Geraldton to Kalbarri

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Well as we left Melbourne on June 27th and it is now July 27th I feel I should reflect a little.

So we have learned quite a lot - notably that camping for just one night and moving on is a lot of effort and you have no time to look around. Also camping in the wind, rain and cold is a little bit rubbish.

We have also learned that before long the slightest thing can be annoying and time alone is important to everyone.

So I will give you the accurate stats later but we have travelled over 6600km and spent about $980 on diesel. A number of those km were long drives to get replacement camping equipment and the 124km round trip for waterproofing spray(which has worked by the way).

So we spent the night in a motel in Geraldton which is a non descript place but we had been warned it was the last significant retail town till Broome. I won't bore you with the details of our shopping but Brian has a quest to visit as many branches of Bunnings as possible so while there I stocked up on mosquito coils. We also refilled the firewood box and the gas bottle.

So we set off for Kalbarri via Port Gregory where we had a picnic lunch and coffee (the 12V car kettle is proving to be a great purchase). Along the way we saw lots of what are known as Paddy Melons. These are a wild plant, unfortunately toxic to humans and livestock. They were used by indigenous people as a medicinal plant, an emetic to be precise.

We drove on and arrived at Kalbarri in warm sunshine and 23 degrees C. The beach area is lovely and there is a natural harbour with a large reef all along the coast. Kalbarri is small and pretty with a few resorts and a couple of pubs. We had dinner in a pub which will be our last meal out for a while as we will be camping for the next 6 days up through to near Monkey Mia and then near Ningaloo and Karrijini National Park.

I am unlikely to have signal for much of the next week so I will tell you all about the Dolphins, Coral Bay and the beautiful gorges when I can next blog.

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