Well two weeks have past on spring clean 15 and I feel two weeks better than the last photo.  I have exercised more in the past two weeks than any other time in the past 18 months and that alone has made me feel great.  I cycled 40kms on Friday, spent Sat, Sun and Mon working up at the farm, and Cliff and I cycled 16kms to Canning Bridge and back after work last night getting home just on darkness.  Tonight we will be leaving dead on 5pm so we can repeat last nights cycle.

Hawkes Gorge - Ross Graham Trail

Kalbarri’s terrible weather and closed roads continued through to the morning we left.  On the road heading north out of town there was one tarmac road which was open that went to Hawke’s Gorge and Ross Graham River Trail so we decided to stop and see an “actual gorge”!

As our first Gorge of the trip Hawke’s was quite pretty and the sun shone through the cloud for 30 seconds allowing us to take a photo.  The river at Ross Graham’s trail (named in honour of the first headmast of the Kalbarri school who died at the age of 30) was also very pretty and the track was
only a bit muddy down to where it was lined with rocks.  We took a few photos before heading of on the 660km day trip through Carnarvon to Coral Bay.

Carnarvon cow

Having done the trip along this highway to Coral Bay through Carnarvon we knew that the road was littered with goats, sheep and cows on the loose that we had to keep a look out for.  Road kill is everywhere from Kangaroos (which come out on dusk and feed on the new grass at the edge of the road), to livestock and then Feral goats (which are by far the cutest… though they tend to also be the most elusive to photograph!).

We pulled in at Carnarvon just after 3pm and stopped for fuel and a greasy roadhouse lunch.  After phoning B to see how she was coping with running the office without us (as we only had a mobile signal within 5km radius of big towns) we headed off for the 250km trip to Coral Bay which we hoped to

Cute Calf on edge of road

reach before the last check in time of 7pm.

Roadkill kangaroos were everywhere along the road after leaving Carnarvon - literally every 50 metres on both sides of the road.  The carcasses where lined with crows and wedge tailed eagles soared overhead in many places.  Coming across a very fresh kangaroo in the middle of the road we saw a wedge tail actually sitting in the road.  Cliff took photos while I slowed down.  He got some great shots of it taking off.

As we finally turned off to the Coral Bay Road which is 90kms long headed towards the coast darkness was just starting to fall.  The signage warned that

Is this my best side?

there were cattle on the road and every couple of kms we had to slow down to pass them on the edge of the road or even on the road.  We stopped to take a photo at the Tropic of Capricorn which is about 20kms shy of Coral Bay.

We arrived at Coral Bay at 6.30pm extremely tired from our 8 hours on the
road.  Tomorrow morning we head to Millstream!

Crossing the Tropic of Capricorn

Beautiful Wedgetail

Angry Kalbarri Ocean

Sunday morning’s weather continued in the same vein as the previous day but instead of sunny periods followed by rain, the rain was constant and the wind relentless.  In a 5 minute rain break I walked the 200mtrs to the cafe and bought take away coffee to drink with our bacon and egg sandwich for breakfast.

We drove 1km South of Kalbarri town site to “Rainbow Jungle” which is the most amazing parrot santuary.  It was established 23 years ago and is designed around various ponds, fountains and jungle like plants including huge golden canes.

Purple Crowned Lorikeets

There were 3 main sections of caged parrots, each with individual large flight cages containing just one type of parrot.  Each section had a theme that was centred with a water feature.  Our favourite was the balinese pond which was bordered on two sides with palms with a fountain at the end and beautiful purple water lillies.  The pond contained goldfish and large koi.

But by far the most impressive was a huge walk through avairy with 100 parrots ranging from larger groups of small of Purple Crowed Lorikeets, pink and green Princess Parrots, red and green King Parrots, and noisy Hooden Parrots. Some of the parrots were very friendly and they flew so close to us their wings

Bali Pond

brushed us.  The little Purple Crowned Lorikeets flocked in the dozens and fought noisily over a bowl of sugary necture that was secured to a fence.

Luckily there were many covered areas amongst the displays and we mostly were able to keep out of the rain (which didn’t seem to bother the parrots none).

We then headed south of town to The Loop turn off where we intended on seeing the gorges and The Loop (and the eye of the needle rock formation) however, because of the extent of the rain all gravel roads in the town were closed and barricaded.  We were fairly disappointed at this because, although we hoped they would re-open, instead the rain picked up as the day rolled on and by 5pm it was completely

Walk thru avairy

dark, blowing a gale and so much rain that the undercovered balcony outside our unit turned into a fish pond.

On watching the news and going to the bom website we decided to upgrade our tent site at Coral Bay (where we are headed in the morning) to an tiny villa.  We

Where is Wally?

were grateful that they had one left and as we had pre-paid for the camp site it was an easy process.  Considering it is 700km trip we plan to leave early in the day because if the wind and rain continues as it has been today it will be slow going with the camp trailer.

On reaching Coral Bay we will see where the weather front is progressing and will plan our next leg dependent on the rain’s course.  If the rain is heading

Crocodile?

inland we will continue North and hopefully wait out the rain before heading down through Murchison and Karrijini.  That’s the best thing about a ‘camping trip’ with no particular destination… we can make it up as we go along!