West Coast Heading North
Kalbarri to Carnarvon
13.05.2011
We booked ahead and got a place in Kalbarri for three nights (along with another ¼ of the population of Perth) and this was lucky as it was more or less still booked out for the rest of the holidays. It was a nice place. Great little spot for fishing. The Murchison River meets the ocean here. It was interesting watching the boats try to get outside through the bar. Not a place for the faint hearted or beginners. It was crazy stuff watching the boats try and time the waves right. Many a boat I would say has been swamped trying to attempt this. Clint wanted to take the tinnie out but the girls would not let him. It was scary stuff.
Got talking to some campers a few sites up and who were from North Arm Cove. Turns out they know some friends of ours, Sharney and Bails who know their other son from Hawks Nest and we had been camping with them also. Small World!
Next stop Shark Bay. We ended up staying at the Francois Perron National Park. It was such a nice change to go bush for a couple of days and a camp on the beach too. Had a fish, girls are the only ones catching anything might I add.
After two nights we headed to Monkey Mia for the dolphin feeding which the girls loved. Lovely spot there but it’s very annoying when such a nice place is taken up with a resort and you have to pay to enter just to get to the beach. We had already paid to enter the National Park but Monkey Mia doesn’t come under the same fee.
Clint reckons it’s not Australian! There is no more she’ll be right mate and fair go…No more Aussie Culture just a lot of rules and regulations and people capitalising on what should be available to everyone. Over populated, over regulated and over priced! From Clint.
The great aussie bush camp has turned into a 24hr overnight roadside rest area camp. It’s the only place you get to have a fire and an affordable camp and some of these stops are magic right by rivers but only for 24hrs. Not that I think they would regulate that too much as they are normally in the middle of nowhere.
Next stop Carnarvon for an overnighter and restock.
On the way in you can see where the floods had ripped through and washed out the roads. Drove in via Sydney HMAS Memorial Drive, a tree lined road with a plaque for every sailor that died nearly 700 of them.
Got some nice organic bananas, avocado and custard apples straight from the farm. Flood waters wiped out the farms and you can still see where the water rose to on some buildings which was shoulder height. So it was good to see the farms back up and running.
