Day 7 Kalbarri to Monkey Mia

Day 7 Kalbarri to Monkey Mia

We set off on what was a very eventful day at around 8am – first along a dirt road through Kalbarri National Park to Nature’s Window to admire the rock formations around the Murchison River Gorge. A tiny Thorny Devil lizard basked in the sun – an emu walked along through the scrub – and a monitor lizard ran quickly past….all just normal sights in the Western Australian bush.

A couple of hours’ drive overtaking road trains of two, three, four containers brought us to Billabong Roadhouse where we purchased a picnic lunch to eat at Hamelin Pool.  Hamelin Pool s where the world’s most spectacular display of stromatolites is found – cyanobacterial formations – descendents of the earth’s primordial soup that created the atmosphere - and the foundation of all life.  Rob had wanted to see them since he was a child…and it was the main reason that Western Australia was included in our itinerary.  They were very interesting – especially once we all understood exactly what they were – and we left saying that really all we needed to see now was a kangaroo and our visit would be complete….   We also saw another large emu – accompanied by three chicks.  We watched them all for a while and then carried on, driving to Seashell Beach, Eagle Bluff, Denham and finally Monkey Mia….stopping at each to marvel at a quarry for rocks made of seashells, sharks and rays swimming in the clear, shallow seas and looking for wedge-tailed eagles and dugongs….We’ll have to save those sights for tomorrow, though, as they clearly thought we had seen enough for today!

Not even ½ mile down the road we saw a Euro – a type of kangaroo with longer ears and a thicker tail than more familiar breeds…. He was sitting under a tree but then showed off his jump, moving just far enough away so that we will have to play ‘Where’s Wallaby’ in the photos.
The scenery was spectacular - and yet another case study for my geographers - 'Willie Willies' rose over the horizon in the heat, areas that had been burnt out by bush fires showed the amazing ability of nature to rejuvenate - and fire breaks and drainage ditches showed man's attempts to manage this extreme environment.

Our room at the Monkey Resort overlooks the turquoise water of Shark Bay – and dinner was on the veranda  - absolutely delicious – very fresh and an interesting mix of seafood, Asian and European flavours…… A bit of stargazing – we want to find the Southern Cross – and off to bed after an amazing day.