At the end of the Tin Horse Highway we set up camp on the shores of Jilakin
Lake and just below Jilakin Rock, one of a number of granite monoliths in the area. Once again this was isolated bush camping with absolutely no facilities i.e. back to dunny-digging! With this as our base camp, we set out to explore one of the many geological oddities in the area – Wave Rock.
A few hundred kilometres east, and slightly south, of Perth is the small town of Hayden famous for …. well not a lot. Although they have made a small tourist industry out of one of the strangest geological features - a petrified wave.
Wave Rock, a granite cliff, is 15 metres high and
110 metres long. Over the years, and at 2,700 million years it’s been around a long time, wind and water have eroded the base of the cliff and smoothed the line of the rock until it now resembles a massive wave. Multi-coloured vertical streaking in the rock adds to the effect. The wave is part of a larger granite monolith not dissimilar to the more famous Ayer’s Rock or Uluru. It appears to be of an “onion like” construction as huge layers had “peeled off” and at any moment looked as they could slip and kill passers by.
Further round from the Wave was another
oddity – the Hippo’s Yawn, again caused by erosion - then on to Mulka’s Cave. Mulka, according to Aboriginal legend, was the illegitimate son of a forbidden liaison who grew up to be a cross-eyed, child-eating, mother-killing giant. Killing his mother was the final straw so he was speared to death by his neighbours and his body left to be eaten by red ants – these Aborigines have some good, but gory, legends! His handprints can still be seen in the cave.
After another night by Jilakin Lake we headed west back towards the coast travelling through a series of small country towns – Jitarning (a
wheat store, a hotel, a community hall and that was it); Wickepin (famous for Albert Facey living there – who?); Narrogin then on to Williams where we stopped for lunch and where Sandra got the fright of her life. Lunch was a picnic just out of town on the Williams Heritage Trail and we had parked in a quiet spot by the Old Williams Cemetery which had been gifted to the town by the Hamersley family. It was very small and, as well as local worthies, a number of ex-convicts and “ticket-of-leave” men were buried there, mainly in unmarked graves and amongst whom suicide and murder seemed to have been a popular way to die. 
Whilst Sandra and I were reading the tombstone of Emma Someone-or-Other I noticed something unusual by Sandra’s leg, a brown, coiled object thicker than my arm – it was a snake. Just as I was about to warn her she stepped towards it – then screamed! With its head and tail underneath Emma’s gravestone, where presumably it lived, several feet of its body was out sunbathing, perfectly at peace until disturbed by a Size 4 Scottish foot, at which point it beat a hasty retreat and pulled all of its body to the safety of the grave. Unfortunately no camera was to hand .
Our destination for the day was Lane Poole Conservation Reserve where we set up camp at an isolated spot called Christmas Creek about 12k down a pretty rough 4WD track. Camping in the woods and within feet of the river it was perfect and Sandra decided to stay for a few days and do some craft work – she is now working to build up stock for the Christmas markets in Sydney.
Lake and just below Jilakin Rock, one of a number of granite monoliths in the area. Once again this was isolated bush camping with absolutely no facilities i.e. back to dunny-digging! With this as our base camp, we set out to explore one of the many geological oddities in the area – Wave Rock.A few hundred kilometres east, and slightly south, of Perth is the small town of Hayden famous for …. well not a lot. Although they have made a small tourist industry out of one of the strangest geological features - a petrified wave.
Wave Rock, a granite cliff, is 15 metres high and
110 metres long. Over the years, and at 2,700 million years it’s been around a long time, wind and water have eroded the base of the cliff and smoothed the line of the rock until it now resembles a massive wave. Multi-coloured vertical streaking in the rock adds to the effect. The wave is part of a larger granite monolith not dissimilar to the more famous Ayer’s Rock or Uluru. It appears to be of an “onion like” construction as huge layers had “peeled off” and at any moment looked as they could slip and kill passers by.Further round from the Wave was another
oddity – the Hippo’s Yawn, again caused by erosion - then on to Mulka’s Cave. Mulka, according to Aboriginal legend, was the illegitimate son of a forbidden liaison who grew up to be a cross-eyed, child-eating, mother-killing giant. Killing his mother was the final straw so he was speared to death by his neighbours and his body left to be eaten by red ants – these Aborigines have some good, but gory, legends! His handprints can still be seen in the cave.After another night by Jilakin Lake we headed west back towards the coast travelling through a series of small country towns – Jitarning (a
wheat store, a hotel, a community hall and that was it); Wickepin (famous for Albert Facey living there – who?); Narrogin then on to Williams where we stopped for lunch and where Sandra got the fright of her life. Lunch was a picnic just out of town on the Williams Heritage Trail and we had parked in a quiet spot by the Old Williams Cemetery which had been gifted to the town by the Hamersley family. It was very small and, as well as local worthies, a number of ex-convicts and “ticket-of-leave” men were buried there, mainly in unmarked graves and amongst whom suicide and murder seemed to have been a popular way to die. 
Whilst Sandra and I were reading the tombstone of Emma Someone-or-Other I noticed something unusual by Sandra’s leg, a brown, coiled object thicker than my arm – it was a snake. Just as I was about to warn her she stepped towards it – then screamed! With its head and tail underneath Emma’s gravestone, where presumably it lived, several feet of its body was out sunbathing, perfectly at peace until disturbed by a Size 4 Scottish foot, at which point it beat a hasty retreat and pulled all of its body to the safety of the grave. Unfortunately no camera was to hand .
Our destination for the day was Lane Poole Conservation Reserve where we set up camp at an isolated spot called Christmas Creek about 12k down a pretty rough 4WD track. Camping in the woods and within feet of the river it was perfect and Sandra decided to stay for a few days and do some craft work – she is now working to build up stock for the Christmas markets in Sydney.
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