Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse

We headed off a little further south for the day, to the town of Augusta, the most South Westerly town in Australia.  It is sheltered from cold winds by Cape Leeuwin, and the warm currents of water travel down the coast of WA from Indonesia, creating a small microcosm of weather.  The sea can be 24 degrees centigrade in winter, and they can grow bananas.  I didn't see any though.

A bit further south west and we were on Cape Leeuwin, where we climbed the tallest lighthouse on mainland Australia.  At 38m or so, Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse is the third tallest in Australia including those on islands, and its light (and the lighthouse during the day) can be seen 47 km out to sea.  It is often the last part of Australia seen by ships on their way out to sea.  This lighthouse guards one of the busiest sea traffic routes on the Australian coast.  It was built in 1896 and still has all the original stairs, windows and the original lens, hand made, ground and polished of lead crystal more than 110 years ago.  There was no electricity used in the lighthouse until 1982, and the three lighthouse keepers would take turns, on four hour shifts, carrying kerosine to the tanks and pumping it into the light,  walking up and down the 179 stairs to make weather recordings, cranking the clockworks that rotated the light for ten minutes every two hours, (it still revolves on a bed of mercury), and maintaining the grounds.  The guide said the last lighthouse keeper, who is now 82 years old, comes down every now and then and climbs up the stairs no problem.  They had one day off every three weeks, and if they left the cape they had to be back by sundown, in case there was a problem.  

It is all automated now, but they still have spare stairs and spare windows stored in the lighthouse that were made in England over 110 years ago.

Before the lighthouse was built there were about 23 shipwrecks off this corner of the coast, where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean, and after the light house was built, only one, in spurious circumstances.

We really enjoyed the lighthouse, and Grant had a nice chat to an older gentleman visiting with his wife from Berlin.  He was born in Saarland where we lived in Germany.

We stopped on our way back through Augusta on the banks of the Blackwood river, where it empties into Flinders Bay.  It was a lovely spot and we ate our lunch and watched the dolphins swim.  We tried swimming with the dolphins, but that ended when a storm blew up and I saw a bolt of lightning strike straight down behind the cape.

A little further north up the coast we looked in at Hamelin Bay, where the water was a clear blue.  Everyone got very wet running into the waves and out again. 

Back at our campsite, Grant and the kids swam in Chapman's Brook, and we enjoyed the quiet of a campsite all on our own.  As the sun set we noticed smoke overhead, and ash dropping onto our chairs.  I rang a nearby campground to find out if we were going to be burnt to a crisp, and to let someone know we were there, but they said everything was fine, a lightning strike had started a fire but it was all under control.

It was only a week or so ago that they had the big fires in the Margaret
River area, and a lot of people are blaming the Department of Environment and Conservation, because it was a controlled burn off that got out of control when the winds picked up.  There are people who want the department to pay, and those who can see that the Department did the best they could. I think they are in between a rock and a hard place.

We had a nice red moon tonight, in any case.
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Vicki