Yanchep National Park, AUSTRALIA

October 16, 2007

From Joodalup, we took Wanneroo Road to Yanchep National Park. The drive along the road fringed by bush lands was relaxing. There were places to stop and shop for country fresh vegetables and fruits. It was a good 20-minute drive.

When we got the park, we headed to the visitor’s centre. We booked a tour to the underground cave scheduled to start in an hour time. Meanwhile we walked around the place looking at more koalas in the wild sleeping on top of gum trees. We had lunch inside the car while waiting for the tour to start. There were far too many flies outside.

Ton in front of the Visitor's Centre

We were joined by an old couple from London and a mother and daughter team from Germany. That made up our group. The English couple has been on the road in their trusty old caravan since April. They had not fixed any return date. They had been to Malaysia and planned to go to Pakistan and Iran. However, they said President Bush made their Iranian travel plans uncertain.

Anas with some native plants called "black boy"

Crystal Cave is an underground limestone cavern. It was carved by the running underground stream that eroded the limestone and formed caverns. Christie, the tour guide was very knowledgeable when it came to her favourite subject, caves. Knowing that we were from Malaysia, she even asked whether we had been to Mulu Cave in Sarawak. It was embarrassing to tell someone that you had not been to the world famous cave right in your backyard when you had traveled all over the places.

Anas entering the cave

Christie told us about the problems of the cave drying up. Scientists would be pumping water into the cave in a few months time.

On the way back, we ran into a group of kangaroos by the roadside. It was a good photo opportunity to capture wild kangaroos instead of those in captivity. We stopped to buy some fruits along the way and reached Perth around 2pm.