Kalbarri

The Kalbarri National Park is a few hundred kilometers further south, around the town of Kalbarri where the Murchison River opens onto the sea through a narrow outlet. It is wild and untamed here, with some pretty amazing surf. On its way to the sea, it has carved out some deep gorges through the national park. This area is different to the Kimberleys in that there are no rock formations pushed up by the movement of tectonic plates, but rather it is flat, with the river carving a deep gorge through the middle of it. And although the area is flat, it is high, as evidenced by the cliffs along the coast, as the land drops off to the sea. It makes for some amazing views.

Kalbarri National Park has much to offer in the categories of Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral. We did not see much of the animal life, but we did get a good display of the wildflowers which are just starting to bloom. Our guide gave us a good rundown of the various flowers, as well as some unusual trees. The Grass Tree was particularly cute, and apparently used to be called "The Black Boy Tree", but this has now become politically incorrect.

But it was the 'Mineral' display that was most spectacular - the rocks and gorges throughout the park. We saw 'Nature's Window' which is like a picture frame made of rock, capturing the river and gorge through it. Also various other spots with some very nice views of the gorges.

As most of these gorges are deep within the park, we had to take a 4 WD trip in. The park was closed about a year ago for some months, while some of these roads were being paved. They decided to seal halfway in, then stop. So if you didn't know better you would start driving in on a beautiful smooth sealed road for about 10 Kms, then find yourself careering out of control on soft sands. But we had been warned.

The next day we drove south down the coast and looked at the cliffs - very spectacular views, with formations called "Nature's Bridge" and "Castle Rock", for obvious reasons. We got some great pics of the cliffs.

To top off the whole scenic experience, we then drove through a small town further down the coast called Port Gregory which had a large lake, which happened to be pink. It was called, surprise surprise, The Pink Lake. Apparently it has some sort of algae which produces beta-carotene. Whatever the cause, it looked quite amazing.

GeorgeY's bit

Kalbarri National Park lives up to its title and ticks all the boxes with flora, fauna, streams and rock set up by God and showcasing his sense of beauty.

It also ticks the box of being run by rangers, delivering the usual c*** ups eg. "road half done is good enough" approach. I wonder if this is due to misguided loyalty as "We need people to see our great work here, but we do not want them here in our own workplace." Or is it as my bogan friend would say, "With their management skills they would fail to organize a root in a Thai brothel"? Either way, they no longer disappoint me.

Another myth destroyed was the WA Wild flowers. As we drove from NT to WA we came across beautiful carpeted land with colorful flowers but could not get a good picture of them for various reasons. Our tour guide, who could spot stuff that would go completely unnoticed by us, told us that they mostly flower at different times and because each flower has a short life span it is very rare to see them all together, unless as a bouquet or using photo shop to create a postcard.

Eva was too keen on macro photography and I tried some shots then I gave up and decided to relax and enjoy what's on display, nature at its best.