Fremantle to Exmouth

Travelling along the western coast of Australia it gives a great appreciation for the vastness of the this magnificent country. Coming from the most densely populated cities in the country we have become used to seeing every square metre of land taken up for some sort of use. But here in Western Australia there are areas that you can see 'nothing' for as far as the eye can see, in all directions along a relatively flat 'wasteland' save for a few gorges and small mountains that really just extend further into the distance. The entire Sydney Basin could easily fit in some of these areas. And it isn't just on land, but also out to sea where these is nothing to be seen but rolling waves all the way to the horizon (easier to see from a nice high cliff face like the Red Bluff). This great vastness makes you realise that our place in the world is really just a mere speck.
Having spent some time in the middle of The Pinnacles Desert during the night, with the Milky Way opening up before us it is clear that our planet is also a mere speck in the Universe - but a damn important one to the only known living things in the Universe. And that mere speck also relates to the fourth dimension of time (for our quantum physicists).
Today we went to the Kalbarri National Park, which is 1830 square kilometres and has the Murchinson River cutting a gorge through it for 80km until it reaches the Indian Ocean in the township of Kalbarri. The river is currently a milk coffee brown and quickly flowing following flooding (the last major flood was in October 2022). We visited two locations in the National Park - the Skywalk and Nature's Window.
But before we got to the Skywalk we had to drive around 30km through some malle scrub. We took the opportunity to pull over and stop and appreciate & photograph some of the vegetation in the area - some banksias, sedges and grass trees. Whilst this area may look like there is nothing there, it really is very diverse - in fact, as diverse as some rainforests and it has been called a 'knee high rainforest'. There are over 12,000 native species, representing 10% of the Western Australia The area isn't as densely vegetated as a rainforest, with clear pockets of sand between trees and within these pockets of sand the tracks of kangaroos can be seen. One of the plants, a Banksia, reminds us of the Banksia serata found on the East Coast. Michael found out that the grass trees can bite back, getting 5 splinters from one.
After about an hour we continued on to the Kalbarri Skywalk - two gantries that extend 30 metres into the air over the Murchinson River, 100 metres below. The river has cut it's way through the Tumblagooda sandstone over the past 400 million years and has helped reveal the ripples of ancient floodplains and the trails of now extinct ancient arthropod's tracks that existed 200 million years ago.
A short drive away, Nature's Window is a rock formation which aligns with the Murchinson's River in the distance. A short walk takes you over many rocks that clearly show the ripples of the ancient floodplain. Not much that we do today will be around in 200 million year's time - but these little arthropods managed to do something as cool as that.
A 9 kilometre walk around the ridge of the gorge and down to the banks of the river was closed due to the flooding, but we still managed to find a spot where we could descend and dip our toes into the Murchinson River.
Afterwards we wanted to go to a renowned snorkelling spot - Blue Holes. But with Tropical Cyclon Ilsa up near Port Headland, the winds have been picking up around here and the snorkelling spot was more like a surf beach. We hope to visit it tomorrow morning in calmer conditions (Isla has now crossed the coastline) before we head to Wooramel Station.
We finished the day watching the sun set over the Indian Ocean from the Red Bluff lookout - although clouds on the horizon didn't give us the spectacular finish we were hoping but were a warning of the rainy and windy night that lay ahead.Read more