Now and Then, Here and There: Kalbarri

KALBARRI 28^TH APRIL – 1^ST MAY

On the way to Kalbarri we stopped in to look at the Lynton Convict Ruins, a small bit of W.A.’s history. The below photo explains its short life.

Inside of the main building which has been
restored.

The prison, the cells are on the left.

Charlie showing the size of one of the cells!

The only bit of yard the prisoners got to move around in.

Around the corner from these ruins is the old homestead called “Sanford” which was built in 1853 by Mr Henry Ashford Sanford who helped run the convict centre. They are slowly doing this up, putting through power and fixing up the lovely sandstone, it should look amazing when or if it ever gets done.

Sanford Homestead became a sheep and cattle station when
the convict centre closed down. There is still a working
station on this land they just allow you to
come and visit the homestead and other displays around.

On the balcony

A memorial to "Ron" who was the son of the pioneering
families. He lived and worked this land when it was a sheep
station.

This is just near Ron's memorial, what a view to practise at!

This is the original flour mill for the homestead.

Yes this is how the trees grow around here, they get bent over because
of the south-westerly winds. You start seeing this before
Geraldton at Greenough.

On the road towards Kalbarri you go past The Pink Lake, which is quite a large lake. As you drive by it each angle you look at it gives off a different colour.

From the bottom of the pink lake you can do a detour into a place called Port Gregory which is a no through road. Port Gregory is like Horrocks but only smaller and not as pretty, good for fishermen. We stopped for a very early lunch on the water front then returned back to the main HWY.

The Pink Lake , you can see different colours in different sections.

You can tell you are getting closer to Kalbarri because you start getting the tourist signs pointing out named and interesting coastal cliff views to go and have a look at. We pulled into a few to have a look at and yes they are stunning but after about 4 stops you start getting a bit “viewed out” of the same cliff line.

Some of the views of the cliffs coming into Kalbarri.

Kalbarri itself is a nice place right where the Murchinson River meets the sea. We were amazed at how many houses there were, some quite new and fancy and others older and there is a new housing development going ahead and yet there is a very small town strip with only a small IGA for groceries. We asked a lady in the IGA what the go was and she said the homes are owned by Cray fishermen, either retired or still working and some would be holiday homes. She reckons the town is a ghost town without tourism. There is a lot of accommodation available, including three C.P’s so they obviously boom in their peak season, starting now.

Looking out at Oyster Reef which is where the Murchinson
River on the right meet the ocean on the left

A lovely swimming area down to the right with the main
shopping strip of Kalbarri in the back ground.

We were in a C.P called the Murchinson which is a Top Tourist and just over the road from the lovely Murchinson River. On our first night here we nearly had a floating camper trailer! Right on dusk the skies opened up and dumped about 20mls in about 20 minutes then stopped, all was OK. We had no leaks and the canvas was holding out. What water did come around us quickly soaked into the sandy base and luckily we had set up on a little pad that was slightly higher than the rest of our camp area. The road in front of us turned into a river and started to slowly recede and we thought that was close, then it all started again! Pete had his bathers on digging trenches around us. We ended up helping another couple (Gary and Kim) who had 6 inches of water go through their camp area and they were in a camper trailer like us. Unfortunately they were in the lowest spot of the C.P. and the drains around them were blocked or just didn’t work, so the owner of the C.P told them as Gary was trying to clear them, so not helpful!! The water on the road was halfway up my calves and you could feel all the sand that had been washed away under your feet. The rain finally stopped but it took quite a while for it to recede off the road and into the already saturated sand. The camper held up very well thanks to Pete’s trenches and tipping the awning so we had no pooling on the roof. We only had a couple of spots where it leaked in due to the canvas hitting the roof bars but we are not sure if we would have coped with a third dump! Gary and Kim had spent so much time worrying about the getting the water away from their outside they didn’t check inside and when they went to go to bed the bed was saturated!! They did get it dry the next day by putting it on the roof of their car to dry!! I wish our camera could handle water so I could have taken some photos. Another neighbour said he filled 2 20litre water containers within minutes off his awning!

Kalbarri is the start of the some of this country’s finest natural wonders; its gorges. We love this landscape especially when water is around it is very tranquil. We did a few walks including an 8km loop walk around the Murchinson River which starts at“Nature’s Window”. We did this with Mike and Trish which was nice to have other people along to share the experience.

Nature's Window

This is the start of the 8km walk from Nature's Window.We went
left first down to the sandy river then returned on the right
across the cliff always with the Murchinson River on our left.

The map of our walk.

Views down the sandy beach area of our walk.

This was a lovely part of the walk along the rocks.

The colours and formations of the cliffs
where stunning.

Views before you start the climb up to the cliff tops to finish the walk.

The view from the cliff top looking back from where we have walked.

The other walk we did was called "Z-Bend ", this was a short steep walk down into the gorge. We had spoken to a ranger earlier in the day and he said this area was better for swimming and he told us to walk up the gorge to the right and we would find a nice watering hole to have a dip, so we did!