We stopped for lunch and refuelled the bike at the Overlander Roadhouse before heading for Kalbarri.

We passed lots of wildflowers today. Western Australia is renowned for its wildflowers and luckily for us we’re travelling here in springtime. The Kalbarri Park is full of flowers, I’ve never seen a National Park where the main attraction is flowering shrubs, most of the time its trees or ferns or even palms that are the attraction. All along the road after the turnoff to Kalbarri are stopping areas with signs suggesting good photo opportunities.

The caravan park that we’re staying at is in town and right opposite the beach. The Murchison River runs into the sea at Kalbarri and the beach has a calm area, which is the river, and just past that the waves of the ocean come crashing to the shore. We can hear the thunderous sound of the waves from our tent.

We went to Natures Window today, a rock formation that symbolises Kalbarri. To get there we had to travel along 27km of sandy road, supposedly suitable for all vehicles, in the Kalbarri National Park. We rode between 15 and 40km per hour for most of the distance.  There were wildflowers all throughout the park but we didn’t stop for photos as I wanted the travelling along that road to be over with as soon as possible, I didn’t want it to take any longer than necessary.

There’s a short walk from the carpark to the lookout and then down to Natures Window. From there you can do an 8km walk, we went a short distance along the walk but had no intention of walking 8km.

Natures Window is a rock formation that overlooks the Murchison River far below in the gorge. The stone in this area is referred to as Tumblagooda stone, and has shades of pinks and tans, it also has a shimmer through it. There were a couple more places where the rocks formed a window or arch effect.

We had some fruit for lunch and headed back along that road back to town.

On our way back to the caravan park we called in to Kalbarri Wildflower Centre where there’s a 1.8km nature trail that is native bush with identification labels on the plants and places to sit and admire the wildflowers. Only a donation is asked to enjoy this place.

A lady feeds the pelicans and gives a talk each morning in the park over the road from the caravan park. I went for a look today; it’s very well set up there’s a semi circle of seats around an area where the birds come for fish.

We went for a ride to some of the lookouts along the coast this morning. There are quite a few of them a short distance from Kalbarri.

After lunch we visited a couple more spots in the Kalbarri National Park, Hawks Head and Ross Graham Lookout both have sealed road access. The wildflowers throughout the park are beautiful.

Hawks Head has a very nice lookout and excellent picnic facilities and looks out over the Murchison River.

At Ross Graham Lookout, also with good picnic facilities, the walk continues past the lookout down to the river. The river is deep in a gorge consisting of pink and tan Tumblagooda stone. There are canoe rides that travel the river from this spot.

In the evening we went to a lookout by the beach and watched the sunset before buying fish and chips for tea.

 

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