Kalbarri Nationalpark 23/9/15
Next morning we finally made it into Kalbarri
NP. It was quite interesting to drive in because you don’t see a range or hills,
it’s all flat and green, lots of wildflowers and Banksia but nothing that looks
like there could be a gorge.
Wheat fields, Drive into Kalbarri NP, Ross Grahams lookout & River, Hawks Head lookout, picnic with the flies
There are two lookout/short walks at the east end, Hawks Head and Ross Graham Lookout. And here you finally see the gorges. They are carved deep into the surrounding limestone plateau, therefore not being visible from the main road. At Ross Grahams Lookout we walked down to the river. Martin had a ball building a dam, Sarah joint in and we all played for about an hour. Hawks Head is just a short walk to a lookout over the gorge and the river.
It was getting hot and Sarah was tired so we drove to the Big River Ranch, just before Kalbarri, which is less of a caravan park and more of a horse riding place. Sarah was instantly in her element, chasing chooks, watching the turkeys and the peacock, patting horses and Bundy - the donkey and running after the goats (Mollie). For various reasons we didn’t manage to do anything else that afternoon, and had to postpone discovering more of the NP walk and the Kalbarri cliff coast to the next day.
Pelican feeding and Sarahs first pony ride on Magneth
So next morning we went to see the pelican feeding at the beach in Kalbarri town, then came back to the Ranch for a pony ride for Sarah. Finally! She had been waiting for that since the Gibb River Road. Her little pony is called Magneth and she could watch the whole process from saddling to finally getting on it. We had watched the older kids getting ready for their ride before so Sarah knew exactly what was coming. It’s interesting to watch her being so earnest, a bit shy and concentrated. A good experience for her, she enjoyed it!
Sarah & The Goat: Do you want to dance with me?
Another little girl, Bella, was going on a ride as well and afterwards both of them went off to play together. Both hadn’t seen other kids for a while so we left them to have some fun. The whole riding thing had taken much longer than expected anyway and it was nearly lunch time. We decided to have a good morning tea and prepared some food to take on the hikes and leave for Kalbarri NP a bit later.
Natures Window, hike and lookout
Sarah didn’t want to go and when we finally managed to get her and everything else into the car she fell asleep 10 min down the road… We kept on going. Most of the walks are very short between 500m to 2.6 km and we thought we can just do them one person walking, the other waiting with Sarah in the car. The West Bend Lookout is only 500 m return and we both managed to see it before Sarah woke up. The next one was Natures Window. We had told Sarah about it before and were glad she’d woken up to go as well. It's a 1 km return walk, 430 m on bitumen and 70 m rock climbing. Well worth it but Sarah was still tired and needed a ‘lift’ on the straight part. After a lunch pick nick we drove another 12 km to the next 1.2km walk, the Z-bend trail. The more interesting and difficult part, involving rock and ladder climbing was 2.6km and – at that day – would have been too much for Sarah. But the short walk was beautiful as well and offered a great view down into the gorge.
Wildflowers and sunset in Kalbarri town (Marina)
I would have loved to walk more but in the end we were all somehow tired and exhausted. Looks like we’re a bit travel-tired and overloaded at the moment. We rewarded ourselves with Fish&Chips at the river in Kalbarri town and a chat with Götti on the phone. Sarah found another girl to play with and overall we had a good day.
Kalbarri Coast to Northampton 25/9/15
Red Bluff lookout, Pot Alley, Castle Cove and Natural Bridge at the Kalbarri coast line
Since we hadn’t seen anything of Kalbarris
coastline we drove the loop along the coast towards Northampton. There are lots of lovely spots to stop and look at the ocean and the cliffs. But we only
stopped at a couple of them. First was Red Bluff, a 500m walk to a lookout on
top of the cliff along with some historic information about the many ship
wrecks that ended up here. Next up was
Pot Alley with a short hike from the cliff down to a little beach. It was very
windy, the water was cold but crystal clear, the sand was rough with lots of
tiny shells with beautiful colours. Sarah built a sand castle, Regine collected
shells and Martin took pictures. The last place was Castle cove / Natural
Bridge, again a short walk on top of the cliff to two lookouts over the
beautiful coastline.
Canola fields, what-ever-kind-of-tree, sunset
From there we drove to Northampton where we
stopped for a coffee & Banana bread and a quick look at the churches. The
area is dominated by agriculture, mainly grains and sheep and offers views of
endless golden fields. Regarding our last experience with the back roads we
decided to leave the main road, enjoy the quiet back roads and find a free camp
somewhere in the fields (for our German friend: “ein Bett im Kornfeld”). We
ended up next to a canola field (did I mention I suffer from hay fever?) and
had a lovely, fly-enriched walk and a super quiet night.
Geralton 26/9/15
Eucalyptus Rose Mallee, fields, fields,more fields and the sunset at our lookout
Leaving early again we
drove through the lovely Chapman Valley, direction Geralton, for a day of shopping
that we couldn’t do in the smaller towns, like repairing Regines glasses, get
hiking shoes and a new hard drive for Martin. Sarah was really good, I think of
the three of us she enjoyed shopping most! Unfortunately we didn’t see much of
Geraltons attractions like the WA Museum, the HMAS Sydney II Memorial or the
big grain loading docks. The caravan parks had quite a bad rating and were
pretty expensive, so we decided to leave
and go to a free camp 25 km east of Geralton on a lookout. It was a great spot,
overlooking the vast fields, promising a beautiful sunset.
