Day 61 – 66
We left Monkey Mia to head for Kalbarri. On the way out we stopped to see the Stromatalites. These look like small rock formations but are actually living organisms that are billions of years old. They were the first living organisms on Earth and they released oxygen into the atmosphere which enabled other life forms to begin. I thought it was very interesting to see and read about but the kids hated it. We had to walk a whole 500m which almost killed Madi. We walked passed an old shell quarry where they used to cut shell blocks to build buildings. This was interesting because the shells have been accumulating there for thousands of years and they naturally release a fluid that binds them together. So to make the blocks they used to just get a saw out and cut the size they wanted. Nowadays the quarry is only used to repair historical buildings and for tourism purposes. Chris did the walk but refused to actually walk on the jetty to see the Stromatalites. Bubba kept mumbling something about “why do we have to stop and see all these stupid things” and Nick, best boy ever, kept muttering back to him “Just do it for Mum, shut up Bubba”. Someone somewhere on this trip told me that it doesn’t matter if they don’t enjoy it at the time as long as we sow the seeds for the future. Hopefully that is what we are doing and not just turning them off forever!
The drive to Kalbarri was pleasant enough. The landscape changed from scrub land to pastures and crops and there was also some wildflowers thrown in although not too many as it is the end of the season for them this far up. Kalbarri seemed pretty enough when we arrived so we set up camp, familiarised ourselves with the township and planned out the coming days.
I guess it had to happen sometime on this trip but Kalbarri didn’t turn out to be what we expected. The wind came up overnight and it basically blew a gale for the next 5 days. Everything we had planned to do was either impossible or very uncomfortable. The waves were dumping on the beach so there was no swimming or snorkelling, to go to the beach you had to put up with being sand blasted so no joy there, canoeing was impossible due to the headwind and current, bike riding ditto. We managed a ride on a jet boat which took us out through the mouth of the river into the ocean and along the coast. It was very rough but that just adds to the fun when the idea is to crash through waves and get wet. We all came back soaked and Bubba was freezing – that what happens when you have no body fat!
To fill in our days we did some drives in the National Park. We saw (rather I saw the rest sat in the car!) Natural Bridge and Island Rock which are just rock formations caused by the erosion of the waves against the cliffs. We also went to Natures Window which would normally be stunning to look at but not with four whinging children! Madi hated the walk, everyone hated the flies and it was the only place where there was no wind so it was just hot!
Our caravan park was opposite the footy oval so everyday Andy and the boys went down to the cricket nets to practise Cricket. There was also a great playground there and a skate park so they played there on their scooters as well which they enjoyed.
Andy decided that Kalbarri must be Aboriginal for “Windy Shithole” and we were looking forward to getting out of there but then on the day we planned to leave the wind died down so we decided to stay a bit longer. In the morning we went snorkelling which was fun and played at the beach. At lunch we swam in the pool and then in the afternoon Madi and Matthew decided to go out with FFR2 (they had arrived the day before) to see – wait for it – Natures Window! Traitors! They went very happily with no whinging, crying or stamping of feet. I felt very betrayed.
We thought we might stay another day if the wind held off but this morning when we woke up it was cool, overcast and windy so we broke camp and are now heading towards Perth. We will probably stay one night somewhere on the way there but we are not sure where yet.
