Week 4 – 11th Dec – 17th Dec

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Kalbarri National Park starts a few kilometres out of the town and is a vast area of trees and stuff. Centred on the Murchison River, it also has a quite a spectacular gorge with some great features. We were keen to see it but on Monday morning, we got news that someone had died up at the gorge that very day; heat exhaustion or dehydration I think. Bugger! We also made aware of the temperature - a rather stifling 46.5 degrees c and 38 in the shade! An old boy on the campsite told us that he’d been to the gorge and that it was 51 degrees up there!! We spent most of the day in the pool and in shade! Anders and I agreed we’d go to the gorge at 5 or 6ish in the afternoon, when it would have started to cool down. It was still baking but we went for it. It was a 40km drive from town on a dirt track and definitely worth it - and definitely hot as well! We parked up and walked to the first lookout, which was 400m from the car. There wasn’t a breath of wind, no sign of any wildlife of any description (apart from the ubiquitous flies!) and all the plants were looking decidedly dry! I couldn’t help but think that even Ray Mears would be mental to try to survive here! We saw a few other lookouts then went back for a well earned beer and steak! On Tuesday, we left around lunchtime to head very definitely south again!! For starters, it was too hot to do anything, and we wouldn’t enjoy it. Secondly, there was no way that we’d be able to work in the heat (it was due to get hotter) so there was no point in continuing.

We drove all the way to Perth on our way back to the far south-west. Hoping to find hostel accommodation that night, we forgot about the small issue of The Ashes. The Barmy Army had converged on Perth and everywhere was fully booked. So we camped out of town in Fremantle. On Wednesday, we drove to Margaret River to collect our pay slips for before and passed by the garage where we’d left the spare keys for the van (schoolboy error!) and decided to stay somewhere new, so we headed for Nannup - 40km east of Margaret River. We checked into this place called the Black Cockatoo - simply amazing. The best place I’ve stayed for a long time! For $22 per night, you get to stay in the most chilled-out, eco-friendly perma-culture based hostel. The place has the most amazingly painted interior, with themed rooms and a lovely garden. After a couple of night I decided I’d pitch the tent and cut costs - $11 per night but with the same access to all the facilities. I took the mattresses out of the back of the van and now the tent’s really comfortable!! We went for a few beers in the local on Thursday night and Tom got chatting to and English couple who are travelling round Australia. Out-of-the-blue, they handed us 4 tickets to the Ashes in Melbourne - brilliant! They decided that they wouldn’t make it in time, so the passed them on to us. We found a buyer in Melbourne through a friend of ours in the hostel. Hopefully they’ll get there in time. They’re only worth $31.00 each, but that’s better than a kick in the teeth!

Friday was Tom’s birthday. One of the guys from the hostel, a 66-year-old brilliant bloke called Slim (on account of his large belly!), made pancakes for everyone, which went down a storm! All of us from the hostel went to the local winery for a very satisfying wine-tasting and lunch. The food was great, and very reasonably priced. We got amongst some great wines (the area is best known for its fruity wines). That was topped off with a few shots of ‘grappa’, illegal produced on site. And yes, it was seriously strong!! Had a nice coconut liquor as well. Then we went back to the hostel for the birthday cake, then to the pub where we proceed to get nicely pissed with the locals. They’re a great bunch of people - really friendly and more than keen to show us around. Over the weekend, we just chilled out and did as little as possible in the 38 degrees heat!

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