Kalbarri to Mullewa and the Wildflowers

On 12 September we moved on down from Shark Bay to Kalbarri, a relatively small fishing and tourist town in a very pretty seaside setting, where the Murchison River runs out through what looks to be a dangerous bar, into the Indian Ocean. Apart from the river entrance there are high cliffs north and south and the town is virtually ringed by the very large Kalbarri National Park. We have been looking forward to getting to Kalbarri. We were fortunate to get a good site in the Tudor caravan park, with sun coming in the front and our backs to a sometimes strong and cool wind. I put the annex up, opened at the front, to give us more protected space outside. We stayed for 6 days here.

Time was spent exploring the national park over some day trips and one energetic day on a canoe safari, upstream on the Murchison. We joined 11other people and were taken in a 4-wheel drive bus, with the canoes on a trailer, about 20kms up the river and canoed back down about 12kms, with a couple of stopovers (one for a BBQ breakfast) and then met the bus at the final point to travel the last bit the easy way. That was a lot of fun, but as the group were self-supporting, M and I in our canoe felt a bit obliged to stay close to a mother and two young (adult) daughters, from Singapore, in the one canoe, and no previous experience. We helped them out with some judicious hints along the way and they were going well in the end, once they learned to keep the thing relatively straight!

We had another especially good day out in the National Park where we visited some absolutely beautiful heathland and wildflower country, culminating in a climb to a rocky escarpment overlooking the river, way below. Have a look at the photos of one view here through what they call "Nature's Window".

We moved on yesterday to Geraldton, just briefly there to some shops, it's a big town, then away from the coast 100kms into the wildflower country to the east, to Mullewa where we have stayed a couple of nights to do a long day today exploring the wildflowers. This has been great, as will be seen by some of the photos below. M is catching up tonight with her wildflower records and I am getting another post into the blog, before moving on down to Perth tomorrow. We will have one more stop down somewhere near Jurien Bay or Cervantes, then into a van park in Perth, up in the Swan Valley, on Friday.

I had better see if I've got any tidy clothes anywhere ... I think there is an iron under the bed, or there was when we left...

The Natural Bridge at Kalbarri (Dont forget you can click on any of these photos to enlarge them)

Lichen on rocks in Kalbarri National Park

Murchison River from the escarpment lookout

Another view from the escarpment

R and M in "Nature's Window"

The view without intruders (did they fall backwards?)

Grass Trees in the Park - there were many

Setting out for the canoe safari

R unloading our canoe (these are the only 2 photos as we put the camera back in the bus then!)

The "Pink Lake" at Port Gregory , south of Kalbarri

A closer view of the pink water - it is even more pink than the photos show, caused by a natural occurrence of beta-carotene in the water

Carpets of everlastings near Mullewa

And they tell us it has been a poor season because of the lack of rain!

More of the same - so much colour!

Wreath Flowers on the roadside

Close-up of a Wreath Flower

M amongst the Wreath Flowers and others