A Brilliant Day

It started simple enough, our day that is. A grumpy family because I was going to leave the house at 9:30 am for Cape Leewin Lighthouse. I assumed it was 1 1/2 hours away…in actuality it was only an hour away. The family told me I needed to give them 48 hours notice for an adventure that took place THAT early! Go figure! If you’re reading this on email…the photos won’t look as nice as if you click to see the blog then you can see the layouts etc.

I was going to go to the Cape regardless…it is close enough to do it again if we want to! On Monday the 18th the road to Perth will open and the folks up there can come down and visit us for the first time in over two months. I figured the roads will be packed with more tourist in the coming weeks. There are only about 7 active V cases in all of Western Australia!

We didn’t load up and actually leave until ten am. As we headed south down Cave Road we passed very few cars but lots of signs to Caves that were still closed due to the V. We are hoping some of the caves are able to open over the next two months! During that short drive we drove partly through Boranup Forest which was amazingly stunning with its very tall skinny trees and bush underneath. Larkin told me she wants to join me on a hike through those woods. There are not many trees on the coast. Only time will tell as the days get shorter and we head toward winter down under. At the furthest south along Cave Road, the road veers right and its easy to miss the left turn to continue to the lighthouse so you end up in Hamelin Bay. Well, since we wanted to visit the Bay we stayed on the road to see where the Ray’s live!

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We walked from the near empty car-park to Hamelin Bay. Stunning calm blue waters and very few people. We didn’t bring our suits to try our hand at snorkeling with the Rays…but we thought – hey, its only 30 minutes away, we should try that adventure on another day. They have nice toilets and changing rooms! That always helps! The map said there was yet another lighthouse if we walked a little further south over a rise along the Cape to Cape walk which is about 76 miles in total along the coast. Maybe I’ll do that walk on my own later! The Bay used to have a long jetty that took Karri timber out to be loaded onto ships for export to England, South Africa and India. Many streets of London are still paved with Karri from Boranup and Karridale. The jetty was abandoned when the demand for jarrah timber became higher than for karri. Over time, the jetty succumbed to Southern Ocean storms and the harsh coastal environment. You can see the remnants of the jetty in the photos above.

From Hamelin Bay to the lighthouse is another 30 minute drive or so. Once again empty roads but because we had departed from Cave Road with its caves and forests and headed east then south to the cape, we enjoyed the vision of beautiful pastures including a few with sheep or cows. To get to the Cape Leewin Lighthouse we drove through the town of Augusta which is located on the very southwest corner of Australia. Charming, small and inviting and reminded Larkin and I of a few other towns we visited during our cruise along the Southern coast before our world cruise was so rudely interrupted by this uninvited V.

I knew the lighthouse would be closed but it is the concept of the lighthouse which is at the convergence of the Southern and Indian Oceans that I wanted to experience. The Leewin current is drawn south down the western coast of western Australia from the equator with its nice toasty 68 degree water and mixes with the Southern Ocean whose current comes up from the Antarctic! I’m not sure of the temperature of the Southern Ocean but it is definitely colder…the oceans were fairly calm on both sides yesterday. The skies were perfect for photos.

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Needless to say Larkin was mesmerized when we found the rock formations on the Indian Ocean side of the Cape. They were magnificent and the photos don’t do them justice. I added sand collections from the erosion of the rocks between the horizontal layers, sand near the water on the Indian Ocean side and as we drove back toward Augusta I gathered sand along the Southern Ocean beach near the light house. We missed sand from the rest of our cruise around India, through Arabia and the Med…but we have just enough sand for some nice displays with our collection from Australia!

After our short visit we headed back north through Augusta and decided to go up the main highway 10 to Margaret River. A nice two lane road where you can sometimes drive 110 kph or almost 70 mph. It was only about a 45 minute drive. I’d hoped we could do fish and chips at a local restaurant in Augusta but none of us were really hungry at that time so we headed to Squid Lips in Margaret River. Unfortunately, it was closed as the owner hurt his neck during the hectic Mother’s Day rush at the restaurant. An hour and a half wait for his fish and chips. We really enjoy takeout there once a week! So much for lunch there but we stopped by a local meat shop and picked up chicken for dinner. Fish and chips would wait.

By the time we were home it was still early afternoon and we enjoyed the afternoon to chill and putz around. As the day started to wind down we glanced out and figured there wouldn’t be a sunset because of the misc. clouds so we stayed tucked into our living room and didn’t venture out for the five minute walk to the beach. Right about sunset Larkin said, oh its getting pretty outside. OMG. We rushed upstairs to our little balcony off our Master bedroom and took in the spectacular sunset. Here are some of the photos in order…

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We were mesmerized by the powerful colors. The subtle changes as the minutes passed. The left side is surfers point…the tree is at one of our neighbors. The rays shining up were through the clouds that look like boulders next to Surfers Point. We have never seen a sunset that left us breathless and almost brought us to tears! We have some fabulous photos of sunsets especially in the winter at Dillon Beach but none quite like this one so far….we’ll be looking for a sunset like this when we finally get home!

It wasn’t just us though…today we talked to the manager of our property, the owner of the local general store, another neighbor and even the folks at Squid Lips where we finally got our craving fed tonight, who all mentioned “did you see that sunset last night? wasn’t it spectacular?”

Never in a million years would I expect our little iphones could take stunning colorful shots like these with zero editing to enhance the color.

Have a Colorful weekend! Tomorrow is Friday here!