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Saturday morning (21st) came and Graham was up with the lark to take PIE to the garage. The chap had said 8:00am and both he and Graham were spot on time. Graham left the car and walked the one kilometer back to the caravan. We spent the morning idling, tidying and fretting and when we had a worrying call from the garage we fretted even more. Garage man was concerned about the state of the handbrake cables and couldn’t understand what could have made them as they were. Graham thought it best to talk with him directly so he cycled up to the garage (which he said was hard work against a severe wind) and discussed in detail how the weakness with the handbrake had progressed starting with the service at the Nissan garage in Perth. In the meantime garage man (Glenn) had actually worked out how to correct the problem and Graham’s recollection of the problems we had had at Nissan Cannington confirmed what Glenn had deduced. Ironically, he had done his apprenticeship at Nissan Cannington so knew his way around Nissans. He got Graham to clean the packed red mud out of the rear wheels with a hose which,
if left, would have severely affected wheel balance.
Graham had no money with him so Glenn said to go and get some and it would all be ready by the time he returned. He cycled back to the caravan in no time as he had the wind behind him! We both walked back to the garage and collected the car. Glenn said “it was all Mickey Mouse now mate” which confused us as we didn’t know whether that was good, bad or indifferent. But, while chatting as he prepared our receipt, he confirmed that it should be good until new rear brake pads were required and he estimated that would be in a few thousand kilometers. We were thrilled to get PIE back in full working order and set off for a short ride along the coastal scenic drive which boasted numerous lookouts.
We decided to drive to the furthest lookout first, a distance of about 12 kilometers, and called in at a location known as The Natural Bridge - how lucky were we? Just below us was a pod of about 30 to 40 dolphins “mooching” about in the waves. They were fairly tightly packed and seemed
to be just idling and would then all dive and re-surface together. They began to move along the coast towards Kalbarri so we walked to the next lookout which was ‘Island Rock’ and watched them again. We realized that their intention was to continue drifting lazily along the coast and so we rushed back to the car and drove to the next lookout, Shellhouse Grandstand, and within a few minutes there they were again. At this point the waves were more active and we even saw them “surfing” on some of the most aggressive waves. It was all absolutely fascinating and more than made up for the many times we had missed the dolphins when we were south of Perth. On we went to more viewing points and still they followed and at one of them the “surfing” took place again. Eventually we lost sight of them but the experience made our day. We celebrated by watching another lovely sunset and then with a fish and chip supper.
On Sunday we had a very casual start to the day but we both had the same idea which was to repeat Saturday’s trip in the hope of repeating the dolphin
experience. Not surprisingly, whilst we enjoyed the beauty of the lookouts and spent some time at one having a cuppa, we didn’t see the dolphins again. We motored back to another of our favourite spots – Jakes Point - overlooking a splendid surfing beach. As it was a weekend, the surf was full of enthusiastic surfers and, because the waves were so good (a high swell coupled with a strong breeze), some of the performances, to us, seemed brilliant. The guys entertaining us were clearly very experienced and expert surfers. We spent a lot of time there and realized it would be an excellent place from which to watch the sunset. So that’s what we did - after a fairly lazy afternoon we returned to Jakes Point where a huge number of surfers were still doing their stuff. The sunset wasn’t brilliant but the location and the entertainment was.
Monday was altogether a better day - it was calm and sunny just like the day we had arrived. We decided to have another go in the National Park but avoiding the gravel road that had caused us so much trouble on Friday. A neighbour had recommended two more viewing
points which were accessible on a sealed road a few more kilometers beyond the dreaded gravel road. The few more kilometers turned out to be about twenty, making the trip about 36 each way but, to be fair, it was well worth the effort. On the way, though, we called in at Meannara Hill just a short distance out of town. After a climb of about two kilometers we reached a lovely viewing point looking back over Kalbarri to the ocean beyond. Soon we were back on the road and entering the National Park for the second time. Our parks pass came in to play so, again, it saved us a daily pass fee of $11. The first lookout we reached was Hawks Head which gave a magnificent view as far as the eye could see across the meandering Murchison River showing the deep gorges through which it flowed. The other viewing point was called Ross Graham and, whilst still giving a wonderful view of the gorges, it was much nearer river level. Feral goats and pigs inhabit the gorge. We saw some goats from the viewing platform and then started on a difficult climb down which, had we persevered,
would have taken us down to the waters edge. We reached a particularly difficult part of the descent and erred on the safe side, making our way back up to the viewing platform.
It had been a worthwhile excursion and, back in Kalbarri, we decided we should make some use of the bikes and fully explore the coastal cycle path that Kalbarri had to offer. First we cycled along the river bank, upstream, and went as far as the cycle path went. It finished at a point where some development was taking place – it looked like a new marina was being constructed. Then we cycled back into town and off in the direction of the coastal drive. The cycle path was very well constructed and, although a little undulating, was easy to follow even with our old bikes and even older legs! We must have cycled a fair distance as we reached Jakes Point – our sunset venue of yesterday. There were just a few surfers today but the waves were still excellent for surfing. Back at the caravan we idled away the rest of the daylight before visiting rival chippie where we bought some grilled shark and
chips. It was slightly more expensive than the previous chippie but with much more generous portions so we felt quite pleased with ourselves as we began to make preparations for an early start in the morning. Before we had settled, though, the phone “beeped” with a message asking us to turn Skype on. It was from my brother Rod and his wife Tania who are fairly recent converts to Skype and they had been trying to contact us. Whenever we had checked Skype they had not been online and vica-versa, possibly because of the time differences. This time, though, we were able to talk and as Rod and Tania have a webcam as well we could see each other which does make the contact extra nice. We had a lovely chat which lasted for the best part of an hour. With that we retired to bed still unsure as to where we would be travelling to in the morning!
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Peppa Sheridan
non-member comment
Great blog!
Hey Graham and Janet - I just thought I'd send you a little note to say Hi and to let you know how much I enjoy reading your blog! Pleased to read you are still having an amazing trip around Australia. How much longer are you away for? And where are you off to next, or is the trip planned day-to-day? Your adventures would make a great book one day! :-) Take care and I look forward to reading the next installment, Peppa :-)