Lake Indoon and Stockyard Gully cave

Lake Indoon (what's left of it)

Conor again trying to avoid the wind at breakfast (inside

the trailer)

A 'feral' beehive at the Stockyard Gully cave

A quiet day today, the kids did a bit of activity book stuff this morning and then played down by the lake, which is really just mostly sand a bit of mud further out. A nice tin of soup lunch at the tent for a change, and then a visit to a nearby cave, as recommended by the ranger this morning. It was down a long sandy, rocky 4WD track at Stockyard Gully NP, and it’s where a river used to flow down a sandy riverbed, then go through what is now the cave, which has a sandy floor and winds exactly like you imagine a river would, and then out the other side. Daniel pointed out that this means that it’s not actually a cave but a tunnel (maybe a cave but with two entries?), but it was pretty cool anyway. Apparently the drovers used to use it as a water stop on the route from Geraldton to Perth. We also managed to spot another bush tucker plant, so we’re gradually filling in the list at the back of the little book we bought, saying where we saw each plant. So far we’ve seen: The soapbush, which is what we used to wash our hands on the bush tucker tour at Margaret River, Kerbein, Putjak, Berry Saltbush and Quandong at the Pinnacles, Djuk at Lake Thetis, and maybe Nyilla Nyilla at Stockyard Gully today (although Nick disputes this). We’ve also realised that Bain, or pigface, grows in our front yard in Holder!

The forecast is for rain from tomorrow in this area so we’ve resolved to try and leave early and arrive at the next spot near Kalbarri NP before it starts, we’ll see how we go.