Kalbarri

Solana woke at 6:30am and looked out of the window above her bed. I woke to her saying "Something is bouncing outside and I think it is a kangaroo"; Laura went to look, saw a crow and assumed it was that - but then looked harder and there actually were a few kangaroos at the edge of the campsite. We fear Solana will wake even earlier tomorrow morning to look for them again! We went down to the foreshore to see the Australian pelicans (they have traditionally been fed a few fish at 8:45am each day here for the past 40+ years) - we only saw one but it was an impressively large bird, with a comically large beak and Solana got to feed it a fish. A bit later we saw 3 of them out on the water. Whilst down at the shore we also saw some Ringnecked Parrots (also called "twenty-eights", for reasons we haven't been able to fathom!). We then drove inland to see the Murchieson River Gorge - we did a couple of short walks to gorge viewpoints but ended up cutting one of them even shorter due to the bothersome flies (we had heard about the fly problem in rural Australia but had hoped we had missed the fly season...). After a picnic along the shore for lunch, we came back to the campsite to relax for a while in the hottest part of the day, including a dip in the pool for Laura & Solana and running through the lawn sprinklers for Solana. Later, we did another couple of short walks along the clifftops South of Kalbarri - warm but windswept and more impressive views. This afternoon we had another barbie, this time with some fish and prawns we'd picked up from a van at the seafront earlier today. Whilst eating we saw a family of kangaroos bouncing past the entrance to the campsite! It gets dark earlier here than in NZ (sunset around 5:45pm), so this evening we went for a walk along the road behind the campsite, hoping to spot some wildlife and stars. The latter obliged and we almost walked into a group of kangaroos and we stood watching them (and them us) for a while, before retiring to our cabin for the night.Read more