Day 2 - Kalbarri to Denham (340 km)

Surprisingly, we didn’t wake up until just before 9 this morning. Obviously the curtains did a good job of blocking out the light. We packed up the bed, put everything away and headed out to start our next day on the road. After filling up, we drove out on the main road and tried to go to The Loop for a walk but the track was closed because they must have had so much rain recently. Instead we drive to one of the other lookouts and walked down to the Murchison River banks to have breakfast. The river was really flowing and the contrast between the bright red cliffs and the green gum trees was gorgeous. We found a quiet spot and enjoyed our breakfast before wandering around a bit longer then heading back to “Bessie” (the campervan).

We hit the road with Ross driving this morning. We tried to put some km’s under our belt before stopping at the Billabong Roadhouse for a break and some lunch. We picked up a tacky stubby holder with Aussie Sheila sayings on it for our friend Elyse who we are meeting in Monkey Mia tomorrow (she’s American).

I drove in the afternoon and we made great progress along the highway. Not much to see, just plenty of straight road! We turned off to the west to head out to Denham where we would spend the night. On the way, we stopped in at Hamelin Pool to look at the stromatolites. I had seen them on one of my geology field trips years ago and just thought that they were amazing. It is the only place in the world where you can find living stromatolites and the ones in the Hamelin Pool area are around 5000 years old. They are made up of cyanobacteria that has been on the Earth for 2.4 billion years and these bacteria helped to produce the oxygen in the atmosphere which allowed animals and plants to evolve. OK- I am a bit of a geek but that is pretty cool!

There is also an old quarry at Hamelin Pool where they mined cocquina, basically they cut out building blocks of shells that had been stuck together by calcium carbonate that had dissolved from the shells. A lot of the buildings in the area had been made out of this material.

From Hamelin Pool we drove another 100km into Denham. We turned up at the Blue Dolphin Caravan Park about 3 and after some confusion we found our spot and set up. We took a bit of a walk along the foreshore and picked up some snags, onions and salad to have for dinner. Back at “Bessie” we cracked open a beer and played a few rounds of shithead before starting dinner. I made gin and tonics while Ross cooked the snags and onions on the gas stove.

You can’t beat snags with onions and sauce in fresh bread and it was nice to have some fresh veg again. After dinner we packed up our stuff, did the dishes and set up the bed. We walked into town (500m down the road) and headed to the pub for a beer and to watch the Ashes and AFL. We also played a couple of rounds of pool and watched the locals for a while – what a place! We can’t wait for our friend Elyse to join us to experience true Australia!

We headed back to Bessie and as usual had a cup of tea with some chocolate while listening to the cricket on ABC radio until we went to bed. Another great day on the road.

Start of the road trip! Perth to Kalbarri (589 km)

We woke up about 8 this morning to get ready for our road trip. We had breakfast then headed back up to the room to pick up our stuff and check out of the hotel. We jumped in our taxi and headed to Britz to pick up our campervan. After watching the 15 minute DVD on the campervan and doing the routine checks, we were on our way.

Ross drove and we headed out through Midland and onto Highway 1 for our trip north. Today we had to get to Kalbarri for our first night. It didn’t take long to leave the city behind and soon we were on the open road watching the scenery change as we headed further north. Our first stop was at Eneabba (about 200km north) where we filled up and had a quick break for lunch before switching drivers and heading on.

We had the iPod cranked and continued driving up the inland road until we started to move to the coast at Geraldton. We headed through Geraldton without stopping and continued up the coast to Northampton before heading west on the scenic route to Kalbarri. We swapped drivers again and Ross drove the rest of the way. By this time it was about 4 and so we had managed to get to Kalbarri in daylight. Before heading to the caravan park, we stopped off at Red Bluff for a look at the red cliffs that surround Kalbarri (see photo). It was nice to get out of the campervan and stretch our legs!

We found the Anchorage Caravan Park by the river and checked into our spot. We plugged in the power and were happy to still have a bit of daylight left to get things organized. For dinner we walked next door to the local fish and chip shop and ordered up some grilled coral trout. The place was super busy with school holiday tourists. We picked up a six pack and headed back to our campervan for dinner.

We set up out table and chairs outside and enjoyed our dinner before it got too cold. We packed everything up and headed inside to try and figure out the bedding situation. Once we figured out that this inside table was used as a base for the bed, it was pretty easy to set it up. The downstairs bed was huge! The size of a king bed. Ross and I played some rounds of “shithead” – a card game our friend Dee taught us and Ross set up his tranni radio to listen to the ashes. We kicked back and relaxed until about 10 before turning in for the night. A great first day on the road!!