The Coral Coast
Western Australia, 2012-02-10 11:17 by Martin


Day 4:
We drove all the way to Exmouth and entered Cape Range national Park. Along the way we spotted many Emus, which we carefully drove past, so not to have one run in front of the car, as they often do. We set up camp, had a swim and took a sunset walk on the beach were we spotted some beach kangaroos, before we exhaustedly collapsed in our little sauna of a tent.


Day 5:
We enjoyed the beautiful coast and swam in the warm, turquoise waters. Spotted many more kangaroos but were so hot, that we had to sit in the car with the aircon on for one hour during midday. The lack of shade in this area is incredible… A ranger came by in the afternoon to inform us, that a cyclone was approaching and that it would hit the coast in a few days; the national park would be evacuated later and remaining tourists would have to hole up in the town hall for the duration of the cyclone! Also, the only road south and away from the area in which the cyclone would hit was ravaged by bushfires and had been closed for five days, but was now “probably” open again…hmm, what to choose, wind and water or fire and smoke?


Day 6:
We chose to drive south along the South Coast highway, and simply hoped that the road had opened up. We stopped in Coral Bay, which is a gorgeous bay, backed by an unispirering town, filled with families with children in tow and college students celebrating Australia Day. We endured the heat long enough to take a dip in the crystal clear waters and then headed south towards Kalbarri. Luckily the road was open, and we breezed through, and thus we had managed to escape both the cyclone and a bushfire in one day! Two days later, we were told that the road had closed again, because the fires had flared up, trapping the few tourists that hadn’t already gone south between a rock and a hard place…or in this case a cyclone and bushfire. Late afternoon we reached Kalbarri and set up our tent; we went into town to celebrate Australia Day and witnessed a somewhat small scale fireworks display – but the happy “crowds” and cozy atmosphere made it an enjoyable evening anyway, even though we lacked the appropriate Australia Day paraphernalia. You can get every piece of clothing imaginable imprinted with the Australian flag, along with camping gear, beach balls, towels and all sorts of other stuff…The Aussies are a proud people and they do love their flag.


Day 7:
We explored Kalbarri national park in the morning, driving on the corrugated roads through beautiful scenery. We walked out to Natures Window, less than 30 minutes from the carpark – but even though it was pretty early, the heat was already oppressing. Again the scenery was amazing; harsh and dry, but soring vistas and a deep blue sky.


Every morning local volunteers organize feeding of the local pelicans near the main beach in town. The old woman who was hosting the feeding was really entertaining and knowledgeable and the pelicans quite cute. While maybe geared a bit towards the younger segment, it was a great little show. All the kids got to feed the birds but Lærke must have looked very eager, ‘cos she was the only adult to also be chosen to feed them. As we got closer to midday the temperature soared to nearly 45 degrees Celsius, which forced us to use the rest of the day lazing by the pool – what a hard life!


Day 8:
We left Kalbarri, but more bushfires further south meant a 100 km detour; fun fun… On the way, we saw a very pretty pink lake south of Kalbarri, which was actually very pink! Another chance encounter was a dried up salt lake, which was also pretty cool. In the afternoon, we landed at the Pinnacles, which is a crazy out-of-this-world place with bright yellow sand and limestone formations jotting precariously out of the otherwise level ground. All in all The Pinnacles really delivered, not only did they look fantastic in the late afternoon golden light, but seeing the pinnacles silhouetted against the fiery sunset, was a perfect ending to another great day.


Day 9:
We drove on to Yanchep national park, where we saw some very sleepy koalas. We had a nice lunch in the park with grazing kangaroos and green parrots flying around us. We kept on driving south in the afternoon, while enjoying the slow decline in temperature as we got closer to Perth. We stayed overnight in a small national park (Yalgorup) south of Perth – we got really lucky and saw a Quenda in the evening, as it came to inspect our camp. We even had to wear pants and a sweater at night – what a change!