Cape Leeuwin to Cape Naturaliste
23rd July, Cape Leeuwin/Cape Naturaliste, Australia
Augusta hadn't come up with the goods on the whale-watching front, and as that is pretty much the main reason for being there we didn't stick around for long. Ironically, the weather was absolutely perfect today - blue sky, still seas. I was almost tempted to get a seat on the whale-watching boat again, but knowing our luck ... well, you can fill in the gaps.
We headed south just a little - a few kms - to Cape Leeuwin, the most south-westerly point of Australia. Naturally, there was a lighthouse there, and naturally we took photos (I have a rather fine collection of lighthouse photos from around the world building up now!). The Cape has something more interesting than a lighthouse, and that is the claim to this little badge of honour: it is the meeting point of the Southern and Indian Oceans. And they have the signs to prove it:
Looking to the left and right, there didn't seem to be any discernible difference, but let's face it, they are just arbitrary divisions as set out on a map. Just a few hundred yards up the road from the lighthouse is an old waterwheel (over a hundred years old).
The wheel stopped turning years ago, but there was water flowing over it this morning - posing for the camcorder, no doubt. However, I spent more time clambering over the rocks at the water's edge trying to avoid being swept away while simultaneously looking for some elusive, but very large, purple-coloured crabs. They sure can hide quickly!
We drove further north, taking a brief stop at a place called Hamelin Bay. We had been told by the skipper on the boat yesterday that we had a good chance of seeing giant stingrays here, right there on the beach. In the summer, when everyone is there for the fishing, the stingrays hang around by the boat ramp waiting for morsels of food from people cleaning off the fish they have caught. If they can't find any fish, they'll make do with a nibble on your toes, the skipper added. There was just one problem - the part about it happening in the summer, and here, in July in the southern hemisphere, it's officially winter. Although this is not like any winter I ever knew:
So, no stingrays today. There might be some other attractions in the water, though:
A surfer had recently been attacked and very quickly killed in the waters of Western Australia, not very far from this place, hence shark warning signs had gone up all over. While there were no surfers at this beach, we saw plenty of kids riding the waves all the way up from Cape Leeuwin to Cape Naturaliste. Fearless? Or is it more a case of statistics? After all, shark attacks are still rare, but when they do attack they tend to do a good job of it, scaring the heck out of the local population in the process. They never found the shark (or sharks, as it's believed - a shark tag team?) that killed the surfer, so it must be out there somewhere ...
We drove on through Margaret River, eventually stopping at Dunsborough in Cape Naturaliste. No sight-seeing there - just a stop-over as we continue on to Perth.