Friday night in Merriden. An old bank that had been converted to a bed and breakfast, newly opened 10 days ago. Built in 1930 and full of very carefully selected stuff. The towns seem quiet, the streets wide and the shop fronts with period facades.
Another 2 hours along perpendicular roads that run so straight, the only thing that breaks them up is the crest of the hills. On each side, to the horizon, is young, green wheat. Very similar to rural England, except the hedged boundaries are 5 or 10 kilometres away. Many of the fields have sheep scattered about. Saw no live kangaroos, just two victims by the road.
Spent Saturday night on the site of Wave Rock in a cabin. Saturday evening we walked around the 'Wave' and up onto the top. The wave really does feels like its about to crash onto the beach. The curves capture the movement of a breaker, so much so it seems intentional, carved.
The sides of the out crop aren't steep. From the top of the granite basolith you can see from horizon to horizon. It's only when confronted with the view, that the scale of things sank in. The horizon behind appears thousands of miles away, and the horizon in front seems just as far. All green wheat fields, dotted hedges, trees, small areas of scrub. In the massive dome of the sky, clouds are moving, one or two drag a grey smudge of rain below them. No mountains, no valleys, no real features. Just acre after acre of rolling countryside, truly massive.
The night is cold. Sunday morning was a struggle to heat up the inside of the cabin. But after breakfast and a scramble in and around the Hippo's Yawn we set off down the country roads back to Perth. York was a good place to break the journey. It had a sense of history with Victorian facades in the main street. It also had people wandering about, which was a novelty. All of the towns we'd passed through so far were deserted, except for a very large black dog
Here's another spider piccie, zoom in and have a look at the alien head on its bum!
