Kalbarri

We left Hamelin Station at around 9.15am and set our GPS for Murchison Caravan park, a journey of around 270km. We started to notice a significant change in the flora and fauna. Wildflowers were starting to become abundant, different colours galore.
Kalbarri is a tourist town, situated in the Kalbarri National Park. We were soon set up there on a nice level pitch. A very busy caravan park with grass!
We knew that some friends of our son Jonathan, Roger and his wife Kathy, were also staying here. We soon met up with them for a catch-up chinwag!
That night, we had intended to have a good feed of barbequed steak but we spent so long with Cathy and Roger that it was getting too late to barbeque, so we had beans on toast instead, yum! BBQ tomorrow night.

A visit to Kalbarri National Park was definitely a to do thing, first we turned off to a high 360 degrees lookout point.  


The view from our first stop






We paid our entrance of $6 to the Ranger on duty at the entrance and travelled 12kms on bitumen then 14km on dirt to our first stop, the Loop is 1km return walk from The Loop car park brings you to one of WA’s most iconic natural attractions. Views of the Murchinson River is breath taking and after clambering over rocks we were greeted with the sight of what is known as Nature's Window. This natural rock arch frames the river perfectly and is the main photograph opportunity in Kalbarri National Park. For an unforgettable gorge adventure, follow the 8km Loop Walk. Here we literally bumped into Greg and Pam, friends from way back and Hamelin Station...  
Lots of photographs taken and then a short up hill walk to the car and drive to our next view point of the Z bends. The Z bends is considered by many to offer the most breathtaking view in the park, the Z-Bend lookout can be reached by a 1.4km return walk from the car park. Gazing down, the gorge plunges 150 metres to the river below where river redgums create a striking contrast against the earthy Tumblagooda sandstone.





































































The Z bends





























































Kalbarri National Park is located 485 km north of Perth. The major geographical features of the park include the Murchison River gorge which runs for nearly 80 km on the lower reaches of the Murchison River. Spectacular coastal cliffs are located on the coast near the mouth of the Murchison River and the town of Kalbarri. This National Park is one of our favourites and if you ever get chance please take a look around it.
Photographs of just a few of the flowers we saw.



There are quite a few turn offs along the coastal road so we had a few amazing walk along the cliffs, Red Bluff was a spectacular area and again the ground covered in various colourful flowers. 

A paved 1km return walk takes you to the lookout where panoramic ocean views from the top of 100m cliffs make it a perfect vantage point for spotting marine creatures, from dolphins to migrating humpback whales. At its base lies one of Kalbarri’s most popular beaches for swimming, snorkeling and fishing. You can take the 1.8km return walk to the beach, the way is steep and rocky but well worth the effort.
A pod of dolphins were having a play around quite close to the shore everyone stopped and took photos. 

 

Our neighbours had told us about a local attraction called the Rainbow Jungle, well, a visit to this lovely and well done aviary (for want of a better word) was taken. We had a great afternoon here with all the various birds and the other odd bit of wildlife.

 



Kalbarri is a beautiful town and there is so much to see in the area, we will be back one day for sure, but for now we have to move south, next stop Geraldton....Ranger is being services on Friday!!!