Wednesday, January 03, 2007
28th Dec 06
We were going to the Wave Rock today. As usual, we woke up at 5am to get ready for tt day's tour. Our coach captain, Mike, passed by the Swan River which was initally called the Black Swan River but changed it to Swan River as it's shorter. We were so tired tt we slept in the coach all the way from Perth to the York,the first township founded in the Avon Valley. There we took photos of the wonderfully preserved turn of the Victorian buildings including the Town Hall. Then, we boarded the bus and headed towards the famous Dog Cemetery, a tribute to Australian working sheep dogs, where we saw many of them which their owners had buried and decorated their tombs. It was really sad to see this cemetery. The dogs had died for abt a century and i guess the owners missed them a lot! Later, we visited the Hippo's Yawn, an unusual natural rock formation shaped like a yawning hippopotamus, regarded by the local Aboriginal ppl as a special "women's place". Then, we reached the small town of Hyden, home of the Wave Rock. We had our lunch there which was the same as the day we went to the Pinnacles. Horrible! Luckily, my dad bought some nice and juicy chicken wings... Phew! Our tour guide took us to the rock where we walked around and on top of the rock, we listened to dreamtime stories and learned abt Aboriginal culture. Estimated at being an incredible 2,700 million years old, the rock has over time been sculptured by nature into the form of a huge breaking wave. The weather was terrible,abt 38~40 degrees, everyone has sun-burned and was longing to get back to the coach to cool down. After awhile on coach, we reaced the Mulka's Cave.Our coach captain, Mike, explain the ancient Aboriginal cave paintings featured within it, which includes many hand prints, and told us abt the legend of the outcast of Aboriginal, "Mulka the Terrible". Part of the story goes: "Mulka and his mom lived in tt cave for quite some time. Then, one day, Mulka was so hungry tt he went to steal someone's baby to eat. His mother was so angry after she heard of the news and she scolded Mulka. Mulka killed his mom in a fit of rage. And so, Mulka was alone and not for long before he was found by the other group of Aboriginal and was killed." Our return journey took us along back roads through the heart of WA wheat belt to the small farming town of Babakin where we enjoy some country hospitality over an afternoon tea( including lamingtons, so delicious!!!) From here, we returned back to Perth, with panoramic views of Perth's city lights and arrived there at approximately 8.30pm...(The photo on top was taken at the wave rock)