17TH MAY 2013 – KALBARRI, MID WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Above Kalbarri

 

Ocean Cliffs Kalbarri
 

Another 165kms to travel to Kalbarri, via Port Gregory for morning tea. There has been some rain before us & we are hopeful it will keep heading south. We are not so lucky with the caravan park this time who won’t allow us to share a site, however we do manage to get two alongside each other. This suits us well as we do all the cooking in the van & share our meals. Rene was chief cook in Perth so now it’s my turn, though Stu is very good & does his ‘Butter Chicken’ one night. We have managed to have most of our meals outside except for one night. Kalbarri is a beautiful area with magical cliffs & ocean views, so we spent the first afternoon visiting some of those. Really the whole area is one ‘ginormous’ National Park. The second day was a biggie, as we spent the day walking a 10km trail through the most beautiful & stunning landscape of gorges. Armed with our picnic lunch & water, me with my hiking sticks like a great granny should, we were blessed with a lovely sunny day and a gentle breeze. At the bottom of the gorge is the Murchison River, not an abundant amount of water at the moment, but Bruce couldn’t resist a swim in the middle of the afternoon & then had to walk in wet shorts. We did see some wildlife, like roos , tiny lizards, black swans, herons & wild goats looking down at us from their great height on top of the cliffs. The gorge is mostly sandy with eucalyptus trees in places, & the rock formations & cliffs are like red pancakes stacked on top of one another. Of course there was a fair amount of climbing to be done, but luckily not too onerous for we senior citizens. Stu took a couple of videos of us all throughout the walk which I am sure you will find quite comical when you see them.

On the trail Kalbarri National Park

Nutures Window

At the bottom of the Gorge

Because dogs are not allowed in the park Rene had found a ‘dog sitter’ for the day, so he was over the moon to see us on our return & we were all glad to be back ‘home’ for a long cool drink & hot shower. And so we had the ‘last supper’ having thoroughly enjoyed each others company, with plans to meet up for another holiday in the future somewhere. We all hit the sack early, rose early & as we can pack up a lot quicker than they with their tent, we set off, calling into a couple more lookouts of the gorges on our way.

Stu on rock ledge

 

We are now heading for Shark Bay, some 300+kms further north, through part of the wheat belt. It is quite flat, with a 360deg horizon & clouds so big, some looking like rain. Luckily we drive through it . Marino sheep are evident, recently shawn but they are identifiable by their larger size & longer legs. The temperature rises to 25deg before morning tea. Lots of vans pass us going south which pleases us as it won’t be so busy ahead. There are quite a lot of overnight parking areas which we hope will continue to Denham which is our next call. About 80kms before Denham we found a camping 'resort' called Nanga Bay  which was only $25 per night.  The word resort was loosely used - it had all the trappings, like tennis court, spa, swimming pool, motel units, restaurant etc   but was a very old homestead with all the usual corrugated iron sheds which had seen better days.  Also had it's own beach, & though the powered end of the campsite was occupied, the unpowered where we were was like a ghost town apart from the very large noisy generator which went day & night, luckily it didn't keep us awake probably due the wind direction which came up over night.