Day 36: Tue 23 Apr 24

Day 36: Tue 23 Apr 24 - Augusta

April 23, 2024

Tue 23 Apr 24 - Augusta (Happy 36th Wedding Anniversary to us)

The temperature dropped to 16 overnight, and only reached a maximum of 18 Deg all day. The strong 40 to 61km/h gusting SE winds made it feel much fresher. It was cloudy with some light drizzle in the morning, but it cleared to a mostly sunny afternoon. Thankfully, it didn’t stop us from doing anything that we had planned today.

After coffee and a slower than usual start, I went for a walk for about an hour around Augusta while Noel enjoyed some quiet time (i.e. washing and making the bed). After returning and getting ourselves organised, I thought I would treat Noel for our anniversary by taking her to a Jewel Cave (about 11km away). Turns out it wasn’t a cave full of jewels, but we both agree it turned out to be a gem of a cave anyway. She did have the nerve to suggest that my motive for taking her down into the lower cavern, and making her walk back up 260 steps was to bump her off…. Anyway, she did it, and we both thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Jewel Cave is stunning. It’s the largest show cave in Western Australia and is also the most recently developed. It is actually named after the Jewel Casket, a small chamber in the lower sections of the cave which is nothing short of spectacular. As soon as you step into the first chamber, you are immediately left in awe by its breathtaking magnitude. Jewel Cave has one of the longest straw stalactites (5.43m long) found in Australia, a hollow tubular stalactite whose diameter varies with the diameter of a water droplet. Read more about it here: Jewel Cave

After an excellent one hour guided tour, we continued a short drive along the narrow tree lined scenic route to Hamelin Bay Beach. When planning our stay in the area, I considered staying at Hamlin Bay instead of Augusta, and we wouldn’t have been disappointed. It’s a lovely peaceful spot. Hamelin Bay Beach is most famous for the large stingrays that frequent the bay. Measuring up to two metres wide, they often swim around people in the water. It was far too fresh for anyone to be in the water today, but we did see a couple of stingrays swimming close to the shore. I didn’t get any photos, so you’ll have to take our word for it.

After about an hour strolling around the Hamelin Bay headland and along the beach, we returned to Augusta and had a late lunch (early dinner) at the hotel. It was too windy to sit outside, but the views from inside over Hardy Inlet were quite nice. Our lunch was also nice, but the standard of the meals and the prices didn’t quite match. A few people that we have spoken to refer to Margaret River as Markup River. After lunch we went for a short drive out towards the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, but on the way, we decided to visit another day, when hopefully the wind drops. We returned to the van and at about 4:30pm I decided to go for a bike ride to explore a bit more of the area. It was nice, but could have been so much nicer if the wind hadn’t been so strong. It’s been another full day, one that we both thoroughly enjoyed. As we were settling in for the evening, the increasing wind speed coming from a more easterly direction became more noticeable than last night. Looking at the BOM, we have another 36 hours before the winds subside.

Visit to the Jewel Cave - one of more than 100 beneath the surface of the Leeuwin-Naturalist Ridge. The skeleton of a Tasmanian Tiger was found in this cave.