It was a warm morning with the temperature rising quickly once the sun came up. We all went down to the front beach for a swim to start the day – the water was beautifully clear and refreshing and we went around the south point through the water to the other beach – marvelling at the eroded limestone cliff face and caves on the point – very rugged!

The plan was then to drive out to Stockyard Gully which was inland to have a look at the Stockyard Gully Caves where drovers used to shelter with their stock inside the large cave.

The last few kms were on a dirt/ sandy track so we stopped to let down the tyres for the 4WD section. Gordie was a bit rusty on the function of the tyre deflater but a quick refresher sorted that out!

The farmland around was very dry and arid with some interesting grass trees… and the air was hot and dry ….

The drive out was great and we arrived at the small carpark where the walk to the caves began.

Underneath the surface is a labyrinth of underground caves and channels that have been created by rain and groundwater eroding intricate channels as they flow through the limestone. Only a small number of caverns have holes opening to the surface. The creek that flows along Stockyard Gully – though dry at the moment, flows though the large Stockyard Tunnel – a 300m long cave with openings at each end.

During the second half of the 18^th century the coastal stock route from Geraldton to Perth was a lifeline. Drovers travelling to the stockyards in Perth camped in the gully which was a cool natural stockyard.

We walked along the dry creek bed which was lined with gums and banskias – limestone outcrops jutted out of the sides of the gully.

The flies were pretty bad and it was hot and dry but as we approached the caves entrance the temperature noticeably dropped. At the entrance were some wild beehives which Matt checked out – no bees seemed to be around…maybe the dryness had caused them to abandon the site..

We stopped briefly at the cave’s entrance to put on head torches and the flies disappeared in the shade, so flynets were no longer necessary.

As we stepped into the cool darkness it was easy to imagine why the drovers used this spot as a camp – such relief from the heat, sun and flies!!!

The cave’s floor was sandy and no water at all was running in the creek bed..

The darkness was palpable – in particular when the head torches were turned out

Trev found a squeeze hole to another cave and climbed up to check it out – but did not go any further (thankfully!)

The roof of the cave was quite jagged with rough limestone projections interspersed with holes. Klaus located a microbat or two… which no one else had the pleasure of seeing as they were very hard to detect!!

After walking though the length of the tunnel we arrived at the opening at the end– which had been created when a section had collapsed in….

We turned back and walked back to the cars – and drove back to camp for an afternoon relaxing and preparing for our departure tomorrow. Some of us when back to Green Head and grabbed a coffee at the café we had been to yesterday….

The flies were still quite bad and so happy hour outdoors was going to be near impossible. We walked down to the next beach where there was a “natural window” taking a drink and a bag of chips to watch the sunset through the window.

It was a beautiful sunset – the Pirate Ship rock in the distance added to the pictures, and the sun through the natural window reflecting on the water was spectacular.

Trev made an attempt at a conversion kick between the posts as Gordie knelt to take “that sunset pic”…

The view from the beach back to the large sandhills also looked amazing in the fading light…