Wave Rock

For my birthday, my parents booked a tour of one of WA's icons. Wave rock.

It was an early start, we had to get into the heart of Perth by 6:30 in the morning. We pulled up in front of the street in front of the Wellington Bus station and I got out, only to be greeted by a homeless man displaying various symptoms of crack use as well as a few other cautious travelers. After a bit of waiting, our tour van showed up, and we were off on the 300km trip.

By around 8:30, we had stopped in Brookton for some tea and biscuits. I took the liberty of shooting some photos of the train station on both my digital camera as well as my film cameras. We were the only people in sight, I guess Saturday mornings in a quiet town are used for sleeping in.

Brookton Train Station.

After that, it was onwards towards the central wheatbelt town of Corrigin.
The terrain was an unending horizon of green as the seeding season had just finished, leaving hundreds of square kilometers looking freshly green with the young heads of wheat, grass, and canola looking good. There were also sheep visible.

The only view for a few hundred kms...

Before we entered Corrigin, we stopped to look at the dog cemetery. According to Wikipedia, there are around 80 dogs buried there. The cost of a plot of land is $5000, this ensures that only really loved dogs are buried there.

Plaque reads "A tribute to man's best friend."

After the visit to the dog cemetary, it was then on to the rock itself.

Photo quickly taken before the next tour bus of people rounded the corner.

Wave Rock was bigger than I was anticipating, with the face towering over all who came below it. I shot some panoramas on my DSLR and then started chewing through my film stock on my analog cameras.

After photographing the face, it was time to climb it.

After a bit of climbing, the landscape opened up to us in a brilliant array of fields, salt lakes, and rock face. I deployed my tripod and shot a panorama on my DLSR, the 19mm wide angle lens on my Minolta 404si was good for shooting wide angles onto film, but the simple kit lens on the the Canon was all I needed for this task. Just click on the photo to enlarge it in gallery view.

Roughly just to the left of the center of this Panorama, you can see another large rock on the horizon.

Although dried, there are loads of rock pool sites featuring hardy moss and other small shrubs. When the rain hits, these small plants get all the nutrients they need from runoff water.

Jewels of the Rock. Dew is still visible on these awesome little hardy flowers.

We begun climbing down, so I deployed my tripod and shot another pano of the rock.

A little different perspective showing both the face of the rock as well as the rest of it. The knee high fence is for channeling water to the reservoir on the side.

After climbing down from the rock, it was time to head down for lunch at the cafe conveniently placed right next to it. On display at the cafe was a model T ford used in Corrigin and Hyden during the early 20th Century:

Beautifully restored after being consigned to the tip.

After lunch, we had a look at Hippos Yawn. I won't include a photo because it looks nothing remotely like a hippo and I believe it to be a total waste of time visiting.

We then headed back to Perth.

In summary:

Wave Rock is worth a visit, and if you can, you should make the effort to go.