Kalbarri

Kalbarri is a tourist resort at the mouth of the Murchison River, surrounded by the Kalbarri National Park. It is now school holidays in WA, and the town and caravan park are heaving with families and kids, who seem to all start screaming with excitement at 6am. We spent 3 days here and could have doubled that, particularly as it has quite a nice golf course. However, we only got in one game of golf, and spent the other days exploring the national park.

The park has 2 quite distinct sections - inland around the Murchison River hinterland, and a spectacular section along the coast south of the town of Kalbarri. The river has cut some spectacular gorges, and there are numerous lookouts and short and long walks. The most famous feature around the river is called Nature's Window, being a natural loop worn through the rock that gives a view along one of the river gorges, we only had to queue up for a little while to get the above photo without any other tourists in it! From there we did an 8 km loop walk, which was probably just 1 km too far. The walk went along the top of a ridge, then dropped down to the river before climbing back up to Nature's Window. We were both drooping severely by the time we got back to the car park.

As well as going for walks, we also decided to do a canoe safari down the Murchison River. We were taken by 4wd from town to a spot up river, given some brief instructions, then sent off downstream in canoes. The two of us shared a canoe, and we managed to paddle downstream as a team without too many cross words. Being school holidays, the tour was full, and the other canoes all had some combination of Mum, Dad and the kids. Typical overheard remark was 'paddle faster Dad' from the 6 year old sitting snug in the front while Dad did all the work at the back of the boat! After about 45 minutes we pulled into the bank where the organisers had barbecued a major breakfast - eggs, bacon, baked beans, toast and hash browns. Very welcome after our hard work! Then it was back across the mud (note how far down John's feet have sunk in the photo at right) and into the canoes for another 45 minutes, after which we beached the canoes and were taken back to town. We had a great time, although it is going to take a few days for our shoulders and arms to recover!

The coastal section of the national park has spectacular limestone cliffs, with sea stacks, natural arches and secluded beaches. We did a couple of interesting short walks, deciding not to do the longer walk on offer as the constant sea wind was just too wearing. All in all Kalbarri has a lot to offer, and may well be on our revisit list for the next trip around Australia!