maqh just cruising along

111/2009 14

Kalbarri National Park

This time few photos from a place I had a chance to visit on a way to Monkey Mia and definitely want to come back to: Kalbarri National Park. The scenery there is absolutely breathtaking and hopefully having a quick look at some of the photos below you will get the feeling what I'm talking about.

Kalbarri town is situated at the mouth of the Murchison River and has a beautiful coastline around. You could definitely spend couple of days just exploring the coastal route but unfortunately we didn't have that much time so we tried to choose the best spots and we definitely were not disappointed with out choice. Just have a look at the Red Bluff:

1. Red Bluff

and a closer one:

2. Red Bluff, closer look

Looking the other side from the lookout is not too shabby either:

3. Coastline near Kalbarri

There's plenty of other places to stop and enjoy the coastline but it's the Murchison River gorge Kalbarri National Park is really famous for. You have to get back few kilometers inland and then drive around 30km on a gravel road (that's true WA for ya!) to get to the heart of the park. You definitely don't want to miss one of the main attractions - Nature's Window:

4. Nature's Window

5. Nature's Window rock

The gorge is just spectacular, you sort of feel like being in a movie or something, at least if you enjoy nature's beauty as much as I do.

6. Murchison River gorge

Theres plenty of hiking options available, you can walk for few hours or even few days if you're lucky to be there long enough. And again, the scenery shouldn't disappoint, the only annoying thing may be the flies, there's bloody millions of them!

7. Hiking around Nature's Window

Next must see spot, few kilometers away, is a Z-Bend:

8. Z Bend

9. Z Bend, the other side

If you're there in summer, be careful cause the temperature in the park can get up to 50 degrees (122F) so you'll definitely have to protect yourself from the sun. Even if you're just walking 700m from the parking.

10. Walking to the Z Bend

Another place definitely worth visiting is Hawk's Head.

11. View from Hawk's Head

12. And a closer look

From there if you want you can walk down to the river.

13. Murchison River

and if you're lucky (or unlucky, depending if you like lizards) you can find out you're not the only one there:

14. Lizard

I hope now you know why I enjoyed visiting Kalbarii National Park a lot and definitely want to come back there. It's around 600km up north from Perth so maybe another long weekend I'll have an opportunity to hike around Murchison River a bit more. I'll be up for it for sure!