Date 8th July - 12th July
Packed up again after 2 nights in Nambung - always seems too short, but we're on a tight schedule - and commenced the long drive north towards Kalbarri, our next stop. The drive took most of the day, so made sure we had a couple of stops - firstly a quick stop at Port Denison, Dongara, where Michelle got the drone up, and then for lunch in Geraldton, which is a major western seaport and service centre for the west.
We also stopped at a field that had a beautiful purple/mauve coloured grass next to a canola field - it looked stunning.
Kalbarri, Western Australia
Weather - 12℃ to 26℃, blue skies, windy
Total Distance Travelled - 10,400 km
Staying 2 Nights, Anchorage CP
We arrived at Kalbarri mid-afternoon, made our way to Anchorage CP, and set up for the next 2 nights. Camper trailer support leg was re-attached and good as new.
We drove around the small town, and made our way to Red Bluff beach for the sunset. Not the best we’ve seen, but not the worst either. We made some plans on places to visit as we head north up the coast - it is quite difficult to book things due to WA school holidays, with lots of families out & about.
Saturday morning and we headed out for a day of exploring. First stop was the well-known Kalbarri skywalk - opened in mid-2020, consisting of 2 cantilevered steel structures that overhang the gorge below. The largest juts out 25m over the gorge. Michelle is loving how WA has no limits on where you can fly a drone just as long as you fly within all of the rules (in NSW etc you need a permit and have to pay, WA has none of this at the moment) - had fun flying her drone over the gorge whilst standing above it on the platform.
We next drove across to “Nature’s Window”, an Insta-famous natural opening in the layered sandstone, perfect for framing a photo. Very popular spot for a perfect photo.
Walking along the cliff top edge you saw the river wind through valley. It had a horseshoe shape reminding Michelle of the famous one in Arizona (another we would like to visit and where Michelle would love to go to take photos). This was a great spot to put the drone up to see the whole area from above.
We walked down into the gorge below - which only took about 10 minutes - to look at the beautiful layered pink and white sandstone walls. We were only marginally slower on the way up!
The 3rd stop on our Kalbarri tour was a bit further down the road (about 30 km east of Kalbarri) at a place called “Z Bend” - a popular lookout on the Murchison River Gorge. It was a short hike down to the lookout. There was a longer walk down to the river, but we were all walked out by this stage, chatted to a lovely couple from Tassie, and returned to town.
Something we didn’t know about the area, but the Dutch ship the Batavia was shipwrecked off the coast nearby in 1629. Almost 100 years later, in 1712, another Dutch ship named their Zuytdorp was wrecked off the cliffs north of Kalbarri, with the crew, about 200 passengers, along with 248,000 silver coins never heard from again.
Tried to go out for dinner, but being WA school holidays, places are very crowded. Didn’t want to wait over an hour to be served, so ordered a takeaway pizza instead - It was good!!
Early to bed for an early start heading off to Denham & Monkey Mia, dolphin & dugong country.
World Heritage Park & Drive
Denham, Western Australia
Weather - 14℃ to 26℃, clear blue skies
Total Distance Travelled - 10,900 km
Staying 3 Nights, Blue Dolphins CP
Sunday morning we packed up again (we’re getting quite good at it), and headed for Denham, about 400 km north. It was an easy drive, about 40 minutes back to the NW Coastal Highway, about 2 north hours along it, and then 1hour 20 min on Shark Bay Road to Denham. The highway section was about the first time on the trip that there wasn’t much to be seen between our stops - just the single lane highway, with low shrubs either side. Very few farms this far north. However, the area from the start of Shark Bay Road is a World Heritage area, with lots of views of the water on both sides of the peninsula.
Denham is a small town (population < 1,000) located on Shark Bay (named by William Dampier in 1699 due to the small sharks he saw & ate when his ship visited). The aboriginal name for Shark Bay is “Gutharraguda”, meaning two bays.
We set up in Blue Dolphin CP, a bit dated, but we got a lovely view of the ocean, and a large site - luck of the draw. We looked around for a good sunset location, deciding on the “Thong Shack”, a local beach shelter which has become a bit if a tourist attraction.
Up early Monday, as we had to drive to Monkey Mia (about 25km away) to be there for 7:45am for the start of the “Dolphin Experience”. Over the last 30 years or so, a small group of the larger local pod have been coming in close to shore to fish in the shallows, an unusual habit apparently in the 60s when they became a tourist sensation. Since then they have become used to human interaction. After a generation of juvenile dolphins that were lost due to over-reliance on humans back in the 80s to 90s (not knowing how to fish for themselves), now only 2 of the older females are fed a small amount of fish (up to 10% of their daily intake), if they arrive at the beach. Which is where we waited patiently.
We were lucky - up to 7 dolphins arrived over the next 3 hours or so (8:30am the first occurrence) so a bit of sitting around but definitely worth it to see the females with their calves so close to the beach.
After the dolphin experience, we refuelled ourselves and headed into the Francois Peron National Park for a four-wheel driving adventure. This was going way out of our comfort zone but we didn't want to miss driving in another national park 🤪.
We lowered tyre-pressures, and headed off for a 50 km red-dirt & soft sand drive to Cape Peron, at the northern tip of the National Park. The track was a bit chopped up by the large volume of 4wd’s using it, but it was great fun for us, as we aren’t that experienced driving in soft sand. The Beast (Prado) handled the sand so well, still a bit bumpy but no issues.
We walked down to the beach at Cape Peron, to be met by amazing colour - red cliffs, yellow sand, clear blue sky and olive green vegetation. We walked to the point, and between the rocks at low tide. The black rocks were covered in fluorescent green sea-grass - more fantastic colour.
After lunch on the beach we headed around the corner to Skipjack point, for more stunning views of the turquoise water. On the 50Km drive to the end on sand (so much fun) - we stopped at another what would be pink lake - but it's currently not full. It's full of purple / mauve plants with white/grey sand around it.
Next day we were greeted with clear skies again (Tuesday). We have been very lucky, only 1 night of rain in the last 2 weeks (a windy storm whilst we were in Kalbarri). Feeling for those on the East Coast, especially Sydney’s Northern Beaches who seem to be copping the bad weather again.
We are off on a Wildlife Cruise
We had booked ourselves on a wildlife cruise, so headed into Monkey Mia again and boarded the Catamaran Aristocat 2, for a 2.5 hour cruise around shark bay, searching for sea life. Just before boarding the boat we spotted a Green Turtle near the jetty; we also saw him when we came back from the cruise.
We were lucky to spot a dugong, and we spent about 1/2 an hour idling near it as it ate from the sea grass beds - these sea-grass beds are the largest and richest in the world, at around 4,800km square. Our guide told us that the Shark Bay sea-grass beds absorb more CO2 than the Amazon rainforest, a big claim. But apparently sea-grass absorbs carbon about 5 times faster than a rainforest of the same size.
Dugongs usually don’t stay in Shark Bay over winter, so this was a treat. We also spotted green turtles, a loggerhead turtle, and a few dolphins. Was great spending the morning in the sun - we have been blessed.
We drove back west to Little Lagoon, only 5km from Denham, where the drone was launched for some shots of this amazing clear shallow lagoon whilst we had lunch.
After lunch, we decided to drive the 45km back towards the main road to visit Shell Beach, about 60km in length, one of only two beaches in the world made up entirely of shells (they were mainly small cockle shells).
The shells are up to a depth of 7-10 metres. The very high salinity of the water in the local bay area means other species have not adapted well, allowing the cockles to proliferate unchecked.
The glare from the shells was incredible, sunglasses a must. It must have given us a bit of energy because we decided to do a jump for the drone to capture.
We headed to Eagle Bluff Lookout which was on the way back to Denham. By then another late afternoon, so back to the camper.
A few of the wildflowers we have been seeing around Denham & Monkey Mia -
Denham and Monkey Mia were a real treat for us, to see all the beautiful sea animals up close on the boat and shore, plus to have perfect weather. Next time we would love to see the Green Turtles hatching or nesting, so that's Nov to March.
We hope you enjoyed this and we are off to explore Western Australia’s North West Cape - see you there.
Cheers,
Michelle & Mike xx
Comments