Kalbarri National Park

After an early breakfast we set out for the day, this time making the short drive to nearby Kalbarri National Park (Australia has a ton of National Parks!). Here we would be spending our entire morning hiking and exploring Kalbarri, notable for some nice gorges. It was proving to be another stellar weather day.

Our first taste was the Z-Bend section of the Murchison Gorge…named because I guess it looks like a Z from above.

This one we’d hike down into. Along our way several people opted to try abseiling. Having already done so several times in the past I decided to save my money. Those that did try it enjoyed it, and this was a lovely little spot to have a few jumps down walls. I simply relaxed and enjoyed the red-rock scenery.

We made it to the bottom and set up for a bit of a break. The hike wasn’t overly strenuous but the heat was already rising.

During rainfall the river can rise rapidly here. No worries about that happening for us though, it was a bone dry day.

After hiking back out of Z-Bend we headed to the second major spot on the Murchison Gorge. The scenery here was really quite lovely. There was a longer, 3 hour loop hike that I would have loved to do, but we lacked the time.

We were quite well above the Murchison river, winding it’s way slowly to the Indian Ocean.

You can slightly see the trail stretching off along the ridgeline to the left, that would be past where we hiked though. We stopped at an odd section of natural rock.

First I took a panoramic shot of the area though.

Here it is, Nature’s Window. Cute. After the obligatory 10 minutes of everyone getting a photo of them in the window, we headed back to the van to find lunch.

From there it was nothing but driving for the afternoon. We were headed to a famous beachside resort with a funny name. We got there in time for sunset. It was a beautiful spot.

That evening we had another campfire, though of a different variety. This one was hosted by an aboriginal guide of the area, who explained some of the culture and history of the aboriginals in the area. We also got to (try to) play some traditional instruments: the sea shell for the women and the didgeridoo for the guys. Turns out that these instruments are incredibly hard to even make sounds with! But we all gave it a shot.

It was an early night for many of us – the sun was to be up at 6am and I for one wanted to see it rise.

One thought on “Kalbarri National Park

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