Wednesday, 29 May 2013

Hyden (population 365)

Heading towards the dark rain clouds, we drove the back road from Southern Cross (population 1,100) to Hyden to see the giant wave. A few skippies hopped across the road ahead of us and the rain poured down. The road got muddy and our VW ute went from a glossy black to an earth red, as we splashed through the puddles.

Our dirty VW Amarok

Hyden is the gateway to a giant granite rock known as Wave Rock. We entered from the back of the town along the Yellowdine Southern Cross Road, so our first stop was the rock.

Wave Rock is 15 meters tall granite rock, and standing at its base really feels like a giant wave is about to crash down on top of you. The sign at the site says the rock is believed to be 2,700 million years old.

Hector and I decided to take a hike up and around the giant monolith. We walked and climbed everywhere possible. It was fun to walk over the cracks and puddles formed in the granite.

Tin Horse Highway

After our wave rock visit, we stopped at the local bakery. I picked up the visitor guide and discovered that between Hyden and our destination, Narrogin, there is a highway known as the Tin Horse Highway. It didn't take much convincing to get Hector to drive it. Hilarious! The local community of Kulin has a tin horse art competition each year to promote the Bush Race (which I think is a horse racing event) and designated this road to showcase the quirky horse art.

Here are a few photos of the artwork…

This year's winner, Usian Colt.

Narrogin (population 5,500)

We arrived at Narrogin, the commercial center of the wheat belt region, just before 6 p.m. and found out the town rolls up the carpets at 6. A bit surprised, we tried to get into Coles supermarket at 6:05 with no success, so we went back to the Narrogin Motel…AND I would tell you more, but I already forgot.

Drove 406 kilometers.

Ran 0. Hiked 4 kilometers.

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