Kalbarri, Australia

Murphy’s law says that the day you leave somewhere is the day when the weather will be the best. Thursday morning was beautiful, sunny skies and no wind and we were finally able to take advantage of the great view we had from our caravan on “millionaires row”. It’s a pity we’re leaving here, the last couple of days, the weather’s been less than terrific.

A little ways down the road is a spot called Shell Beach. This is a bit of a weird spot because as the name suggests, the beach is made of shells, trillions of them in fact! The shelly beach is up to ten meters deep and 60 km long and covered in Cockle shells, you know, the ones that Mary, Mary quite contrary had. It’s thought that the first Cockle was deposited here 4,000 years ago so it’s quite old. Thankfully, Lyn didn’t see the need to collect any of these ones.

We had a bite of lunch whilst here and then after topping up with fuel at a nearby roadhouse, were on the road to Kalbarri. We drove through quite a lot of wildflowers on the way into Kalbarri; not the prolific carpets of flowers that we’d imagined, but lots of different ones dotted amongst the shrubbery. Here’s another photo opportunity for us, we can take 6 or 7 thousand shots of various flowers. Now there’s something for you to look forward to!

Kalbarri looked to be a nice little seaside town as we drove in and the caravan park, whilst a bit like a rabbit warren, had new amenity blocks that was nice to see. Merryn & Patrick ended up parked right next to the Dump Point which didn’t make Meryn too happy but we’ll see whether it’s a problem or not?

After setting up and the traditional cuppa after coming in off the road, we took a walk down along the beach. Kalbarri is built on the mouth of the Murchison River and the town’s harbour is protected by a sandbar/reef. We walked firstly along the beach in the protected harbour area where the water was quite still, an area that is popular with tourists as there are canoes and paddle boats for hire. A little further up the path and we’re at the mouth of the harbour, where a number of people were rock fishing. Matthew and I stood for a while debating whether we’d be brave enough to tackle crossing the breakers in order to get a boat out of the harbour. I’ve decided Not.

Atop the bluff close to the harbour entrance is the Zuytdorp memorial. The Zuytdorp (“South Village”) was a Dutch East India Company merchant ship that smashed against the cliffs in June 1712 whilst voyaging to Batavia (Jakarta, Indonesia). Aboard the Zuytdorp were about 200 passengers and crew and a rich cargo, including 248,000 silver coins. The precise circumstances of the wreck remain a mystery because no survivors reached Batavia to tell the tale. Some did live for a time in Shark Bay, however, where they were helped by local Aboriginal people. This contact with Europeans was probably the first-ever made by Australia’s indigenous people.

It was interesting to watch the Whale watching tour boat come in through the harbour entrance whilst up here at the lookout as it did two things.

• Firmly cemented in my mind that I didn’t want to be trying to navigate the harbour entrance thank you very much, and
• We don’t think we need to be paying to go on a Whale watching tour if it’s that rough coming back in.

I wonder how many of the paying passengers are green?