We started our day in Kalbarri National Park
at Z-Bend Gorge (pronounced Zed Bend). Early in the day we hiked down its steep
slopes into the gorge. It’s advertised as having a refreshing swim at the
bottom. If by refreshing, you mean a stagnant pool overflowing with mosquito
larvae, then yes, it is refreshing. In the wet season, lots of water flows
though the gorge, making for a great swim, but we were not so lucky at this
time of year. Still, a great site to see.
Next stop in Kalbarri was The Loop. We
actually looked down from a cliff lookout into the loop, which is basically a
dried up river bed that forms a loop shape, where we saw a family of grazing
kangaroos.
A big sight to see at Kalbarri is Nature’s
Window. It’s a unique rock formation that appears to be a rock wall with a
large square-shaped hole through the center creating a window and luckily for
us, it was formed atop a giant mountain. So there happens to be an awesome view
through the “window”. It’s mandatory for every tourist to sit in front of the
natural wonder and pose for a picture. Our group of 12 girls and two guys (one
of those being our tour guide, Ben) all sat patiently as an elderly man with
his wife by his side took pictures of us with 12 different cameras, one for
each girl in the group. I don’t know why we chose an old man to operate 12
different digital cameras, as it made it very difficult to watch this guy
struggle to use modern technology, more often turning off the cameras rather
than taking a picture. By the end, he had realized that there were only two
guys out of 14 people. In his excitement, he yells, (in front of his wife)
“Only two blokes and all these girls? It’s like a smorgasbord!” There’s nothing
women love more than being compared to a buffet line of meats.
Of all the things we did in Kalbarri,
abseiling down Z-bend gorge was by far the most awesome. If you’re there, and
you happen to see “Abseil Rob” don’t miss the chance to abseil the cliff face.
It’s only around $30, and you can do two abseils, so it’s well worth the cash. (Rob also leads
half-day tours for $75) It’s not for the faint of heart,
you’re very high up and many people struggle to face their fear of heights.
Luckily for us we had a fellow American girl who wasn’t afraid to scream at
those already terrified. She would look at them straight in the eye and exclaim
“JUST LOOK INTO MY FACE!!!” As if this would cure their fear of heights. This
obviously made her very popular within our tour group.
As we called it a day in Kalbarri the
smorgasbord, and 2 blokes in tow, piled into the bus and headed up the cost
towards Monkey Mia. We stopped to watch the sunset at Shell Beach, which as the
name would suggest, is a beach made entirely of tiny shells. A great ending to
a fun-filled day of excitement. “JUST LOOK INTO MY FACE!!!”
