Missile Range Camping and Wave Rock

Well, the Flying Tomato and the mighty San Juans are a pretty tough act to follow, but I'll see if I can entertain you with some Aussie action. This post was not sponsored by an energy drink.

A few weeks ago I headed north from Perth to do some camping with friends. While I am a veteran camper and have camped in many places and in many conditions, I now have a new camping experience: camping on a beach on the edge of a missile range. From the beach town of Lancelin we drove north on the beach until we arrived at a suitable camp site.


From the top of a dune, we could see this target off in the distance.

The missile range is used by the Australian and American navies. They weren't in the area that weekend according to the signs at the gate. When not being used as a missle range this is a recreation area frequented by off-roaders, campers, and beach-goers. How's that for a win-win use of the area?

The next day, we went to the giant white dunes to try out Gareth's power kite. First a few pointers from Nik.
Now a confident grin.

And I'm off! The power kite dragged us novices across the dunes. See the furrows behind my feet.

Last weekend I did a roadtrip to Hyden to see the famous Wave Rock. Here is an enterprise I passed on the way. One-stop-shopping out in the wheat country. This is right next to the gas station and across from the combine and tractor dealer, so you can get everything you need in one place.

The inner part of W.A. is rather dry, so some clever methods have been developed to collect water. This arrangement is at a roadside stop. Whoever needs water can help themselves.
This is another method - find a depression in a granite outcrop and dam up the bottom part. Then rain water will run in and fill the pond. Small diversion walls channel more water into the pond.
There are some salt lakes in the area. They are getting saltier and saltier, and are getting salty enough the surrounding trees are starting to die. Some of the lakes are an eerie green color.
This is wave rock, so named for obvious reasons. It is part of a large granite outcrop that also has a rain-collection lake. The little walls at the top are more water collection diverters. The average rainfall here is 337mm per year - not very much!

Another view of wave rock with bystanders for scale. The wave is about 50 feet tall and 350 feet long.

Near Hyden is part of the Rabbit-Proof Fence. This is one of three fences built around 1905 to try to keep rabbits, emus, and feral goats out of W.A.'s agricultural land. It goes off into the distance as far as you can see. This piece is 234km (146 miles) long, and the whole thing is 1176km (735 miles) long. Apparently the fence had some success, but didn't entirely stop the hungry critters from eating the crops.

Travis