World Australia Western Australia Kalbarri National Park

Round Australia with Ev and Az

Day 88 – Kalbarri – Happy Birthday Jacinta Oct 17, 2009

The morning started with a call to Evan’s best friend Jacinta to wish her a happy fourth birthday. Ev was very excited to talk to her and they chatted for a long time. We missed the fairy themed party so Ev is probably lucky there will not be pictures of him dressed as an elf or similar.

Then we headed back into Kalbarri (Kal-Bar-i or Kal-Barry?) National Park to tackle the river gorge section. No matter how you pronounce it I am sure it translates as place of many flies. As soon as you get out of the car you are covered by about a hundred on the things.

First stop was the Hawk’s Head lookout where not surprisingly there is a rock outcrop that looks like a hawk’s head. The second walk was to Ross Graham lookout but there were no rock formations that looked like a Ross Graham

A quick stop for fuel so we didn’t run out and then it was on to Kalbarri’s most photographed location. Nature’s Window – a natural arch formed/eroded over time that you can sit under and look through to the Murchinson river and its gorges below. Also in the area was Z bend lookout where, would you believe the river has formed a “Z” shaped gorge. Both were very impressive in their own way but I think the coastal sections of the park are the most impressive for mine.

These are probably the last of the red rock/red dirt attractions for a while. As we continue heading south I think we will be hitting different country side. As we have been in ‘red dirt land’ (Evan’s words) now for at least two months it will be a nice change.

As a farewell, these two lookouts combined to give Al another 50 odd kms of dirt driving, and quite a bit of soft sand as well. I think she is really enjoying this off road driving.

Aaron is still learning new tricks and is currently perfecting a new move we call the “Azza-slam”. Look for it on the professional wrestling circuit. Basically if you are lying down he will crawl up to you, sit up on his knees, raise his hands above his head and then throw all of his bodyweight down onto you. His aim is dreadful so it has resulted in some very painful injuries so far….but it’s very cute, even if he is being a thug.

For the afternoon we went out to the Rainbow Jungle which housed about 1000 different birds across about 70-80 different species. They ranged from Macaws down to much smaller species. While a lot were in cages there was a large area you could walk through where the birds roamed freely (except for the roof). The colours and diversity of the species was interesting and the boys, Az in particular, had a great time watching the birds and their antics, especially the cockatoos.

Back in the van park we caught up with a family we had met in Alice Springs , Darren, Sharon and their three girls (they are Victorians but they do not spend six months in the same southern Queensland van park every year so they are OK). They had had the misfortune of car trouble in Alice which meant they had to spend two weeks there waiting for parts. They have been slowly catching up to us ever since. You could look at it and say at least they didn’t get stuck in Wycliffe Well or Fitzroy crossing for two weeks.

The local area’s food specialty is crayfish, so Al and I had planned to have dinner at the restaurant next to the van park and have a ‘fancy meal’. As it turned out the restaurant was booked out by a wedding so we ended up at the pub for “Reef and Beef”( A T-bone steak with half a lobster on top) for me and a whole crayfish mornay for Al. Who can complain at $30 odd dollars each? Far too much food….and it was great.

Back in the van park and with all the kids in bed we met up with Sharon and Darren again (they do their own jokes on the names so I will leave it alone) to re tell travel stories and share a wine or two. It was a very late night by Merle and Earl standards but a great one with lots of shared laughs.

Now I have some very bad news. The caravan is out of wine!!!. We had stocked up at Silo’s in Nowra (thanks Raj, Sophie and Zoe) and Mistletoe in the Hunter at the start of the trip and had a bit of a top up in Southern Queensland. Alas the northern sections of Australia are seriously lacking in wine growing regions and we have run out. Fortunately we have timed it perfectly as we are only a day’s drive away from the Swan Valley, then Margaret River, then the southwest coast, then Barossa, Adelaide Hills, Coonawarra……..you get the idea.