The sun is a great mystery.
Still, it goes clockwise from what I can gather; but the sun lies north
at midday, a weak affair now this is winter in the southern hemisphere. People on the beaches are enjoying the views
and surfing in the giant waves of the Indian Ocean. The waves are alive and come crashing in over
the outcrops of sea rocks. Far out, a
white line of waves demarcates the reef.
On the sandy beaches, the limestone contains shells and pieces of a
harder stone like flint. Sponges are
scattered around along with white, chalky skeletons of cuttlefish
In the morning we go walking around the Margaret River
area. Every half mile or so there are
strange, quiet lagoons with what seems to be dead trees reflected in the
water. Everything is still and when a
seed from a tree is thrown into the water the ripples carry slowly onto the far
shore. All around the call of birds near
and far remind you that you’re in a natural forest area with many kinds of trees
rising high into the canopy. Many of
them show signs of having been burned and I guess this is part of the
regeneration process that renews the forest every few years. Judging by the rings on the fallen trees,
many are hundreds of years old.
The park has a variety of trees including karri, jarrah and the
curiously names blackbutt. The river
itself flows into the Indian Ocean at Prevelly Beach with its white sands and
limestone outcrops. Marron, a small
crustacean, are in the waters providing food for the water rats. There are also bandicoots and brush tail
possums, though I didn’t see any of them.
The Wardandi clan of the Nyoongar Aboriginal people call
this place ‘wooditchup’ after the ‘magic man’ who created the river to protect
himself from the father of his lover, Milyan.
In 1831, John Bussell, looking for farmland, came up from
Augustan the south and came to the river which he names Margaret River after
his cousin Margaret Wyche.
A railway was eventually opened in 1926 and the Group
Settlement Scheme was established to accommodate English migrants. Though I would think there were also Scottish,
Irish and Welsh.
