We started out yesterday morning at the skate park early. It was pretty lame so the kids didn't last long and it was off to the National Park. We had been warned about the high temperatures and flies so we made a pit stop at the camping, fishing everything store for some fly nets - very attractive things!!!
Flies actually weren't too bad so we didn't really need them (yet!!)
The drive out to the National Park is 26kms worth of very corrugated bone rattling, body shaking dirt road. The dirt was red, real red, redder than I've ever seen, and then it changed to yellow, bright yellow. Didn't matter what colour it was it was a bumpy ride!!!
We stopped at the lookout first and the view was amazing. Its impossible to describe the feeling you get standing on the highest rock there - you feel so small and the world just so large. You can see forever and its just breathtaking. So much better in real life than the photos show but hopefully you can get an idea of the expansiveness - that became the word of the day! The colours were quite amazing too, the red of the earth and the blue of the sky such a contrast and one that we're not used to in the east.
It was off to Natures Window then. Only a 500 metre walk (each way) and the path is very well marked out its not difficult walking at all. The temperature on the other hand was difficult to cope with. 37 degrees in the car park at 9am and a good 6 - 10 degrees higher the further in you got. There is absolutely no shade!!! There are warning signs everywhere about the dangers of walking in the heat, how to deal with heat stress and reminding you that heat kills.
Jade and Thomas in Natures Window
Looking through Natures Window onto the Murchison River below
The colours and the layers in the rugged rock are just stunning!
Feeling so small in such a big wide open space - I loved it!!
We walked back to the car and turned the air con up on full, it was so hot and we were so thirsty, so glad we had the little travelling fridge in the car, the cold water went down a treat!!!
Whilst enjoying the cool of the car we headed around to Z bend. On the way we saw some kangaroos hiding under the shade of the tree by the side of the road. They were the most beautiful kangaroos I've ever seen, they both had such beautiful faces - that probably sounds weird but its true!
Once at Zbend we decided it was too hot to go any further. The temperature was in the very high 30s and the had a 2.4km return walk down to the river - no shade and uphill all the way back. The kids weren't coping with the heat and we just thought it was silly to go out in it. We think it would easily have been another 10 degrees hotter once down there which was just too much to be walking around in.
We headed out to Ross Graham Gorge and Hawks Head lookout, the walk down to these ones wasn't as far. Jade and I both had a swim at Ross Graham in the murky Murchison River. Not real keen on swimming in places where I can't see the bottom but it was just so hot and the water so refreshing that we just couldn't help it. Didn't put my feet down if I didn't have too and we didn't stay in for long but it defiantly made the hot walk back to the car a little easier. You could really notice the difference in temperature at the bottom near the water compared to the top. The difference yet again when we got back the coast at camp was even more noticeable - a lovely 29 with a cool sea breeze sure beats nearly 40 with no shade!!
Kerryn and Jade swimming at Ross Graham
We headed back to camp and cooled off with a lovely swim in the pool and just some relaxing around the van.
We went to the outdoor cinema and watched Real Steel at night. Gates open at 6pm and they serve wood fired pizza and then you watch the movie under the stars on a huge screen. The kids hired bean bags at $3 each and brought their pillows and were really comfortable. Sadly the chairs that we sat on weren't so comfortable but its all part of the experience. We were all surprised by how cold it was sitting out. The movie was very loud. Tom was a little scared to start off with but settled into it Ok and all in all it was certainly a great experience to be able to sit outside to watch it.
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Onto today now, I warned you we've done a lot....
Dave was hoping for a surf but the wind was blowing this morning so sadly there was nothing to surf. We went to the Rainbow Jungle which is a parrot breeding centre. They have some beautiful amazing birds and a big walk through free flight aviary.
This fella was very cheeky, every time I walked up to the cage to try and take his photo he would fly down real quick and land on the wire in front of me giving me a huge fright. There was a large hedge behind me and I kept stepping back into it. It was like he was doing it on purpose to scare me. It took an age to get this photo!!!
We finished the scenic drive that we started the other day looking at all the rock formations along the coast. Its amazing how different the coast is here to what we are used too - so rugged, so red and very beautiful.
There are lots of lookouts to pull into and look at, I've just included pictures of 2 of them...
We decided we'd get fish and chips and come back to one of these lookouts to watch the sunset, but the best laid plans don't always work. Clouds came over, Dave forgot which way the headlands were facing and well the best part of the sunset happened whilst we were in transit.
We sat in the car park at the lookout and ate our dinner...
and watched a very uneventful sunset, still there are plenty of worse things we could have been doing...
Today was our last day at Kalbarri, we have really enjoyed it here and its been great to have the extra day and be able to take things at a slower pace. Off to Monkey Mia tomorrow and so looking forward to seeing the dolphins!!!
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