Monday 22nd December 2014 – the perfect day for the rest of the week

We are doing the Caves Road drive today.  We are getting around a few of the highly sort after tourist destinations before Christmas as we have been told that it gets very crowded and busy next week.
We drove along Caves Road and out to the coast at (B) and to Mammoth Cave C)

Wildflowers growing everywhere in the rock outcrops.  Snake warnings in most locations – the local snake is the Tiger Snake – highly venomous – we haven’t see a snake since the Whip snake up at 40 Mile Beach, certainly nothing venomous this entire trip so far. We are extra careful on the rocks as they don’t pick up your vibration as easily.

  












Plenty of large Rock Lobster in these waters, a couple of guys in a tinnie were spear fishing for them.  They waved to Glen high up on the cliff and showed him a huge Rock Lobster, Glen said it was so big, the guy could hardly grasp it with one hand





























It’s a very long way down.  Glen is in the distance, we took advantage of the “calm” weather to explore the cliff edges, no chance in very high winds as you would be blown off.


This is Hamelin Bay a popular surfing and beach location.  Quite a hike from the car park to the beach.  They breed them tough down here.  We passed a four year old hiking the track with a big bag nearly the same size as him.  He had been to the beach – obviously immune to cold water and the chilly breeze. :)

 










































































There were lots of tracks everywhere heading down to the beach.  Too numerous to call in to every one.

We then headed off to Mammoth Cave to do the self guided tour after lunch.  Glen found that a small filling had come loose, so we also needed to go into Margaret River and find a dentist.  Wrong time for that to happen, but a good location as there is a dentist in the area.

Mammoth Cave

This cave has ancient fossil remains of extinct megafauna.  They found giant wombats and kangaroos in this limestone cave.  It has a seasonal stream which flows through it.  It is a self guided tour and you use MP3 player at each stop point.  A great way to view the cave at your own speed.  It is a very large cave but no where as big as the caves at Jenolan outside Sydney.

















The above photos are at the entry point and just inside.  Easy walk way and subtle lighting through out the cave.  The exit is at a sink hole with 170 odd steps to get out. 

You can view fossils in situ.



There were examples of fossils found in a display cabinet in the cave.

 

















You can see the step hand railing above for the climb out.  Most of the way up the sink hole, you cannot distinguish exactly how deep it really is.


We then did the additional forest walk of 700 metres back to the ticket office and got to see the Marri and Kauri trees.

This is a Kauri. 

We had been seeing the Marri trees but didn’t know their WA name.  They are Bloodwood trees to us.  We have four large ones on our block.  They call them Marri Trees here.  We have found that there is different terminology in WA for things that we have on the East Coast.   

 

We drove through a beautiful Kauri forest on the Caves Road, tall trees with only bracken fern underneath.  It is a surreal image looking through a forest of large trees.  Almost always our forest view is blocked by thick undergrowth.

A quick trip into Margaret River and the dental appointment has been fixed for Wednesday and we will have time to browse the town then.

This area has literally hundreds of wineries and it is their undoing.  The number of wineries is overwhelming, where do you start – well we aren’t going to bother.  It’s easier to just go to the bottle shop.  It seems that they are missing trade because other people are thinking the same as us as well. 

We met another nice couple Karen & Roger whose caravan is our wind break.  They are from Kalamunda and come here every year.  We had drinks with them and have a lot in common.  They said the same thing about the wineries, easier to go to the bottle shop.

We plan to visit a Blackwood Meadery as they have wine and liqueurs made from honey and that is something different :)

Don’t get too scared if a fat dude in red shows up at your door step and tries to wrap you up in gift paper. He is Santa Claus and he’s going to simply send you to me, cause I added you to my wish-list this Christmas. Happy Christmas to you!   Wish we were celebrating with you.