Hello Kalbarri

Recently we took a trip about 600 km north of Perth to a National Park called Kalbarri.  The following is a run-down of that trip. 

***WARNING: there are many pictures and, as usual, I'm a little wordy. You've been warned.***

Thursday, 12 July

We left early in the morning and drove north. We stopped breifly in Geraldton which is about 400 km north of Perth. Geraldton has recently been in the news due to the two spear-fishers that had a close-up encounter with a Great White shark.  All we saw was the petrol station.  No sharks there but the gas prices sure took a bite out of our wallets *drum roll*

  After Geraldton we stopped at an interesting natural phenomenon known as the "Pink Lake".  It is a lake that literally turns pink at certain times of year due to the minerals in the soils.  In the picture above it's just starting to turn pink and apparently it gets much pinker.  And I promise this is the last time I will use the word "pink" in this blog.  Pink.

 As we arrived near the town of Kalbarri we stopped at the coastal cliffs.  We were greeted by a spectacular site in all directions including the one above.  It is also whale migration season in the area where Humpback and Southern Right Whales are moving from the south into their breading areas further north.  Unfortunately we didn't spot any whales from the cliffs.  Nonetheless, the view was breathtaking.

Friday, 13 July (Friday the 13th)

We had booked a "canoe safari" for the afternoon.  So, until the afternoon arrived we were trying to kill a little time.  We heard that every morning at 8:45 there is a pelican feeding basically across the street from our hotel.  The story goes that a local was hanging out on one of the park benches and starting feeding the local pelicans.  A fun thing to do became a habit.  The habit became a tradition.  The tradition became an obsession.  The obsession turned into an addiction.  The addiction spawned a tourist trap.  The original "Pelican Whisperer" is gone.  Or at the very least he's been muscled aside by the local entrepeneurs.  The park bench has been replaced by a shaded mini-amphitheatre.  And the whisperer has been replaced by a local boisterous know-it-all huckster complete with the "who's from out of town" type of line and the occasional semi-racist comment.  On this particular morning it was too cold for the pelicans so they didn't show for their (almost) daily feeding.  But it worked out for the best for us.  We walked to the beach hut where we booked our canoe safari and they mentioned that there was a whale with a calf in the harbour.  We took the 30 second boat ride across the river to a beach and there we started searching for the whales.

 It didn't take long.  Before we knew it we were 20 meters away from a Southern Right whale and her calf.  I could immediately tell that it was a Southern Right whale by the distinctive pectoral placement.  Actually, I had no idea- someone told us.  You can see Keva above on the beach looking at the dark line in the water.  That's momma.  I've never seen anything like it before.  We could have literally swam out to them if it wasn't so cold (about 10C at the time).  We were told that the mother and calf come every year to this bay for about 5 weeks.  They basically just go up and down about a 100 meter stretch of shore and never much further than 30 or 40 meters off shore.  Occasionally, in the afternoons, they'll go for a swim further north for a little exercise.  (insert fat/whale joke here)

 This is a closer picture of mom.  While we were watching, the calf got a little boisterous and was breaching (jumping out of the water).  Unfortunatley, we didn't get good pictures of it.  Bertha and Bruce (mom and calf) were at the same spot basically our entire trip and we could even see them from our hotel.  It was awesome and a once-in-a-lifetime experience, unless, of course, we do it again.

 That afternoon we went on a canoe 3 hour tour (a 3 hour tour).  Fortunately, the weather did not start getting rough and the tiny ships weren't tossed.  It was a lovely afternoon on the river.  To be honest, it was a little reminiscent of the Bow river in Calgary.  There was the occasional red rocky outcrop but otherwise it was just like the Bow.  Sure, there was the odd flock of pelicans and cormorants, but other than that it was the spitting image of the Bow.  Besides the fact that it was in the outback and emptied into the Indian Ocean it was exactly like the Bow.  We had a good time on the river and they even fed us.  There were no boats capsized although we did have to drag our ships over some sand banks where it got very shallow.  And don't worry, just like the Bow there were no crocs in this river.

 

After the canoe safari Nadia and I went for a walk along the coastal cliffs.  We were walking along the coast, on top of and within multi-coloured rock layers from different eras in geological time.  On top of it was red rock.  It was a little like walking on Mars, but with oxygen and a nice sunset over the ocean.

 

During our walk we stumbled upon another mom/baby combo.  This time it was a red kangaroo with her Joey.  In Perth and surrounds there are plenty of grey kangaroos but no reds.  The reds are much bigger and more iconic.  It was our first time seeing red kangaroos.  Seeing kangaroos in Australia is akin to seeing a deer in Canada.  It's common but no so common that it still isn't neat every time.

Saturday, 14 July

Early Saturday morning we packed up the crew and prepared to go abseiling.  Abseiling is where you propel yourself backwards down a cliff with only a rope to keep you from plummeting to your doom.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Here are the children getting geared up for abseiling in front of the bus that picked us up and drove us for about an hour to our destination.

Cyrus beginning his decent.

Nadia on the way down with the river gorge in the background.

Zaren hanging out and enjoying the view.

Keva getting ready to go over the edge.

After the 25 meter wall we graduated to the 40 meter wall known as Big Bertha.  Besides being higher the main difference is that after about the first 5 meters the rest is overhang and you slide down for a long way.  Here's Nadia on the top section.

 
After abseiling we hiked down the canyon a short ways to relax in the river gorge and do a little exploring.  On a hot day many people go for a swim.  All we could muster up on this particular day was to wade in up to our knees.  And in case you're wondering, there are no crocs in this part of Australia.  The really dangerous Saltwater crocs are up north.  The most dangerous thing in this river is a hungry teenager.

 Along the coast coming approaching the town of Kalbarri to the south are the coastal cliffs.  Not only are there some lovely views (2nd picture from the top) but there are plenty of other things to do.  You can walk along a martian landscape and see millions of years of sedimentary rock, you can and see kangaroos and you can experience the Blue Holes.  About 20 meters from shore there is a natural shallow rock formation that acts as a sea break.  Beyond the sea break there is shallow, calm, clear water. Above you can see Keva and Nadia walking on a rock ledge in the water.  You could look over the edge and see all sorts of stuff. Within the water is coral, crabs, fish and other marine life.

Here's Keva holding some "other marine life" aka a Sea Star, aka Starfish.  On a warm day this is a popular snorkelling area.  Even on a cooler day it was tempting to jump in.

 

Sunday, 15 July

After checking out of our hotel we headed to another area of the national park.  We started at the most iconic spot in the park called "Nature's Window".

 

Following the trail from Nature's Window we went on a 9km hike down the hills into the river gorge.  There were a couple of slightly challenging spots but nothing to riske.

 

When we started our hike from the top of the canyon we could see many kangaroos and birds near the river below.  However, once we got going we saw one a bit closer.  It's hard to see it in the picture above but the Wallabee (like a small kangaroo) is near the small tree just to the right of center.  It didn't seem bothered by us at all.  We later saw another one.

 

Here's a closer look at the wallabee.  At one point we were about 10 meters away from it.

After the canyon hike we hit the road to go home.  On the way we stopped to take the photo above.  There are many leaning trees just like this in the area due to the strong prevailing southerly winds.  Unfortunately, most of our drive home was in the dark so we didn't get to see too much of the countryside.  However, we did see plenty on the road.  Dusk and dawn are the most dangerous times to drive in most of Australia because that is the time when the kangaroos inexplicably gather near, and sometimes on, the road.  Despite seeing many live and wild kangaroos on this trip I actually saw more dead ones on the road. 

Pink.