The Banksias along the road out to the highway are just amazing.
Our first stop was Lake Thetis. We walked around the lake and had a look at the Stromatolites. Not as impressive as the Thrombolites as Lake Clifton but still pretty amazing to think that they are living organisms. Stromatolites and their close cousins, thrombolites are living fossils that have been producing oxygen for about 3.5 billion years. This means that when you’re looking at these rock-like structures you’re essentially stepping back in time and seeing at how life was billions of years ago. Both stromatolites and thrombolites are created over thousands of years by colonies of cyanobacteria who use the sun to harness energy and create oxygen. Perhaps most impressively, they’re the reason why we’re here today and we can thank them for the oxygen that has allowed complex life-forms to evolve. Equally impressive, they also provide insight into the environmental changes of the earth. Lake Thetis is one of the few places in the world where you can see these living fossils. The only other colony, apart from Lake Clifford is Hamelin Pool in Shark Bay. We'll be there in a few days. Lake Thetis has both stromatolites and thrombolites. These have been growing for about 3,500 years, in part thanks to the high saline content of the lake which means that few predators can survive in the salty water.
Quite a lot of seabirds around, particularly cormorants.
On to Cervantes and the Lobster Shack. Even though it is only 11:30 am we thought we should try out the lobster - half lobster & chips and some calamari. Is lobster overrated? The "shack" is the base for the Thompson families' lobster enterprise set up in 1966 when David Thompson moved to the area in search of the Western Rock Lobster .
Called into the Information Centre at Jurien Bay to get some information of Stockyard Gully Cave that we had read about. Also visited their market in a nice new park near the beachfront.
Drove on to Green Head Caravan Park where we set up camp before driving out to Stockyard Gully Cave. Alex walked through the cave while Jill entertained herself elsewhere. Stockyard Gully Cave was created by an underground river system and is fairly easy to access after walking along the creek bed from the carpark. During the mid-late 1900s, part of the coastal stock route, linking Champion Bay (Geraldton) and the Guildford cattle markets traversed the park. Stockmen found the area provided good feed and water for the animals, and the creek bed or gully near the inflow entrance to the cave formed a narrow holding yard for stock if they needed to camp overnight. One impressive feature of the caves are the huge bee hives that have been constructed near the entrances.
We returned via a 4 wheel drive track through Stockyard National Park to the Leeman - Eneabba Road. It was very sandy in places and rocky in other (limestone).
Drove back the coast road from Leeman to Green Head. Thought we might see sea lions at Point Louise but no - interesting honeycomb rocks though (calcarenite). On the way out we couldn't turn onto the Green Head road because of the huge sand dune across it. Had to backtrack a little.
Sunset on the beach at Green Head and a bit more of a walk.
