Day 20 - Monkey Mia to Kalbarri

Today we leave the North West for good and head for Kalbarri, the Mouth of the Murchie, and its National Park.

Quick Stats

• 5 hours on bike
• 460 km
• 8256 km total

I'm beelining for Kalbarri National Park today to checkout the mighty Murchison River and its effects on the Tumblagooda sandstone.

Well I would be, but its cold, so I'm staying in bed till the "Dolphin Experience"© begins at 7.45 am. Unbeknownst to me, theres also a "Dolphin Experience"© at 8.20 am, with a tenth of the people. Oh well, its fine, I'm tall and a little smelly, I get my spot.

Anyway, every morning at Monkey Mia a bunch of dolphin come down to the jetty to fraternise with the Parks and Wildlife Rep and get a small feed. They've been coming here for fifty years.

Only three dolphins this morning, the regulars. The Parks presenters keeps calling this an Experience every three seconds and js pretty detailed I explaining the legalese of the Experience. We get to put our toes in the water to be One with the Dolphins and be engaged in the Experience.

Its pretty neat to see the dolphins up close, but thats as far as I'd go, unless they'd let me ride them...

I get a coffee and pack up to head off. Its a good four hours to the Skywalk at Kalbarri with not much in between. I finally get going at 10 am.

Its bloody windy today. Weather app tells me 40 knot gusts and 25 knot southerly. Lovely, a 45 km/h headwind. And the barren Peron Peninsuala is not sheltered at all. The wind (and rain) are supposed to persist for a couple more days.

All weather gear on, I huddle behind my teeny windshield and set off, backtracking to where I was yesterday. I leave Denham and briefly consider the Ocean Aquarium, it looked pretty neat, but I'm already running late.

Bit further down I pass the 26th Parallel, for the third time, to officially and finally leave the North West.

Continuing on for another hour, I'm back on the highway. My fuel economy has skyrocketed with the headwind to 5.9L/100km (I wonder what its doing for the caravan convoys), so I pull in at Billabong and fill up. Apparently a bit of a landmark, having been serving fuel since 1962. Shrug.

Onward another hour and I'm getting closer to the turn off. Something drastic happens here though - the open, dry, scrubland suddenly gives way to grass. Paddocks full of sheep and daffodil farms. There's yellow to the horizon. The wildflowers are also out in force along the roadside. I must be getting close to permanent water.

Sure enough, I cross the Murchison River, WAs second longest river, and take the turn off for Kalbarri. I'm taking another solid detour to follow this river to the coast.

The pastures pretty quickly give way to wild rolling hills. I've entered Kalbarri National Park. The national park is recognised for the mixture of the Murchison River gorges and the unique coastline.

Its not far for my first turnoff to the Hawks Head Lookout.

And Ross Graham Lookout.

The land around the Murchison is all sandstone. Which is unique to the Kalbarri region as the rest of the coast from Shark Bay to Perth is limestone. Something about an inland ocean during the last ice age removing the limestone and carving out these gorges. The Tamblagooda sandstone is unique in itself for having layers of red and white stripes.

Anyway back on the bike and a quick 45 minute zip down the road and I get to the skywalk. A pair of massive structures jutting out over a far more massive gorge.

I can see kangaroos down by the water in a number of spots. I have a wander and read of the signs. The traditional owners to this land are the Nanda people. It seems like they held a pretty permanent settlement around the Murchison, chosing to build clay houses.

Not a great deal is known about the Nanda as many of them were taken to either Rottnest Island as prisoners, or island Lock hospitals as "patients".

Continuing down the road I get to the hike I had planned for the afternoon. Its an 8 km circuit across the top of the gorge followed by returning along the creekside. Alas its 4 pm and even at a run I'd be hardpressed to get back before sundown.

I settle for the much shorter walk to Natures Window.

I don't think I need to explain this one, but the colourful striped sandstone is obvious here.

Back on the bike heading for Kalbarri township for the night. One more quick stop at the lookout over town.

I head down, check in, have some basic dinner and fall asleep. Hence posting this the next morning.