Kalbarri national park
14th-15th April 2017
We set off at the crack of dawn on the Friday, which was Good Friday so Nath had the Friday and Monday off work for Easter. The drive to Kalbarri took around 6 hours from Perth without stops. The drive up was the same as most in WA, one straight road all the way with nothing much around you apart from roadkill and outback. I'm sure going to miss this crazy place though! We had a few toilet/coffee stops on the way and then stopped in Port Gregory to see Hutt Lagoon, a salt lake that changes colours of pink and purple because of bacteria trapped in the salt. When we stopped there it was a pale pink colour but looked good! Something different anyway.
We checked into our hotel when we arrived in Kalbarri in the afternoon, Best Western Kalbarri Edge Resort. It was a standard hotel room, which was very overpriced because of the Easter weekend. It was $224 for one night! We headed straight out to explore the national park.
Kalbarri national park covers an area of 186,000 hectares with rivers, gorges and rock formations as old as 400 million years old. The Murchison River which runs through the park and the township into the sea is the second longest river in WA and has a catchment area larger than Tasmania. We drove into the national park and visited Nature's Window, WA's most iconic natural attraction. The rock formation which has a 'window' in the middle perfectly frames the river and gorges. It was an amazing place! The views over the national park where breathtaking! The red rock contrasting against the red gums and the river below! We then visited Z-bend lookout when the gorge plunges 150m down and you can see views over the park and the river in a Z shape. The park was stunning, but the flies attacking your face and every part of your body was very annoying and sped us up a little bit! The weather was in the mid 20s when we were there so it was lovely and not too warm. Perfect for exploring!
We headed back out of the national park and down Kalbarri's coastal cliffs. We visited Jake's Point, a National Surfing Reserve, for experienced surfers. We stay a while and watched some successful, and very unsuccessful surfing. We went to Red Bluff Lookout which told you about history of the area and is the highest elevation in the area with 100m of cliff face. You got lovely views of the town, beaches and cliffs. You could also see far into the distance, dry land with trees for as far as you could see. Just outback and nothingness. The last spot we stopped at was Natural Bridge, where there is a boardwalk along the cliff edge overlooking the sea. The views over the cliffs were good and you could see the town and the rocky beaches dotted along coast.
For dinner we waited over an hour for one man in the fish and chip to cook every meal ordered one by one! We sat outside the chippy and watched the sunset over the sea. It was worth the wait though! I haven't had fish and chips in a long while and it was beautiful!
We really liked Kalbarri, it was something completely different and it was true natural beauty. Certainty worth the visit!