WA Trip - Exploring Kalbarri National Park

The following morning we got an early start on the long drive North to Kalbarri National Park.  The views on the drive are not particularly remarkable, so we were happy to get out and stretch our legs when we finally arrived.  The park was really crowded because of the holiday weekend, but we were able to find a parking spot and took a hike down to Nature’s Window.  When we rounded the corner to the rock we were surprised to find a long line of people waiting to take their Instagram picture inside the window.  Not exactly what we were looking for in a National Park.  I was able to sneak a picture quickly in between people and then we went back to the quieter part of the trail to explore the layered rock and enjoy the views.  It’s a pretty place, but I would definitely avoid it on a holiday weekend.








After that we drove down the road and took another hike to Z-Bend.  It was not as crowded and gave some great views of the river taking sharp turns inside a gorge.  It was interesting to see all of the layers of rock and imagine how the formations came about over time. 


We drove on past the town of Kalbarri to explore the ocean section of the National Park, stopping at Island Rock and Natural Bridge.  They were both really pretty and we appreciated the lack of people at these sites.


The original plan was to stay in Kalbari for two nights, but lucky us our Airbnb was canceled a month out, and being a remote town on Easter long weekend there was NOTHING available anywhere nearby.  I ended up finding two rooms at a farm stay in Northampton, about an hour South of Kalbari.  And wow, that was an experience to remember.  Farm stay might be overselling it a bit.  Our rooms contained a bed, a trash can, and that’s it.  It was in a metal out building, so any sounds anyone made went straight through the walls.  But it got better – the toilet block was separate from the accommodation, up a hill with the vent right in front of the door.  It was a shared bathroom with no locks on the stalls so always a guess whether someone of any gender would be on the other side of the door.  And that was when we realized that we weren’t going to be provided with towels.  So we were pretty excited that we would be staying there not just one, but two nights!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Baw Baw Blog

Image
A couple weeks ago Phil set out to climb Mt Baw Baw again with a couple like-minded (read: crazy) bike friends.  We drove out with Les and met John and Glenda at the primary school in Drouin to start the ride.   The crazies started on their ride while John and I headed off to explore the area by car. Phil, Glenda, and Les at the start About 10km in to the ride, as they passed the Drouin West primary school, Phil realised that that was the place he meant to start, and now an already painful 80km ride had become 90km. John and I stopped at the Noojee Trestle Bridge and took a leisurely walk across.  Then we headed on to the "town" of Noojee and saw the sights - the water wheel that no one knows the origin of.  Then we enjoyed some lamingtons while we waited for the tiers to catch up.  They arrived and took a few minutes' break, then set out again on their adventure. Noojee Trestle Bridge Noojee Water Wheel John and I then drove to Tooronga Falls and had a re
Read more

One Sleep Until Citizenship!

Image
In January of 1649, Thos Morgan, my great great ..... grandfather, signed the death warrant for King Charles I, an act that in normal times would make him guilty of treason for conspiring against the monarchy.  He ended up fleeing to America, where he changed his last name to Carrier in order to avoid being sent back to England for trial.  Of course, later he married a woman who was tried and hung for being a witch, but that's another story... Three hundred and sixty two years later, I found myself taking a new job in Australia.  In order to get my work visa, I had to pledge allegiance to the monarchy of the same country that my ancestor fled from so many years ago.  And tomorrow, I'll take the Australian Citizenship Pledge and become a dual citizen. Besides the physical move, there were a lot of little details involved in getting to this point.  We arrived on a skilled worker visa, which required providing my resume and degree in addition to the lengthy application and emp
Read more

Sneans

Image
I was introduced to a new word the other day - Sneans.  According to Urban dictionary, it is the highly attractive combination of sneakers and jeans.  Apparently it is a very American tourist thing that Aussies, Kiwis, and various forms of Irish like to give us grief for.  It has its own hash tag and Facebook page dedicated to making fun of people wearing #sneans.   My coworkers gave the typical example of a middle aged man wearing light colored jeans and white New Balance sneakers together.  I can understand, that's definitely a look.  Throw in a tucked in t-shirt and a belt with a giant Iphone strapped on and it makes quite a statement.  But they also insisted sneans extends to any form of sneakers with any form of jeans.   At first I protested - what's wrong with wearing sneakers with jeans?  Lets say you're on a long weekend in Tasmania, where you may go wine tasting and hiking all in one day.  Sneakers seem like the only appropriate foot wear to me!  They suggested w
Read more