Kalbarri

We had a great days drive from Denham to Kalbarri really only stopping for fuel after viewing the stromatolites.

We pulled into our caravan site late in the day and after setting up we really only had time for a quick shop and a sit down. We did a tour of the town ship and discovered that one of the main reasons for us visiting Kalbarrii, the Seahorse farm, was closed, and had been for about 12 months.

Late in the evening we al went for a walk along the beach, and using a bright torch Caitlyn and i spotted catfish, crabs and various other fish in the shallows.

The next day we went out to the Rainbow Jungle bird sanctuary. This turned out to be a great choice as they had a fantastic selection of birds in a great setting. In the large free flight aviary the kids got to feed the various parrots they had loose.

 

After this it was back to the van for a quick lunch as we had booked a Quad bike tour with Wagoe Quad bikes. We had heard about them through various people and booked them as soon as we had arrived and new the weather would be suitable. This was another great choice as we all loved it. I had Caitlyn on my bike and Sara and Bianca had the second bike. Our guide, the owner of the wagoe farm, took us out onto a private beach that is only accessible through two farms, his and his neighbours. We rode the bikes up and down the beach and then went into 4WD mode and tackled some big sand dunes. It was great fun and we would do it again.

Whilst we were off having fun on the Quad bikes, Mum, Dad and Corinda went out to see “Natures Window”. The commodore would not have liked the road out unfortunately. They loved it and said it was a great experience, but the track was a bit light on in some places and had a very long drop off to one side if you miss placed a foot. Caitlyn would of had me very worried if we had taken her there as she likes to run off ahead

Denham

 

Well i finally went fishing in Denham, twice, and yet again i managed to catch “zero” fish. I nearly got a squid off the pier but it slipped my jig and then spent the night swimming up and down the jetty teasing me and everyone else. my only consolation is that only two squid for the night were landed on the jetty we were on. The other jetty was “going off” with some nice sized squid being caught it seems. The second fishing outing was of the sand outside of Denham. Again, we were not the only ones on the beach and we were not the only ones to go empty handed. We had Belinda’s children with us and Shaye was fortunate to land a small flathead that had to be returned. Alexis also had fun trying her hand at fishing.

On the Sunday we spent some of the morning relaxing and catching up on washing before going for a drive out of town to shell beach and some of the lookouts along the way

Shell Beach was nice, and would be a great place in summer to come out and swim. The bay looked very inviting. The beach is comprised of millions and millions of small shells from the Cardiid Cockle which over the centuries has compacted. it is apparently many meters deep and there is a commercial mining operation here that mines the beach to create shell grit.

On the way back from Shell beach we pulled into some of the free camp locations. One, Whalebone, looked particularly inviting and had quite a few people there already. When we were leaving Denham it was packed.

 

On Monday we went out to the Blue Lagoon Pearl farm. We were taken out on a big catamaran and we had a talk given to us by Rob. The talk went through the whole process of farming Pearls as well as the many different types of Pearls they market. Some of them looks very nice. We also had the opportunity to have a look around their operation. Of course there was also a shop onsite so the girls bought some pearl shell pendants. The actual Pearls were a bit to expensive for them though  

That concluded our stay in Denham, with the only other attraction of the area that we wanted to visit, the Stromatolites, on the way out of town. We visited them on the way to Kalbarri. It was here that we also found the Shell brick quarry, where they used to mine the bricks for many of the regions older buildings.

We would like to thank Steve and Rhonda for their hospitality during our stay in Denham, we had a great time there and they also managed to organise some fantastic weather for us

I’ll leave you all with some final photos, one of which is the only “Live” Gecko Sara has found on this trip, and a sunset shot. Our next post will be of Kalbarri.