Distance travelled: 399km
Time taken: About 4 hours
Number of caravans on the road heading north: too many to count
We have officially hit school holidays and the number of cars on the road is insane. It's so totally weird after weeks of passing only a few cars to now have traffic jams at the roadhouses. Luckily we'd filled up with fuel before leaving Monkey Mia and didn't need to stop for petrol on our way to Kalbarri.
Our caravan park is out at Red Bluff which is a little way out of town, but the park is brand new and we have our own ensuite bathroom which is lovely. The town is very busy with people everywhere and I have to admit, it makes me a little nervous. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle returning to Perth in a few days.
Anyway our main goal for Kalbarri was to see the gorges and we planned to get up super early on our first day and head out before the crowds were awake. However at 6am it was raining, so we went back to sleep. 🙂 Later we headed to Red Bluff and one of the walks along the coasts which were lovely. We startled a couple of kangaroos who kept a wary eye on us as we walked along one of the tracks, and we enjoyed the colours of the wildflowers.
Today we reverted to our original plan and headed to the national park, leaving the caravan at 6.30 am to try and beat the crowds. We went to the new Skywalk first and the view was breath-taking. It was also so still and quiet and I would have liked to have sat and contemplated for a while, but people began to arrive. We then went to Nature's Window. I think most people in WA have a photo of them as kids sitting next to Nature's Window - I know Luke and I both do. So we wanted to take another photo.
We then drove to the Z-bend trail to have a look, but to be honest, we've seen so many gorges on our trip, that we weren't really fussed about another hike. It was starting to warm up, and people were arriving by the carload, so we decided to head back to town. On the way, we stopped at the Meanarra Hill Lookout which faces the town and the coast and it was beautiful. No one was there, the view was spectacular and there were two emus grazing below us.
We decided we'd come back to Kalbarri, stay a few more days, but at some time outside the school holidays. COVID has made us a little uneasy about crowds. Tomorrow we're heading for our last stop, Geraldton.
