Let's Hang Ten

WAVE ROCK Sorry, but I couldn't resist that heading. The granite rock at Hyden is very impressive, the concrete wall you see at the top is to catch water off the rock that is above the wave and to divert it to the dam, the dam was was looking a bit dismal.
HIPPO'S YAWN Still in the same area, us standing in there gives you bit of an idea of the size of the rock. The whole area has huge solid granite rocks and out crops. We left Esperance on Tuesday and stopped at Ravensthorpe as from there it was only a two hour drive to Hyden.
Ravensthorpe is another mining town, this time nickel, a big mine was set up by BHP nearby at a cost of $3billion when nickel was selling at $56million a tonne, then the price dropped to $7million a tonne and their break even cost was $11million a tonne, so the mine has been sold off to an Canadian nickel mining company for $330million and they will sit on it until the price increases - bargain! 1400 workers lost their jobs and the town of Hopetoun benefited as they ended up with infrastucture to cater for this number of people. HOPETOUN BEACH looking across to Fitzgerald River National Park, a quiet little town that can only be accessed from Ravensthorpe. It will take off again and be home to the mining workers and their families in the future. As you can see a storm rolled in and was dumping rain in the distance, some great lightning flashes.
UPDATE We have heard on the radio that the guy walking with the Canadian flag was actually walking the Nullarbor Golf Course, 1403.7kms, the longest golf course in the world and it took him and his wife 27 days. The course starts at Ceduna and finishes at Kalgoorlie and he raised money for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.