Kalbarri (Saturday 3rd May - Thursday 8th May)

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We arrived at Kalbarri on Saturday afternoon and were pleasantly surprised to see that it was quite a small town - we were expecting that it would have become a bit more commercialised. We checked into the caravan park and launched into set up mode (we are getting pretty good at it). We then headed straight for ‘Baby Jacques’ the best swimming beach in Kalbarri and enjoyed a great swim and play in the waves (the water temperature is so nice).
After out cool down we headed back to camp to meet our fellow holiday makers, Joey, Heidi and the ‘triplets’ and Robbie and Joyce. The girls were very excited about the arrival of the ‘triplets’ and couldn’t wait to see them and have some play mates.
Brendan also came up to Kalbarri for a few days and set up the swag it in the annex.

We had a great week in Kalbarri with all of the crew, some highlights were:
• Hiking into the gorge with Joey and Heidi and taking the wrong path and making the trek much more difficult than it needed to be. The gorge was beautiful and we enjoyed a cool swim in the rapidly flowing water.
• Going on a canoe safari with Joey and Heidi on Joey’s birthday. The safari consisted of a $WD bus tour down the Murchison River, from there we got into our canoes and paddled about 5kms before we again met our tour guide who had a massive cooked breakfast waiting for us. We were treated to bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, cereal, fruit etc etc. With some very full stomaches we re-entered the canoes which may have sat a little bit lower in the water and paddled another couple of kms to meet for a swim and then a couple more kms until we met up with our tour guide who drove us back to town. It was a great morning enjoyed by all. Funniest moment was when Joey steered canoe into a tree and at the same time a mullet jumping into the canoe. Definitely an easy way to catch bate. This was followed by another mullet jumping into Matt, Ki and Ella’s canoe.
• Venturing out to Findlay’s Seafood BBQ for dinner for Joey’s birthday. A very different ‘restaurant’ where you need to BYO your own drinks and glasses, toilet paper sits on the tables instead of napkins, a cook that yells out comments to customers over a microphone Etc. I think you will be getting the picture.
• Huge surf at Jacques for the boys, and a few injuries as well, Joey with many reef cuts and Matt with a major bruise on his backside. There were plenty of ‘nurses’ willing to assist with bandaid application when the patients returned. It was amazing to watch the huge surf as you can sit up close to where the action is.
• Games challenge nights with the Rawson’s. Made more exciting with cash rewards on the table thanks to Robbie. Trivial Pursuit one night followed by the traditional Rawson game Trumps which all of the Collopy’s picked up very quickly!!! (Well it may have taken Carrie a while to work it out!!)

We really enjoyed our stay at Kalbarri, which was made so much better with the company of Joey, Heidi, Ava, Sienna, Tia, Robbie, Joyce and Brendan. Thanks for joining us and helping to make our WA adventure such a good one. Watch out guys, we may be experts at ‘Trumps’ with another 2 months left on the road to practice!!!!

Matt's Eye View

Kalbarri was the next stop; we rocked in mid arvo after an easy drive from Geraldton, headed straight for the beach. Discovering the beautifully protected Jacques Point with a half foot wave rolling in and great swimming for the girls. When we returned to our camp the Rawson crew had arrived, complete with rental caravan, motor-home, Poppy and Nanny Rawson. Brendan made a fashionably late entrance in time for beer o’clock, with the assurance that the swell was gonna jack overnight. Brendan and I woke Joey early and it was clear from the noise that the swell had picked. Lovely quite Jacques from the previous arvo was a sucking 6-8ft, one local lad ran down as the sun was rising only to reach the jump off point, turn around and head back to the car for a bigger board. The view from the water was very impressive; some waves were VERY unrideable, with double and triple lips making the entry beyond the reach on anything less than a ski assist. Didn’t make the take off one the first “little” one I picked and got slapped then nailed by the set to follow...note to self...don’t miss the take off on a small one before a 6 foot set...it hurts...as evidenced by the missing skin and bruising to my back and butt! Joey had “an event” at the jump off point which also caused him to loose a fair amount of skin. Once the swell settled a bit Jacques was very fun, awesome wave with a couple of bowl sections. Apart from Jacques we had fun canoeing down the Murchison River with the girls plus Joey and Heidi, walked into the Murchison River Gorge, maybe we should have worn more suitable footwear than Haviana’s...but we lived to tell the tale. The boys braved the crazy bar crossing in the Tintanic only to miss out on any of the big fish action which the local crew had been calling, couple of average reef fish from Joey, and a few Mullet from Matt was as good as it got.

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Comments

[Matty B]

Sweet Pics!