Kalbarri National Park

After a very long drive north on the first day of the tour we overnighted in Kalbarri, a small fishing/crabbing town along the coast. Surprisingly, the road that runs north up the west coast of Australia does not actually run on the coast. It runs well inland for most of the way, which is great for the continued protection of the hundreds and hundreds of miles of pristine coastal ecosystems, but is very bad for road trippers. There is a lot less to look at. The hostel we stayed in was packed with no fewer than three other tour buses full of backpackers doing the exact same thing that I was.

After an early morning departure from Kalbarri we arrived at Kalbarri National Park. The highlight of the park is the gorge cut by the Murchison River, which we spent several hours exploring. Like most gorges, present day river has eroded its way down through ancient layers of sand stone that were originally laid down hundreds of millions of year ago in tidal flats. The result is beautiful banding of red and white rocks.

In addition to exploring the bottom of a small section of the gorge we went to Nature's Window, one of those places that every tourist has to get a "trophy shot". Regardless, the location is beautiful and we were able to sit on the cliffs and watch kangaroos come down to the river for a drink.