Coral Bay to Kalbarri

As we wanted to go a long distance south today,we decided last night to be up and away early. The alarm was set for 06.00 so we would be on the road by 07.00 - we made it by 07.05 !
Our first stop today was back in Carnarvon to refuel the van, and food for ourselves. Next on to Hamelin (en route more sightings of sand twisters across the open plains spinning high into the sky) to see stromatolites at Hamelin Pools at the southern end of Shark Bay. This is one of only two places in the world where stromatolites can be seen. Stromatolites are believed to be the oldest life form on earth formed by Cyanobacteria action. These ancient structures are examples of what life on Earth was like 3.5 billion years ago and are considered living fossils. Cyanobacteria were some of the first living creatures on Earth and stromatolities are formed by these organisms. How? The cyanobacteria bond together and produce a sticky gel – trapping sediments and sand together and gradually building up layers. As the sediment accumulates, it forms flat algal mats or hardens to form stromatolites, which have an outer layer of living cyanobacteria. At first glance these don't even seem to be living. Each structure is actually a very slow growing microbial colony that may grow less than 1mm per year. They were fascinating and somewhat eerie looking in the shallows of the turquoise sea. Unfortunately the over friendly flies which have been a constant feature of this area made us wish we had kept out our head nets.
On the way into Kalbarri we stopped to view the River Murchison and gorge it runs through. It is a great red sandstone gorge cut into the generally level landscape. This was at Hawks Head and Ross Graham lookout areas. The deeper gorges are not accessible without 4WD or an extended hike.
Finally, we drove into Kalbarri just before 18.00 with only a few litres of fuel !! Petrol stations are very sparse on the north west coastal highway. Once we were set up in the van we walked over the road to the beach to see a most gorgeous sun set over the River Murchison estuary which was just opposite our caravan site.
Initially, unfortunately the town was without power. It appears it had been off since 09.00 in the morning and was due back on at 19.00. In the event it was closer to 21.00. This was not a problem as the van has gas for cooking and 12volt battery lighting. Once the power was back on though it was good to put the AC on to cool down before sleeping after a long drive of over 800km again.