Since purchasing our new car we have been looking for an opportunity to
stretch her legs with a long road trip. But how to choose? So many unique WA
holiday destinations, so little time! This time Exmouth via Kalbarri and Shark
Bay won. Red sand, yellow sand, sandstone, cliffs, gorges, beaches, kangaroos,
echidnas, emus, eagles, coral, fishes, whale sharks, and loads of wild flowers! Just a handful of the amazing things we saw on a fabulous trip up north to
Exmouth and back.
Views from the road between Kalbarri and Port Gregory
Situated at the mouth of the Murchison River, Kalbarri is about a six
hour drive from Perth. Although Kalbarri was only established as a town in
1951, the area has a rich Aboriginal and European history with Dutch ship
wrecks and sailor maroonings dating to the 1600s. The main attractions of the
area are the Kalbarri National Park, a stunning rugged coastline, the Murchison
River with gorgeous river gorges, an incredible wildflower season, beautiful
white sand beaches with protected swimming, humpback whale season, and many
great fishing spots. We planned to do a lot of walking and exploring of all the
National Park has to offer.
We arrived in Kalbarri on a very rainy Saturday afternoon. The rain was
forecast to continue into Sunday so there was no rush to get started, the sleep-in
was much appreciated after a long travel day! Exploring started 70 km back out
of town at Hutt Lagoon, the pink lake in Port Gregory. The pink hue of this
salt water lake is due to a carotenoid producing algae. The world’s largest
microalgae production plant is situated at the lagoon and the harvested β‑carotene
is used as a food colouring agent and source of Vitamin A. the lagoon also
provides a commercial supply of Artemia
brine shrimp.
The pink Hutt Lagoon
An intersting squash or fruit that grows on the side of the road in many places.
From the lake we drove back towards Kalbarri stopping at all the
viewpoints on the coastal side of Kalbarri National Parl. We loved this wild
and rugged coastline with scrubby coastal plants so reminisce of the Eastern
Cape in South Africa. Favourite viewpoints and short walks include the Natural
Bridge, Island Rock, Eagle Gorge and Red Bluff. At Eagle Gorge we enjoyed a
walk down the red layered rock to a secluded beach followed by some relaxing in
the sun and pelican gazing on Kalbarri Beach at sunset.
Island Rock
Eagle Gorge
Exploring Eagle Gorge
The beach at Blue Holes Fish Habitat Protection Area near Red Bluff
Sunset at Kalbarri Beach
The next morning was bright and clear and we got going early for a day
of hiking in the national park. There were a few longer routes we were hoping
to do but unfortunately the unsealed road into the main part of the park was
closed due to the heavy rains of the days before. This was very disappointing
since this was the only day we had to do these hikes. However, we could still
access other parts of the park so we explored the Hawks Head and Ross Graham
lookouts with beautiful views over the Murchison River and kangaroos peacefully
grazing on the river banks. In the afternoon we returned to the coastal part of
the national park for a long walk along the scrubby cliff tops. It was quite
special and amazing to be the only two people on this open walking trail. We
enjoyed the beautiful views, the gorgeous wildflowers, and the sounds of the
birds.
Hawks Head Lookout
Getting up close to the Murchison River at the Ross Graham Lookout
More views from our coastal cliff top walk
What the scrubby coastal cliffs look like
A Euro kangaroo!
One of the first of the holiday
Blue Holes Fish Habitat Protection Area
The next morning we squeezed in the wild pelican feeding before
travelling to Denham in Shark Bay, about 4 hours drive away. The road into the
park was on the way and since it was finally open we popped in to see the Nature’s
Window and Z-Bend lookouts with views over the Murchison River. This is
definitely the best part of the park and we were again disappointed that we had
missed out on exploring more of it but were thankful that we could at least see
the main sights. Maybe in the future we will be back for more exploring and
hiking!
Pelican feeding!
We really enjoyed seeing and watching lots of these big birds in Kalbarri
Nature's Window in Kalbarri National Park
The Murchison River at Nature's Window
Z-Bend
Z-Bend and the Murchison River
Shark Bay is a 2.2 million hectare UNESCO World Heritage Site and is
actually two bays formed by peninsulas lying side by side. Shark Bay satisfies
all four of the natural criteria for a world heritage area – natural beauty,
earth’s evolutionary history, ongoing ecological processes and biological
diversity – and is important for the habitats where threatened animal species
not only survive but thrive. Denham is located on the Peron Peninsula in Shark
Bay and is a convenient location for visiting Monkey Mia and exploring the
Shark Bay World Heritage Drive. Dirk Hartog was the first European sailor to
discover Shark in Bay in October 1616. Denham is preparing a festival in
October to celebrate the 400 year anniversary since the landing. We looked
forward to discovering this interesting area over the coming days.
Our first day in Denham started with an early wake up call to visit the
Monkey Mia Reserve. There are no monkeys at Monkey Mia, it is instead famous
for the opportunity to see and interact with wild bottlenose dolphins. In the
1960s fishermen began sharing their catch with the local wild dolphins. Over
the years this phenomenon attracted more visitors and has grown into an
experience where wild dolphins come into the shallow beach area of the reserve
of their own free will to be hand fed a few fishes by humans. The feeding of
the dolphins is regulated so that the animals don’t lose their natural
behaviour (including nursing their young and hunting for themselves) or become
dependent on humans. Only 5 female dolphins from 3 dolphin families take part
in the program; they clearly enjoy receiving fishes but also know when the
experience is over as they swim away and don’t return until the next morning.
Bron was fortunate to be chosen to feed a fish to the dolphin Surprise, she was
so beautiful and very gentle. We really enjoyed the opportunity to be so close
to these special animals and learn more about them.
Wild bottlenose dolphins at Monkey Mia!
Dolphins can't bend their necks back to look up so the turn sideways instead.
Nadine and a dolphin sharing a moment
We met Luca and Nadine at our accomodation in Exmouth and discovered we were at Monkey Mia on the same day a few days earlier and that we had pics of them there!
Bron feeding a fish to Surprise!
The dolphins are not the only attraction in Monkey Mia, the bay itself
is a beautiful turquoise and so tranquil and the white sand beaches contrast
starkly with the red sand dunes. After the dolphin experience we enjoyed a walk
trail through the surrounding red sand dunes followed by a long walk on the beach
to the end of the bay. We were blessed with a beautiful mild sunny day. The
reserve is also a good place to see dugongs in the seagrass beds. We really
wanted to snorkel here but the water was so cold!
Red and white sand dunes at Monkey Mia
On the way back to Denham we stopped at the Peron Homestead, an old
cattle station, and Little Lagoon. We would have liked to gone further past the
homestead and explore the Francois Peron National Park but it is suitable for 4wd
vehicles only. On the sand road to the homestead we saw our first echidna of
the holiday! It was really great to see one walking, they can move quite fast
when they want to. We stopped to look at him, or her, but he had curled up into
a ball under the nearest bush. It was still cool to finally see one and so
close up.
Windmill at the Peron Homestead
Beautiful coastline near Little Lagoon
Sunset at Denham Beach
We were hoping for two beautiful days in Denham but the second day was
very cloudy and blustery with occasional rain. But we didn’t let that stop us
exploring some of the World Heritage Drive. Places to see include Monkey Mia,
the Peron Homestead and Little Lagoon which we had seen the day before. Other places
of interest on the drive are the stromatolites at Hamelin Pool, Eagle Bluff,
Nanga and Shell Beach.
The first stop of the day was Eagle Bluff on the cliffs overlooking the
Henri Freycinet Harbour. Although we didn’t see any, it is possible to see
rays, turtles, sharks and sometimes dugongs passing by in the shallow waters
below. Ospreys nest in the cliffs and two small islands nearby are important
bird colonies. A bit further down the road we scrambled down to the beach for a
walk along the shore amongst the seaweed.
On the way into town on the day we arrived, we stopped at Hamelin Pool
to see the stromatolites. Stromatolites are layered rock-like structures built
by cyanobacteria. These single-celled blue-green algae survive and flourish
here because the water is twice as salty as seawater, conditions few predators
and competitors can survive. The stromatolites of Hamelin Pool are 2000 to 3000
years old and made up of more than 50 species of cyanobacteria which trap
sediments with mucous to form mats which grow into the rock-like structures. This
fragile microbial community is very slow growing, less than 1 mm per year. Stromatolites
are called living fossils and are of interest because they are similar to life
forms found on Earth billions of years ago. They are really odd looking
structures but it is worth the stop to see these rare and ancient life forms. There
is a boardwalk right into the pool so you can get really close to the
stromatolites without damaging them.
Stromatolites at Hamelin Pool
Another creature found in Shark Bay that also thrives in the salty
conditions is the Hamelin Cockle. For thousands of years the cockle has lived
trouble free in these salty waters since no predators can survive here and it
can make its own food with the help of green algae that lives with it. There can
be over 4000 cockles in one square metre of the hypersaline waters at L’haridon
Bight in the bay. That is pretty crowded! The empty shells are continuously
washed ashore at what is known as Shell Beach which stretches for 60 km along
the coast. At places the shells can be 10 m deep and 1 km wide! Over the years
the inland shell deposits have compacted and cemented together to form a rock. In
the past this rock was harvested and used as building material.
We enjoyed a lovely long walk on Shell Beach and due to the cloud and
wind we had the long stretch of beach to ourselves. The shells were very crunchy
to walk on! It was great to walk away from the trampled beach entrance to the
fresh stark white shell mounds further down the beach. Many jellyfish were in
the shallow waters and we felt sad for them since they probably wouldn’t make
back into the open waters and probably wouldn’t survive the salty conditions. We
were hoping for a swim here but it was just too cold a day unfortunately.
Shell Beach
From Shell Beach we popped into Nanga Bay but didn’t stay long. On a
better weather day it would be a great place to swim, snorkel and fish. Maybe next
time. The rest of the afternoon was spent reading, relaxing and napping in
preparation for a busy week ahead in Exmouth!
From Denham we had a long travel day, about 7 hours drive, to Exmouth.
We stopped in at Carnarvon for a quick coffee at the one mile jetty and made it
to Exmouth in good time.
More about our adventures in Exmouth next time!
