Sunday 6th June - Kalbarri

Watching the pelicans being fed was first order of the day and, whilst primarily designed for the kids, we enjoyed it as well.  Three pelicans turned up, although their numbers vary from none to a dozen depending on what they are feeling like.  After a talk from the volunteer feeder, she handed out fish to each child who wanted to feed the pelicans, although I think the amazed sea gulls stole more as small children aren’t the most accurate throwers.  Anne reckoned the children spoiled the experience somewhat and wanted to feed them to the pelicans, but I managed to drag her away.

We then drove back into Kalbarri National Park to walk down to the gorge at the Loop, where a walking trail takes you past a natural rock arch called Nature’s Window before following the rim of the gorge for about 3km, offering fairly spectacular views of the red sandstone rock strata.

You then descend down to the river or, at this time of year to a number of pools, where a 5km walk then takes you back to the start point.

It had been overcast, but as we started on the rim walk the sun broke though making the waterproof I had packed somewhat redundant and left us wishing we’d bought our sun glasses and sun cream.  We had our packed lunch under the shade of a tree at the bottom of the gorge

and made it back to the Land Rover in good time to visit the nearby Z-Bend lookout before driving the 25km back to the tarmac. SPOT

On our way out of the park we made quick stops at the more accessible Hawk’s Head and Ross Graham lookouts, before turning north to find a free rest stop for the night.

We were rescued from the caravan/camper van/trailer hell that had become the overnight rest stop off the North West Coast Highway at Galena Bridge by Heini, a German guy, who pulled up alongside us saying “No way. Do you want a better site?”. We proceeded to follow him back to the main road, crossing over to an old mine site on the other side where he had camped before.  We left the 100+ campers behind and had a nice quiet spot to ourselves.  Heini is in his fifth year of travelling around Australia, spending his retirement windsurfing and is now also learning to kite surf.  He’s onto his third camper van, an Iveco 4x4, which he’s kitted out to be his home for 8-10 months each year.  After dinner he kindly shared his knowledge on what was worth doing and where to go, having seen more of the country than most Australians.  We are now thinking of re-jigging our plans to incorporate some of his recommendations. SPOT