4 Stray Katz: Kalbarri

Mushroom Rock

The sunsets were incredible every night

With high hopes we approached Kalbarri and were immediately impressed by the gorgeous coastline and quaint beachside town. We had heard rave reviews of this place and were chuffed to have gained a spot at a caravan park for the Easter break and the first week of the school holidays. We looked forward to socialising and seeing the kids play with other children in the caravan park. Kalbarri could (and should) have been one of our favourite places on the trip so far as it had so much to offer. Jackson hand fed a pelican, we snorkelled and played in the reefs of the Blue Holes, we explored the magnificent gorges and cliffs in Kalbarri National Park, we found a fabulous seafood bbq restaurant, ate fresh fish most nights, we spent a day exploring the fabulous parrot park, the kids enjoyed the foreshore playgrounds and the pool at the caravan park and we went on numerous walks along, and swims in, the beaches and Murchison river.

Unfortunately several things went awry and it wasn't quite the relaxing break we had envisioned. We were unlucky with our spot at the park as all the young families seemed to be on the other side of the park, we often had overnighters nextdoor, nearly all of them older without kids. We were then very unlucky with the weather. It rained heavily overnight on Easter Monday (40mm) then continued raining/ drizzling for the next 4 days. It was still hot and extremely humid (90%) which made it very uncomfortable in the caravan when you had to have the windows shut to keep the van dry. The super humid weather also increased the fly problem. The cyclone floods and hot weather had produced the perfect breeding weather for flies so we we inundated. From 6am until the sun set we had flies covering us, in our noses, eyes, ears and all over any food we tried to eat outside. We coated ourselves in aeroguard and even resorted to wearing fly nets over our heads. These became a much coveted item in Kalbarri, one store sold 200 in a day! Anyway we tried to look on the bright side (which was hard when we had flies in our eyes), but we were ready to move on when our 12 nights at the park were up. Easter and Emilia's forth birthday were highlights. We might venture back again as it was a lovely town and surely we couldn't get such poo weather again??