Sat 20th September – Day 133: Monkey Mia – Kalbarri (397km)

This morning it was Pete’s turn to get picked to feed one of the dolphins, and it was onto our Aboriginal Tour with Wula Guda Nyinda. Our guide and owner Darren ‘Capes’ Capewell is a descendant of the traditional owners of Shark Bay, the Nhanda & Malgana people. His aboriginal cultural walk explains how the locals have survived in Gathaagudu (Aboriginal name for Shark Bay, meaning ‘two waters’) for thousands of years.
He says 2 powerful spirits are at force in this area, 1 coming from the sea, the other the dessert. The white sand country near the coast plays host to all those creatures and plants from the sea, while the red sand country hosts the dessert tucker. He showed us some of the secrets of bush survival including how to find water using the lay of the land as a guide (where the red sand hills meet the white sand there is normally an underground water table close to the surface in some areas – large shells were often left over places of water to enable one to dig down and scoop out a drink – you then refilled the hole and placed the shell back on top for the next person. We sampled bush tucker like roasted and raw sandlewood nuts and bush medicine like the soap bush, the healing powers of sandlewood (incense) and identified the tracts of native wildlife like Euro, Echidnas, lizards and the calls of native birds.
It was a very informative 1 ½ hours and we finished our stay at Monkey Mia with his motto ringing in our ears “EUR = Education, Understanding, Respect”.
A quick curry in the dreampot, pack up and we are on our way with a quick stop in Denham to say ‘been there, done that’. I was quite surprised by how far the tide goes out and the beauty of the shallow water surrounding this pretty seaside town – quite spectacular.
Down the peninsula to ‘Shell Beach’ where the high salt concentrations in the waters off the beach have resulted in a proliferation of the bivalve Cardiid Cockle and led to the accumulation of millions of these tiny shells along the shore, some areas are over 10m deep in shells.
Then it is through the feral barrier fence across the narrowest point of the Peron Peninsula which has enabled the eradication of fox & sheep and helps reduce the impact of rabbit, feral cats and goats on the conservation reserve.
Back onto the North West Coastal Highway before taking the detour towards Kalbarri. Our main purpose for coming to Kalbarri was a tip from fellow travellers who stayed at a great place called ‘Red Bluff’. Unfortunately we forgot to ask which Red Bluff (the one on Quobba Station, or the one at Kalbarri). So arriving just before dark we sort our the Red Bluff Caravan Park overlooking Red Bluff Beach & Point. To our dismay the place has closed down (it was obviously the brilliant place we stayed on at Quobba Station) and so we forlornly drove back into Kalbarri to pester other parks. The first one (a top tourist park) was closed and they sent us down the road to a Family Park chain.
The weather has become increasingly colder as we move south, the wind is relentless playing havoc with our fuel consumption and whipping the sea into a frenzy. After set-up we pull out the trusty heater, don the trackies and ugh boots and blend right into the trailer trash scene! A video from the local store completes our night inside.
Kalbarri Tudor Caravan Park ($41/night)