So as morning came, the rain was nowhere to be seen (for
now) and we decided to go separate ways. B and Evie wanted to go feed the pelicans
down on the foreshore, and James sided with them. Sam pretty much pleaded and
begged me to go back to the jetty to fish. I think the day before’s success had
stoked the fire immensely.
It was a reasonably successful stint on the jetty, although
there were no keepers this time around. I think the official count was Sam with
12 and me half of that. Not that Sam was counting…
The others walked back to join us regaling tales of Evie’s
poor throwing of the food for the birds that landed in front of a small child.
As you can imagine, the pelican charged at the food, and in turn frightened the
living shite out of the kid… Gold stuff…
Another case of "raising awareness of our native wildlife" by feeding them. Still, no money was exchanged so I can at least say there wasn't a financial agenda.
Didn't realise at first, but this action shot actually has the fish in it! Nice work James.
As we headed back, the kids found more “best friends forever”
to play with, this time a young gentlemen named Monty who was James’ age, and
his older sister Zara who was 9. Obviously James and Monty hit it off, whilst
Evie and Zara buddied up to do their thing. It was funny watching Sam of all
people flit between the boys (playing with Monty’s transformers) and the girls
(who were playing with either Lego or older kid games).
The rain once again came and we desperately tried to cancel
our booked bus tour of the National Park, thinking it was be washed out and
really just a waste of time.
Once again, however, it all worked out well. We couldn’t
cancel and as bus (a coaster) turned up to pick us up, the rain stopped. Still
overcast, I went from pessimistic to cautiously optimistic.
Obviously my banter wasn't on top form given Ol' Mate sitting next to me.
I should point out that public access into the big draw
cards of the Kalbarri National Park is currently closed for the remainder of
the year as they upgrade roads, facilities and construct an awesome skywalk. I
smelt a rat as the tour company could still run two tours a day into the area,
which of course, you had to fork out a pretty penny for. But once I saw the
work being undertaken, I was pretty glad actually that they were doing it that
way as it was a pretty large undertaking and not having public cars in there I
think made it a lot easier. Still, the rain had muddied up the road and I was
wondering if we’d have to push the bus out at one stage!
Dave offered a slab to anyone who wanted to wash his bus. I quickly though about offering the kids ice cream if they'd help me, but Evie, trying to be Miss Goody-Two-Shoes, offered free of charge! Thankfully he declined the offer.
But the tour itself was awesome. A fantastic byproduct of
the restricted access was a National Park all to ourselves. Not a single other
tourist or vehicle (as the workers had also got ‘rained off’) was operating in
the park. And whilst our bus was full, it meant there was only 20 of us seeing
the sites.
Kalbarri National Park is pretty impressive if I do say so.
One minute you are driving across some planes with wildflowers ready to spring
and the next, you are parking up and heading down into an amazing gorge along
the Murchison River.
Dave the tour operator was excellent, a fantastic balance
between knowledgable guide and part time comedian.
First stop was Z-Bend Lookout… Now, it doesn’t really come
across in photos, but the name comes from where the river bends in two locations
to create… yep… the letter Z. It was a nice little walk down and a very pretty
lookout over quite the gorge. Reminded me a lot of the Macs around Alice in
colour and formation.
Believe it or not, this is the bottom bend of the 'Z'. The top one is just where the river runs out of shot on the left hand side. I'm sure it looks cool from the air...
Second stop however was the one we’d all been waiting for
and had seen on the touristy brochures and TV shows, Nature’s Window.
What I wasn’t expecting however was how impressive the area
itself was, not just the ‘window’. At this location the Murchison River snakes
around on an 8km loop and ends up within 200m of itself. At this point where
the sides are eroding, the rock has formed Nature’s Window. The colours, the
shapes, the outlooks were simply amazing. And with parts bathed in sunshine
whilst others shadowed in cloud, there was a lot going on from a scenery
perspective.
We walked down and took the obligatory photo and discussed
what we were seeing. The kids, with Sam in particular, were disappointed we
couldn’t do the 8km Loop Walk, as was I, but it simply wasn’t allowed.
Hopefully when we get back here with all the infrastructure in place, we’ll be
able to knock that one off. But for now I’ll let the pics do the talking…
The view from the carpark lookout
Here the Murchison snakes around toward the Eastern Side of the window
Whilst this might look dangerous, and cliff like, it was actually not that bad... Who am I kidding... Yes, kids on close supervision... But a great shot of the two boys!
Here's the best example I took of the Murchison and how it comes in from the right of shot and snakes away on a very long loop, before coming back on the left hand side. And in the middle...
...is Nature's Window! I must admit, it was pretty cool to find this formation at the top of the hill and think of the wind and water erosion (and time) it took to create it.
A nice family shot...
One last point about the spot was the dunnies. Naturally, I
have more than a basic interest in the world of sanitation, but as I frequented
the facilities before jumping back on the bus, I was met with this outlook from
the gents…
I hate to say it, I doubt this will be the last dunny shot I take on this trip...
...but I scarcely doubt many will have a better view than this.
Well done designers, well done…
Kalbarri National Park…It’s impressive.
No comments:
Post a Comment