| Kalbarri |
| Tues 28.08 - Stayed in Globe Backpackers last night and caught bus to Kalbarri at 10am. Kalbarri is 457 kms away from Perth. Thats the same distance from Derry to Killarney in Co Kerry. Gives you an idea of how big this place is! The buses here have two drivers that take turns. One of the drivers heard my accent and told me that he was origanally from Ballymoney. We stopped in Catabe for lunch and talked to a few other passengers. Claire was still wearing her Galway jersey and a fella from Cork was talking to us about the match. Watched "The Client" and had lunch in Geraldton. We arrived at the Ajana Turnoff at 5.30pm. The hostel took us the final 45 minutes and arrived in Kalbarri at 6.15pm. We stayed in the hostel for one night. I heard a co derry accent from a girl and jokiingly said to Claire that she probably from Claudy. I asked her and guess what, she WAS from Claudy. Jill Moore, her mum is the nurse in Claudy Health Centre. Wed 29.08 - Checked out of Hostel and on to campsite and set up our tent for the first time. Spoke to neighbour, Dave from Albany. In the afternoon we walked out to the Big Rier Ranch and went for a horse ride. My horse was Mr Ed and Claire's was Belle. Horses have pecking orders and mine was going around head butting the other horses. I was supposed to slap the horse on the neck and say" NO, MR ED". It didnt really work. The horse ridde was great except for the canter which is a little sore on the family jewels! At night we went to Finlays Fish BBQ for dinner. I had Dhufish and Claire had schnapper. It tasted great. We were in the tent at 9.30pm. God, but the ground is really hard! Thur 30.08 - Birds woke me at 6.30am. We were collected for a tour at 8.45am. We first of all went to the Z bend gorge. Great views. Then it was off to The Loop and Natures Window. Click here to see photo. Everybody on the tour was over 60 and Australian except for us. A couple from Melbourne gave us their address. We were back at 12.30pm, had lunch, rented bikes and then set off to the Coastal Gorges. The furthest was 17kms so we cycled to that one first. Took us 2 hours and it was a steady climb the whole way. Didn't think we'd make it at stages. English couple, Sue and Don gave us a lift back on to main road as we were suffering and we free wheeled down the hill back to town. We had went to Natural Bridge, Pott Alley and Red Bluff lookout. We were in tent at 9pm and slept within minutes as we were absolutely shattered. Fri 31.08 - Up at 8am ( A lie in for a camper!). We had great chat with other neighbours, Dominic and Gill. They gave us great advice for travelling West Coast. We caught bus to Exmoutb in the after noon. |