Wildlife Extravaganza in Western Australia ( 2/14 )

DAY 2 ~ Monday

We went back for another taste of the Pinnacles, wandering among the stones looking for things of interest. We followed some emu tracks, and found a group of different style of pinnacle, much bigger, chunkier, like molar teeth, as opposed to the majority being canines. There was one with a hole through it, that the sun was shining through. Very New Age! There were some enormous sand dunes which we climbed up and ran down – great fun! Ian went one better and decided to roll down.

Eventually, we had to get back on the road in order to make our next stop by nightfall: Kalbarri. We headed off through vast areas of scrub, Grass trees and Banksias, just masses and masses of space filled with them – never ending. We certainly were getting the feeling for how huge Australia is.

For some variation we decided to take a route off the main highway and ended up on a dirt road about 70 km long. It wasn’t bad, though parts of it had been washed away in the recent rains, but we still didn’t need to go 4WD. Having been adventurous and suitably bone-rattled, we heaved a sigh of relief when we hit tarmac again, inside the park. We stopped to view the stunning coastline, at ‘Pothole Alley’, colourful sedimentary sandstone cliffs, like a marble layer cake. Then we headed for the town of Kalbarri and to find a campsite for the night.

We found a great place, and while the Lonely Planet guide recommended the Tudor one, it looked like a nightmare of caravans and caravan folk, so we went for one on the edge of town called Anchorage. It was

wonderful, and I think the most beautiful spot we stopped on the whole trip. It was much less busy, and more adventurous types were there, including the West Coast Explorer tour group. We had a lovely view of the Murchison River, could hear frogs croaking, watched pelicans come in to land, and the sunset was fantastic! To cap it all off we had yummy fajitas for dinner, the best meal I did all holiday I think.

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