Green Head to Kalbarri

Saturday 26^th April 2008

We had booked in for a sea lion adventure this morning - frolicking with sea lions in shallow water just south of Green Head – but a big wind had got up overnight and Rod the pilot kindly came round to tell us it should be postponed. I was very quietly relieved (I could see myself getting decidedly chilly) but it was disappointing after Andrej and Jess had raved about how good it was.

Instead we casually packed up, cleaned up and psyched ourselves up.

This trip the girls were more savvy – a little less of the ‘Are we there yet?’ and a little more of the demands for suitable music through the ipod.

I was blown away (pun intended) by the wind-blasted trees around Geraldton – how do they survive when growing parallel to the ground? We took the scenic route from Northampton, past pink salt lakes and the cliffs south of Kalbarri. A stop to look at the ‘Natural Bridge’ gave us our first serious encounter with flies – we are SO looking forward to more of that! The cliffs are amazing – so many layers and such fantastic colours – even the girls were impressed by the size of the boulders that had broken away. In fact, ‘boulder’ became Katie’s new favourite word for the day.

Setting up camp in Kalbarri wasn’t as traumatic as we’d thought – partly because our spot backed onto the playground so the girls were out of the way (Katie made a new friend immediately) and partly because as soon as we got the basics up Paul whisked the girls off to the beach to catch up with Johnny and Lisa while I sorted out our ‘stuff’.

We watched a stunning sunset on the beach with some beers while Holly and Katie pottered in the water and played with a puppy belonging to Johnny’s brother. Johnny and Lisa mapped out our activities for our stay then dragged us (unwillingly, of course!) to the local pub followed by dinner at the Grass Trees where the food is cooked by a chef who has also cooked for the Queen and the Pope.

Katie fell asleep during the main course so we went straight back to the caravan park. Johnny and Lisa, on the other hand, revisited the pub and were to regret their actions the next day!

P.S. We drove 331km from Green Head to Kalbarri