Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse

After a few days of exploring the Margaret River area we packed up today and headed to the furtherest point - Cape Naturaliste. The whole peninsula is only about 100 kilometres in length so we didn't have far to travel.

We stopped off first at Yallingup which is a surfing and fishing beach and very pretty. We had expected Yallingup to be a reasonable size, but were surprised that it was quite small. I checked google and see that the population is only 300. It was tempting to stay but we decided to move on a little. Next stop was Dunsborough. Some years ago Dunsborough was voted Western Australia's top tourist town. It was certainly busy today with lots of shoppers enjoying the warm Saturday.

We headed out to Cape Naturaliste as we wanted to go to the lighthouse. We booked a tour and we were surprised when we were the only ones on the tour. Peter was enthral led with all the information about the machine was has been in use since 1903 operating the light. For me I enjoyed the climb and the view from the top. The lighthouse was originally operated by three keepers working around the clock and from 1992 is now totally automated. Like the Leeuwin Lighthouse in Augusta, this lighthouse is extremely important to ships passing this rugged coastline.

Apparently during the annual migratory period from September to December whales can be seen in these waters. Also, we continually hear that these parts of Western Australia are wonderful during spring when the wild flowers are in flower. Perhaps we will have to visit again!