Way before I entered Australia, I heard about a rock, shaped like a massive wave, somewhere in Western Australia.
This rock was without a doubt on my bucket list. Meanwhile I have been travelling across Australia for more than a year and after seeing Uluru, I didn’t expect that there would be any other rock in the world that still could amaze me. So I kind of scraped it from the list…

On my 4000 kilometre solo journey from Alice Springs to Perth, I met a man while whale watching along the Nullarbor. We drove up together and when we met again at a service station, he invited me to follow him to Hyden, to visit (1) Wave Rock. I wasn’t sure.. It would add another 500km to my road trip and I needed to be in Perth on a certain date to catch a plane. But because this trip was initially on my bucket list, I was sure I would regret it, if I didn’t go..

My first visit to Hyden was in the beginning of August. And I can tell you, I do not regret the 500 extra kilometres. This rock is awesome! Even after seeing Uluru it impressed me. It is huge, about 15 metre high and 100 metre long. Of course, compared to Ayers Rock it is small, but the shape of this wonder of nature is what makes it so amazing and unique.

We stayed that night at the caravan park in Hyden, located on the base of the rock. A clean and tidy campground with wide spaces within walking distance of the rock. In the evening, after we had had some food and a shower, we went up the rock to see the Milky Way.

Photographer:Chi-Yao, Tang.

The next morning I walked around the rock, (2) Hippo Yawn and a salt lake, called (3) Lake Magic and indeed it is magic. Hyden is truly an amazing and diverse place.

 

 

The next day I drove the last 300km off to Perth to catch my flight to Amsterdam.

When I came back to Australia in September, I gave the Wave Rock Motel a call to see if they needed staff. Luckily they did, so I went back to Hyden…

By now I have been working in the Hyden Motel for about 4 months, as a waitress. If you work and live in a place, you can discover all the hidden gems. So that is what I did and I discovered that Hyden is not only about Wave Rock.

There is a lot more to see and do in and around Hyden:

As I mentioned before there is Hippo’s Yawn, which is pretty close (read: walking distance) to Wave Rock and it has this name because of its shape.

Doesn’t this look like a giant Hippo’s mouth to you?

On the campground there is a kiosk and a nice little museum: (4) The Pioneer town. This museum will show you “memories of yesteryear“. It will tell you the story about “Hyden back in the days“, no easy access to clean drinking water, no phones, just back to basics, really interesting to see.

Across the road of the campground is the visitors information centre with an in-house cafe. Attached to this building are 2 more museums: (5 & 6) The Lace Place & The Miniature Soldier Museum and (7) The Wave Rock Wildlife park with all kinds of native Australian animals.

There is an awesome (8) floating pool at the Wave Rock Resort, next to Lake Magic. The water of this natural pool has a beautiful turquoise colour and is full of minerals and salt, so much of it that it will keep you afloat.

 

About 20 km away from Town Centre you can find (9) Mulka’s cave & the Humps. The name comes from the aboriginal legend Mulka and inside the cave you can actually see aboriginal hand paintings, which makes it really interesting and a little bit creepy.
Around the cave are information boards that explain the whole story.

 

If you visit western Australia between October and September you will get (10) wildflowers and orchids as a bonus.

 

About 30 minutes drive from Town centre, you will find (11) Kings Rock. There is a really relaxed recreation field, with an old shed, some dump toilets and old barrels to have a BBQ.
After a couple of weeks of hard work and living in a house I treated myself to a nice, but way to short camping trip. I have to admit.. I haven’t really seen that rock, neither the dam, that is supposed to be there. Some colleagues and I just relaxed for a while, had a few drinks, a BBQ and a good chat. We pitched up my roofhouse and some tents. After staring at the beautiful sky, full of stars and the Milky Way visible, it was time for bed.

If you are a bit of an adventurer like me and you are visiting Hyden in a 4WD, definitely take (12) The Holland track* to Coolgardie.

*Always check the road conditions before you leave.

For every type of traveller, being the fancy or luxurious type or the camp-lover or van-lifer, there are excellent places to stay to chose from.

You name it and you will find it in Hyden!

Disclosure: “This blog contains sponsored content for Wave Rock Tourism. All opinions remain my own and I was in no way influenced by the company”