Perth to Kalbarri

Intended to, and actually got up early enough to go to Rottnest island but didn’t. Partly because it would’ve used all of the days budget before buying anything and secondly because it wasn’t great weather. So what does one do?

We cycled into Freemantle CC at around 8:30am and found the Cappuccino strip – well, if we can’t go to Rottnest we can at least have a coffee and banana bread. We ended up joining a bunch of (40 or 50) bikers (serious bikers, not shorts and t-shirt wearing foreign tourists like us) for morning coffee.

Before we knew it we had joined a group of 5 or so old(ish) men for their recovery ride back to Perth – a mere 20kms. Recovery ride it was not! It took a dip at Cottesloe beach and a monster BBQ back at camp before I’d recovered. Seriously though, the ride was great – the lads really did their best to show us Perth / Freo in a good light and it worked. (Where will we come back to in Oz????) The Swan river is nearly as impressive as Sydney harbour – nearly. The bike lads were just another example of the great people we’ve met on the trip so far.

Finished the day with a pint of Pale Ale in the Little Creatures brewery in Freo.

Woke, breakfasted then cleaned the stove cos it needed it! Yep, exciting day ahead. Drovve 2kms to ‘Dog Beach’ and got in … for about 20 seconds before we noticed a nasty smell! A shit-pipe perhaps?? Well, we didn’t stay around to investigate but instead headed back to the beach near the campsite. We got in and were promptly hit by some massive Indian Ocean waves. Drove around the houses (actually around Lancelin to the Nambung NP) to the Pinnacles.

The Pinnacles are fantastic (especially since the sun decided to shine at the time). Whoever said they weren’t worth the detour was either mad or hadn’t been there. Out of nowhere, vast boulders of limestone jut out from the sandy desert floor. V impressed.

Moved on to Jurian Bay and a campsite next to three pissed up lads – great! Up early I think tomorrow.

Today is the first day of a 2 day walk (trek, hike, whatever) down Murchison River Gorge – about 13km outside of Kalbarri. Its also the first time on the trip that we’ll sleep without our trusty matress. We packed up and headed to the gorge via the supermarket and the local CALM office to get some advice and a map (Oh yeah, and the local camping store to pick up some fly nets – thanks to a tip from two 5yr old girls we camped next to.)

So the plan was: all drive to Z-bend (the end) where we leave Sarah’s car, then pile in Max and drive to Hawks Head (the start) and start. All valuables (wallets, mobile phones, car keys etc) are stored in Max’s glove box. Off we go…

Problem 1, how the feck do we get down! Not really a good sign when you set off for a 2 day hike and don’t make it past the car park in the first hour! Eventually we made it down thanks to some advice from an old timer. Flies, flies, flies – resale value of those fly nets now $20 each! Fantastic scenery, very hot day, bounding along, all happy. Might just make it to Little Z (about two-thirds of the trip) by evening. Not so, but found a good camp spot – fire, food, bed (8:00pm).

Suprisingly, we all slept pretty well considering. We were up and walking by 7am - keen to find Little Z and hence have some idea where we were and how much further we had to go! I think we’d all admit that when we didn’t find it by 8am – a element of doubt started to enter our heads. Finally, 8:30 and we were walking to what we were almost sure was Little Z. Panic over (for now) so we had a bit of brekky to celebrate.

The route started to get a bit harder after Little Z – more up and down on the rocks and even a small bit of climbing! Our next marker was a tributary that joined the gorge maybe an hour or so’s walk further down. 2 hours went by and we still hadn’t passed it – whats more we were down to our last 2 litres of water! (bearing in mind that the river water wasn’t drinkable, this was a bit of a problem) A little bit of anxiety definitely set in for all of us as we started to ration water. Whats more, we were walking along when Sarah shouted “Oh Shit!” We all stopped and that’s when she told us she had left the keys of her car in Max way back at Hawks Head!!!! So we were effectively walking to the car but away from the keys! Oh well, we’d just have to get a lift.

Another two hours and still no tributary… instead, Z-bend itself. The joy we felt when we actually saw somebody swimming in the river! We had made it (save the climb out of the gorge.) It was doubly ironic that the first person we saw in the gorge turned out to be the same person that gave us a lift back to Hawks Head. Big up to Lou and George, the French-born Aussies from Perth.