What a magical place Kalbarri is! You turn off the main road south, some 100km north of Geraldton, and travel about 50km west, mostly through national park - then suddenly you come upon this little town, sitting pretty on the coast at the mouth of the Murchison River, looking out over a beautiful, sheltered harbour and beyond to breaking waves and spectacular limestone cliffs. You can surf, fish, swim, go out on a whale-watching charter, explore the national park, see the most beautiful wildflowers, canoe on the river, ride horses or quad bikes and watch the pelican feeding every morning.
We ran into someone we know from Adelaide as soon as we arrived at the caravan park, so that quickly became a plan for a fish-and-chips supper at "Finlay's Shed" - where there's no table service, the napkins are rolls of toilet paper, and the food is magnificent. The chef calls out your number when your meal is ready - and when he called out for "number 78 to send Snap Crackle and Pop out to collect their kids' meals" he endeared himself to us forever.
After attending the traditional pelican feeding on the foreshore in the morning, we spent Friday in the national park, marvelling at the most beautiful wildflowers and visiting the main tourist attractions - the gorges, lookouts etc. Funny how we don't seem so enthusiastic about 2 hour walks anymore, though! On Saturday, Kendall and Andrew went out on a fishing charter with our friend who drove up from Perth, in a lovely 50' purpose-built charter boat, which also does whale-watching tours. Unfortunately, the fish were not very enthusiastic about being caught that day - although the boat got very close to some whales at no extra charge (maybe that's what put the fish off). Meanwhile Kirralee, Tahlia and I visited the Rainbow Jungle, which is "Australia's largest" parrot breeding centre. When we were there, it was also playing host to a sculpture exhibition, and the combination was just beautiful. The layout was lovely, with a mixture of cages and free-flight aviaries, hundreds of amazing, colourful birds and these great sculptures scattered throughout the park, in amongst the water features, along the paths etc. It was definitely one of the best places I've visited on our trip.
There's a "world class" surf break in Kalbarri, called Jacques Point, but believe it or not the swell was too big when we were there, so Andrew had to content himself with a few photos of it. At least he was sensible enough to know his limits.
On Sunday we went on a canoe safari along the Murchison River. This was okay, except that the river was pretty shallow (VERY shallow actually) and everyone got stuck several times and had to be pulled over sandbars barely six inches deep. It also rained briefly and was pretty windy. Still, the scenery was lovely, the guide was very knowledgeable and the hot breakfast of bacon, eggs and sausages on the river bank and the quick (cold) swim on the way back were highlights. On Sunday afternoon we braved the bitter cold wind and checked out the various scenic spots along the coastline, before another lovely meal out (what extravagence!) in the local pub. (None of us had fish, though.)
On Monday we packed up and hit the road once again; this time only a short hop to Geraldton. On the way we passed the strange pink lake at Port Gregory. It's pink because it contains beta carotene, which it is mined for. Yet another colourful image for our Kalbarri blog. I hope you enjoy it!
Captions for pictures
- Feeding the pelicans (half a slimy fish per child - yuck)
- Jacques Point looking very calm on the morning we left
- Wildflowers in the National Park (I've got hundreds more pictures if you are interested......?!)
- Famous landmark in the National Park: Nature's Window. This picture is at least as good as the ones in the tourist brochures!
- Parrots at Rainbow Jungle (I've got lots of these, too)
- Canoeing on Murchison River
- Swimming stop on the way back (just to prove that I am actually on this holiday!)
- "Island rock" along the coastline - also part of the national park.
- Pink lake at Port Gregory (it looks even brighter in "real life" but there were no decent vantage points)
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