Day 61: Kalbarri Rest day 1

September 17, 2022

We had booked separate tours this morning - Dad was going on an early crayfishing tour and Mum and I on a later whale watching tour, on the same boat. I went for a walk along the river. It and the coffee at the cafe were so delightful that I was nearly late for our 9am whale watching boat.

We had to navigate the channel out into the surf. It was easy today.

It can be treacherous - this boat beached itself during the week, they’re apparently trying to shift it tomorrow

Just out of the river we saw a pod of dolphins

Then we cruised around for a while. It was quite enjoyable. Mum doubted we were going to see whales. But then we did see two adult females and a calf coming up for air. Then we saw a lot of splashing further up the coast and as we were motoring up there I saw a whale breach. It was a group of three males and they were very active.

After a very enjoyable half hour or more cruising round in circles watching the whales we came back into river.

Dad had also had a good time on his crayfishing expedition and now there’s a giant lobster in the freezer that he will have to deal with tomorrow.

We headed out to the national park gorges that I didn’t get into yesterday. First we went to the Z bend lookout.

The gorge here was much narrower and it twists several times, hence the z bend

It was much less windy at the national park and it was hot. I had wanted to do a 9k walk but it was a bit hot and late in the day for that.

We went to the skywalk which is a feat of engineering

Then we went to nature’s window. It’s a big instagramming spot but it was quiet in the afternoon.

Dad was looking - unsuccessfully - for mallee fowl

Back in town, I found Phoebe and Tessa at the pub, watching Collingwood lose by an agonising point in the semi final. This was pre-arranged, they are staying at the campground just out of town and had done the 9k loop walk in the morning. After the footy ended, we went to the brewery pub in the back streets of Kalbarri and sampled their beers which were very nice. They’re going to speed up after this to be in Perth in three nights I think so I’m not sure I’ll see them again, except maybe on the road monday, so it was nice to have beer with them. It is quite incredible that they are, of all the people I’ve met, probably the ones I have the most in common with and are the ones I’ve bumped into the most!

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