Day 120 - 121 Kalbarri – 6-7 Oct 2009

19,140 kms, 24 degrees C




From Monkey Mia we continued our trek South and next stop was Kalbarri, a very popular spot in school holidays. The town is transformed overnight from a sleepy seaside town to a packed holiday destination when the kids break up.

Our first tourist stop was Rainbow Jungle, a parrot breeding centre. They have and amazing array of squarkers from Oz and overseas.

We are well and truly in the WA wheat belt country, which at this time of year is renowned for its wildflowers. The wildflower centre was OK, but the star of the show was a thorny devil, not the flowers. These are odd creatures indeed – latin name Moloch Horidus just about says it all.

One of the big attractions in the Kalbarri National Park is the loop walk – great views and wildflowers but the flies were unbearable, which is why we are sporting our smart flynets on the self timer shot taken on the cliffs just South of Kalbarri. We spent an hour on the cliffs watching whales breach in the distance and large pods of dolphins fishing closer to the cliffs.

Finally the wildlife in our camp was pretty awesome – a pair of splendid fairy wrens came out each morning with an awesome display of colour and stupidity. The bright blue dude is the bloke, the plainer colours bird his Mrs. They both insisted on attacking their own refection in both the wing mirror and windscreen of the car!!