The following morning there
didn’t appear to be any wind so we were in two minds as to whether to leave
today as planned or stay another day. We
decided to go for a walk into town and decided when we got back. We walked along the main street all the way
to the other end where the butcher and bakery was – and of course picked up a
few things. We also found out where we
could do some school printing (bugger, thought we might have gotten out of this
one…). The wind was picking up so we
decided to pack up and move on to Kalbarri but it was close to 11am by the time
we were organised enough to leave. It
was nearly a 400km drive from point A to point B, the only time we stopped was
at the Overlander Roadhouse for fuel on the way out then at a rest stop for 20
minutes while we had our lunch. There is
a festival on in Kalbarri this weekend called the Zest Festival so when we
called the first caravan park and were told that it was booked out, we were not
surprised. We drove into another one,
Kalbarri Tudor, not far from the centre of town and fortunately it had room for
us to move in for a few days. It’s a
lovely park with decent facilities, a new pool and great playground for the
kids, free internet as well as good tv reception – our site even has a mat area
so we’re not dragging dirt and dust into the van (what more could we ask
for?). We set up our site, had a nice
warm dinner and settled in for the night which was bloody cold, down to around
10 degrees overnight.
We were a bit reluctant to get
out of bed this morning as it was still a bit chilly, but outside the van the
sun was shining and it looked like it was going to be a lovely day. After breakfast we went for a walk into town,
past the shops and headed for the foreshore where they were beginning to set up
for the festival which is due to start tomorrow. We had a quick look at the War Memorial and
then walked to the northern end of town where there were a couple of good
lookouts – all the while having a bit of fun racing each other to the end
points. We walked back to the great
parks where the kids had a play, then onto the information centre and then into
the shops to pick up a few things, of course getting pins for the kids to add
to their collections. Back at the
caravan park, the kids had found themselves a small black and white rabbit
hiding under our van so while we made lunch for ourselves we also prepared some
carrots and lettuce for “Nibbles” before the kids decided it was time for a
swim. We sat by the pool while the kids
played and raced each other up and down but the water was pretty cold so that
didn’t last long. Next we jumped into
the car and went driving north to Red Bluff (yes another one) and beyond. The cliffs are beautiful and so is the
scenery – especially the wildlife. We
saw plenty of whales frolicking in the distance, a group of dolphins playing
around in the waves and even spotted a dugong which we thought a bit strange
for this area but it definitely was one.
Back on land there were some beetles having fun (see the photo) and a
big lizard sunbaking and refusing to move from the road. It was around mid-afternoon by the time we
returned and the kids were happy to do their own thing at the playground while
we sat and enjoyed a bit of quiet. The
kids behaved and checked back in with us at each time point that we gave them
and they had made quite a few friends while playing on the jumping pillow
including Cherry (14) and brother Martin (12).
Our fellow neighbours, a group of young men that had been out on a
fishing charter today, had offered us some freshly caught filleted fish so we
jumped at the chance and that was mine and Josh’s dinner for tonight – it was
cobia and tasted delicious – if only we had some fishing ability! Dinner was over nice and early and Josh and I
settled in to watch the NRL footy finals, something we haven’t seen much of
this year which is no big deal considering where the Eels finished.
The weekend had arrived, not that
it means much to us being on a permanent weekend / holiday. However, Kalbarri’s Zest Festival was on this
weekend so we walked into town bright and early to check it out. Upon arriving we realised there was no point
hurrying. It was a very small festival
and there was very little set up yet. We
wandered the few market stalls where we purchased a freshly baked banana and
sultana cake then headed back towards the opening ceremony. As usual, there were the dignitaries whom
made long speeches and I guess the highlight was a group of horse folk that
rode into the opening ceremony and handed over a message stick each to an
Aboriginal elder. A little later we sat
to watch some kids do dance and tumble shows – the dance school had only opened
this year, so although there wasn’t a lot of skill they did try really hard and
had a ball with one of their first shows.
Once that had finished we returned to the caravan as we’d pretty much
seen it all. After a bit of relaxation
for us, and after the kids had their play time with other kids in the park, we
ate lunch and headed back to see if there was anything new of interest –
unfortunately not. We wandered back past
the shops stopping for a snack along the way back to the van. On our walk back, we also noticed quite a few
contestants from the Australasian Safari pulling into the field opposite our
caravan park – their stop-over area for the night. The rest of the afternoon was more of the
same. The kids had found a good group of
kids to play with at the van so we hardly saw them. The jumping pillow got a great work out, in
particular with Zoe and Sami and further new travelling friends Bree (11) and
Ryan (10).
Sunday was a quiet morning but we
walked into town to see if the Zest Festival was continuing. Nearly everything was packed away though, so
Josh took the kids to the park while I went for a quick walk up to the lookout
overlooking the beach and back. I headed
for the park and picked Josh and the girls up and we then walked to the far
northern end of town to see if anyone was catching fish off the jetty – no
excitement there either though. The
weather was very cool and breezy so we headed back to camp – and again the kids
disappeared to play with their friends – and again it was just a quiet day in
the van. These days haven’t happened all
that often so I was making the most of it, especially while the kids were
occupied.
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