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Happiness Is The Road
After brekky we went to see Wave Rock. It was literally just behind the caravan park and it only took us a couple of minutes to walk there. The weather was just gorgeous with a perfect deep blue sky. The rock was spectacular and made even more so by the fact that we had it completely to ourselves. It was an amazing sight to see as the rock really does look like a huge wave curling over. The rock is a granite cliff and is millions of years old. It is 15 metres high and 110 metres long. It's rounded shape has been caused by weathering and water erosion which has undercut the base and left a rounded overhang. We got loads of brilliant photos of us surfing on the rock. It was an absolutely wonderful and awesome place to be and we had heaps of fun surfing the magic here. From the wave the walking trial took us up some steps next to the dam to the top of the rock. Just above where the rock curls over there is a man made wall along the rock. It ruins the look of the rock from the top somewhat but it was put here before tourism engulfed the place. The wall is used to capture the rainwater falling on the rock and direct it into a dam next to it. The dam is still in use and was a major component of Hyden's water supply right through until 2000. The area looked a bit tatty around the dam but once we were up on top of the rock it became awesome again. It was an amazing undulating rock landscape and the view was incredible in all directions. The walk took took us over the top of the breaking wave and down the other side to the beginning of another walk trail. We then followed the trail to the Hippo's Yawn which is a piece of granite that really does look like a hippo's mouth yawning. We got some great photos of us in the hippo's mouth and right down amongst it's tonsils! This walk took us back round to the caravan park. We then got in the camper and drove to Hyden to refuel before driving the 20 or so kilometres to The Humps, another granite outcrop. We had some lunch at the car park before setting off on the walking trail which took us past Mulka's Cave. It was a cute little cave with a rather terrifying story attached to it. The Aboriginal legend says that Mulka was the illegal son of a woman who fell in love with a man with whom marriage was forbidden. It was believed that as a result of breaking these rules she bore a son with crossed eyes. Even though he grew to be an outstandingly strong man of colossal height, his crossed eyes prevented him from aiming a spear accurately and becoming a successful hunter. Out of frustration, Mulka turned to catching and eating human children and he became the terror of the district. It was said he lived in Mulka's cave, where the imprints of his hands can be seen. His mother became increasingly concerned and when she scolded him for his anti-social behaviour he turned on his own mother and killed her. This disgraced him even more and he fled his cave. All the people of the district, outraged by his behaviour, set out to track him down and spear him. He did not deserve a proper ritual burial and because of this they left his body to the ants. There were still a few ants left in the cave today but thankfully no sign of Mulka apart from the handprints which we could see up on the walls. After leaving the cave we took the walk trail which climbed steadily up to the top of The Humps. It was extremely windy at the top but the view, as at Wave Rock, was incredible. We had a 360 degrees view of the vast open landscape. It was a great walk and we came down from the rock tired but very happy. Unfortunately Jay's happiness was slightly marred by a prickly plant jumping out and taking her prisoner. Heaton though was soon to the rescue and with Jay freed from the pesky plant we skipped back to the camper. We chilled for the rest of the day.
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