Augusta and Dolphins

The weather has been much nicer today – not hot or anything but no sign of rain so the trailer is nice and dry and aired out. It’s still quite cold at night here though, so it’s 2 jumper and beanie dinner attire for Nick and I, and Conor is now wondering whether he might just CONSIDER giving up his hot water bottle after Perth, and not wanting to make any rash promises. This morning they had to do quite a bit of journal writing to catch up, and then we were off to the Jewel Cave nearby. It’s a beautiful big cave, 2km in length apparently, although I have to say that the tour guide wasn’t as good as the one we had at our last cave experience, in little Wee Jasper (which was also a whole lot cheaper). One of the cool things was a straw (super skinny stalagtite) which was over 5m in length, just hanging down from the ceiling looking very fragile. They grow at about a centimetre a year, so I guess that makes it very old. I think the guide said that it is the third longest in the world. There were beautiful formations anyway, and Conor went absolutely bezerko snapping everything in sight. I’ll choose just a few select photos to load up of the 80 or so that he took.

After the cave we kept going further South to Augusta, which is a nice little town – there are lots of people around everywhere this weekend as it’s a long weekend here (and the weather is nice), plus the locals also seemed to be out enjoying the weather and the break. We had lunch on the inlet where Daniel suddenly called out that he saw a shark, which a local informed us was ‘only a dolphin love’. So there was a little pod of dolphins, including one baby/toddler swimming around the inlet which came really quite close – my first encounter with wild dolphins, which was fantastic. Compensates for not seeing that many whales J Then after that we had a bit of a walk down near the lighthouse which pretty much took us to the end of the day. We had a nice soup waiting for us in the thermal cooker (I’m really sold on it now) so dinner was quick and easy. We now also have a jobs list for the boys which they came up with, so that they can earn more pocket money while away – jobs are helping to carry the poles when we’re setting up and packing up, holding them while we put up the annex, packing them away in the tube (this is conor’s extra for being older), journal writing, and taking it in turns to dry up after breakfast or lunch, a couple of pages of an activity book and some goes at the times tables cards I bought at a newsagent. Nothing too strenuous really but they’re keen to save up for… something.

Jewel Cave formations

Jewel Cave formations, looks a bit like coral

Super long straws

the last part of the Cape to Cape walk, to the lighthouse

Karri forest nearby, never been logged

Trying his just act natural smile