I wolk up early this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep, provably because we forgot to close the curtains when we went to bed! I got my gear and went along to the bathroom to find it pretty manky in the light. The only way I can describe it is like deck 2 bathrooms (communal bathrooms on Carnival). I managed to keep things off the floor and took a shower and got my gear together. Patrick, Hannah and I had a sandwich and got on the road to head to Kalbarri National Park.
We headed on the Brand Hwy North out of Geraldon through Northampton up to Kalbarri. We had a choice of going two ways to Kalbarri Park and decided on taking the scenic route. It wasn’t all that scenic, more along the coast and at one point we were looking out over a Lake called the Hutt Lagoon which had water that looked pink because the sand was so red…it looked really unusual. Before we got to Kalbarri we stopped along the coast to the Shellhouse Grandstand, then the Island Rock and then onto the Natural Bridge.
Kalbarri was very quaint. It looks quite up market and I presume it is quite a fun holiday destination in the Summer. We stopped off at a tourist information center and asked where the YHA was and a supermarket. We got some shopping and found the reception at the YHA was closed for an hour or so. Instead of waiting we headed to the National Park.
When we got to the entrance of the park I was surprised to find that there was no road, it was just sand. I was a little concerned driving on it but there was nothing that said only 4WD’s, so I thought I would give it a go. It was really unusual driving on this surface, a bit like driving on snow that had been compacted. We headed for about 25km’s on this sandy surface to a T Junction which we could go left to The Loop and Nature’s Window or right to The Z Bend. We headed left at first and went to the Loop. On all the Lookouts you had to walk a short distance to view the gorges. The Loop was pretty spectacular, viewing the river and canyons. Nature’s Window was amazing too, it was a rock formation that had a hole in it like a window and you could look through the window at the beautiful landscape. We headed back to the T Junction and went to The Z Bend. This was my favorite place, it reminded me of the Grand Canyon a little. It was about 1km walk down to the Lookout but it was worth the view.
After going to a couple of other Lookouts we headed along that long sandy road to the Ajana Kalbarri Road and went to view the Hawk’s Head Lookout and then the Ross Graham Lookout. They were both pretty, but not as nice as the other two.
It was starting to get dark and I didn’t want to be driving in the dark (Kangaroos were already lurking around the side of the road) so we headed back to Kalbarri. We checked into the YHA (sharing a dorm with 3 guys, Patrick, Hannah and myself…let’s see how that goes) and I made dinner for us. The hostel is quite nice and everyone is very friendly, so I can’t complain.
It looks like we are heading to Monkey Mia in the morning.
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