Well all good things must come to an end and today is our last day ‘on the Wallaby’[1]. Tomorrow we will be home again in the afternoon. Would love to keep going but must also attend to things at home and start planning for the next big trip. Caravanning has been fun and we have been quite comfortable along the way considering we have gone to the tropics then down to winter. It certainly hasn’t dampened our enthusiasm to travel and there is so much to see and do. It’s great to be a ‘Grey Nomad’.
Today we stayed at Wave Rock. The rain has been hanging around but the sun has managed to put in an appearance. Eighteen kilometres from Wave Rock is the Humps and Mulka’s Cave. The rain held off for us to take a trip out there. The Humps is another giant granite outcrop with its best known feature being Mulka’s Cave.
The Mulka legend is that Mulka was the illegal son of a woman who fell in love with a man with whom marriage was forbidden. It was believed that as a result of breaking these rules she bore a son with cross eyes. Even though he grew to be an outstandingly strong man of colossal height, his crossed eyes prevented him from aiming a spear accurately and becoming a successful hunter.
Out of frustration, Mulka turned to catching and eating human children., and became a terror of the district. It was said he lived in Mulka’s Cave, where the imprints of his hands can still be seen, much higher than an ordinary man.
His mother became increasingly concerned about Mulka, and when she scolded him for his anti-social behaviour he turned on her and killed her. This disgraced him even more and he fled his cave, heading south.
All the aboriginal people of the district outraged by Mulka’s behaviour set out to track down the man who had flouted all the rules. They finally caught him near Dumbleyung 156km south west of Hyden where they speared him. He did not deserve a ritual burial and was left to the ants where he lay. A grim warning to those who break the law.
Leaving the cave, we traversed the Kalari Track that takes you up on to the rock face of the Humps. The track takes up one side of a granite valley where water gently flows in trickles down the sides. It the crosses to the other side and leads up to the peak of the rock formation. It is quite a climb and I’m so proud that a couple of old farts like us could make it to the top. Please don’t make us go up Uluru. It was a fascinating trek with360⁰ views of the surrounding farm lands and the many different rock formations and plants.
Towards sunset we again set off for the short flat walk from Wave Rock to the Hippo’s Yawn. This was a lovely walk allowing us to stretch some of those muscles we used this morning. The fading sun and the water trickling down the rock faces gave us such a great feeling to be out and about. The air was perfumed with the fresh rain, the damp earth and sheoaks at the bottom of the cliff faces. Once again I manage to get a few photos of the rocks and tried to capture the moon rising as well. It was certainly a great way to end our days on the road.
The lesser Wave Rock
The Moon has Risen
Hippo’s Yawn
Tomorrow should be an easy 330km drive home and the good thing is we don’t even have to go through the city. We just turn down the little road that passes Churchmans Brook Dam and in the front gate to a warm greeting from the dogs if they still love us.
I didn’t put up some great photo and place around Esperance. I will do this as soon as I get home as it put on a great display of beaches and sunshine, there was also some wonderful people there being very innovative.
[1] On the Wallaby is Aussie for being on the road
Steve Blackstock 
Sounds like an awesome trip. Good to see you make it back home safe and sound.