller than I thought it would be and the buldings were very old.  We continued on through Bulla Bullling and Yellowdine to Southern Cross.  We stopped here to post a letter, get a few things from the shop and refuel.  Diesel was 149.9 cents per litre.  It was a really neat and tidy town.

From Southern Cross we drove through Marvel Loch and onto Wave Rock.  The road from Marvel Lock to Wave Rock was gravel but in very good condition.  Wave Rock was very hot.  We had to pay $7 to see the rock.  The flies were really bad and Peter used his fly veil much to the amusement of the other tourists.  We were able to climb on top of Wave Rock and got magnificent views of the surrounding countryside.

Wave Rock

Wave Rock is 14 metres hight and 110 metres long and it looks like a big wave about to crash on the beach.  It is believed to have formed over 2700 million years ago and is part of the northern face of Hyden Rock. The shape of the wave is formed by gradual erosion of the softer rock beneath the upper edge over many centuries.  The colours are caused by the rain washing chemical deposits down the face, forming vertical stripes of greys, reds and yellows.  The changing sunlight at different times of the day alters its colours and appearance.  The rock has been converted into a catchment for the town's water supplies, with a foot high concrete wall around the upper edge of Hyden Rock which directs rainfall into a storage dam.

You can see the wall which directs rainfall into the dam

View from the top of Wave Rock & Peter with his fly veil on

It was so hot that the air con in the car didn't work all that well so we were very hot.  It was a bitumen road from Wave Rock and we drove through Varley to Lake King.  There were lots of wheat properties along the way and the paddocks were huge.  We decided to stay at Lake King as we were quite tired from the heat.  You had to pay for the caravan park at the Tavern so we walked over and I had two shandies which didn't even touch the sides.  When we walked back to the caravan park, Peter noticed that he had a flat tyre.  We had picked up a stick either when we pulled off the road for lunch or when we had to get off the road to let a wide load go through.  We were so pleased that it went flat after we stopped and not while we were towing the caravan.  Peter changed the tyre and put the spare on.  The amenities block was the best we have seen and was brand new.

Had to have the air conditioner on for a while that night as it was still quite hot.

Tomorrow we are off to Esperence.

cheers
Pete and Roz

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