Kalbarri, WA

A very rare calm entrance to the Kalbarri Harbour, mouth of the Murchison River

Kalbarri, WA

From the Murchison River to the Sea

Kalbarri is a must-see place for anybody who lives the other side of The Paddock. It really is something, located at the mouth of the Murchison River after its journey from the red and spectacular inland through some of the best scenery in the state.  Combined with such a magnificent coastline aspect the deep and fascinating gorges make this place a travellers' must-see item.

Local Pied Butcherbirds automatically wake people with original compositions.

The Murchison Rose is small as roses go.

Kalbarri's Anchorage van park was a perfect home base for a varied and interesting stay. Before saying anything about the place, let's get something really out there; the people running the park, from Gemma to Pete and the others in equal measure, are outstanding in their interaction with park clients. They put up with my reluctant acceptance of the Australia Post attitude to WA's mid-north and when finally the problem was solved they were seemimgly as happy to be part of it as we were!
Other things being equal, the Anchorage CP was neat and always clean, with huge sites and driveways.The views of the Murchison River are pacific and the position of the park makes the wind easily managed. Sure the sites are not concrete, but a huge piece of shadecloth over the sand made it fit in with the atmosphere.

Mind you, our troubles with Zan's cracked contact lens (left her as grumpy and unhappy as any cyclops might be) meant just that sight-seeing was only half as good as it should have been, and others had far worse troubles to cope with. One young family man was pretty distraught at being far from their Queensland home, and almost exactly half-way round a lap, and his towing vehicle developed a potentially deadly fault. It would simply die, without warning, without any comprehensible reason, and he had whatever way he had up at the time to find a place to stop, minus power steering or brakes.  Hair-raising stuff with wife and two young children aboard the 5th-wheeler.  Not surprisingly, he decided to have ANOTHER shot at getting it fixed, sending it off on a flat-top to Geraldton. His list of attempted fixes impressed everybody but no-one could offer more than genuine sympathy, and an inward prayer of thanks that we didn't face his predicament. I googled the make, year and model and found that he is truly not alone, the frustration and anger at the maker's inability to fix its own products listed off by hundreds of owners. No news yet of the result, so I can only hope for the best.

   

When we finally gave up waiting and went out to the Gorges we got a great day, photo-light wise, with a gentle anti-fly breeze doing its best. We soon worked out that we were in sync with four other vehicles, all popping along to see the totally managed vantage points allowed by NPWS.

One effect of this caged-tourist stategy is that the sheds, shades, seats and so on are all in one place and therefore easier to maintain; pity about the budget to do it though. Now the facilities are looking tired, yet the Tollgate at the entrance is not.

The scenery around the Murchison River is compulsory fare for the WA traveller and international visitors abound.
The road in is becoming mundane, though the campervan traffic still needs to proceed with egg-shell caution (perhaps they could pack the eggs a bit better instead of travelling at 20 km/hr). The day was perfect, as I said, and even the flies were subdued and the precautions provided by our WA guides were unnecessary. They did get comments from the Others we met, ranging from 'I like your hats!' to 'bit of an improvement, mate'.

The colours and bizarre rock formations are fascinating. Despite the over-management it is still worth the walks to get the views from the chosen vantage points, and we had no trouble climbing up, down, round and round despite Zan's misgivings about my choice of footwear.  In fact she almost came a cropper at Z bend watching me scuttle down the rock face in my thongs. Hmm.

We discovered several gems on the walk. People generally miss a lot of what's there by hurrying 'to see the good bits' and making a noise as they walk, and it isn't just the cranky suspensions that have us make such mild progress. Bird calls and sudden arrivals halt us completely, and the red wallaby mum and baby that were sitting a metre or so off the path had been passed by a group of six ahead of us.  The long tail of the lizard below too, must have been almost at risk but they missed that too, thank goodness.

We spent all day wandering around and came back via a lookout with a middle-distance view of Kalbarri. As it is today, it is rapidly becoming a resort town with just a whiff of the outback more than the rough bush beach shack and fishing joint of the past. 

In fact fishing has to get a mention.

A good friend, Bob B, ordered a fishing charter trip because his experience had been the stuff of legend. Today, the story has radically changed.  Whether it is the drought, the lack of nutrients (or the surplus of out-fall from the inland floods that seem paradoxically to go with 

droughtd) the fishing was the talk of the town for the wrong reasons. Five boats, we heard, went out to their favourite off-shore haunts for five days in a row, and all came back without having had a bite.

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As you can see, a short-toed Gouldian Finch.

Finally, The Lens arrived and the extended stay at Kalbarri came to an end.

On the trip south we had the rarest of events, worthy of a photo, despite that photo really not telling the story.
Left is a windmill facing NW, alonside the trees bending obediently to the wishes of the legendary SE gales. Yep, we got another tail wind, all the way back past Geraldton to Dongara and then Port Denison.  Coming right up next, folks, as Cam says, and here is the promotion poster to whet your appetite.

Kalbarri to Port Denison, WA