Day 81: Coastal Lookouts and Walking Trails

 Another cool day is ahead of us with the Max temp forecast to be 18 C, but is is closer to 16 C. A cool SE wind is keeping the temperature down. Nevertheless, it is not raining and none is forecast, so our plan is to cover the Southern coastal  cliffs lookouts and walking trails we have not yet seen. 


We covered from Kalbarri to Mushroom rock when we first arrived in Kalbarri, and now drive South to Natural Bridge and work our way North to Rainbow Valley, completing Coastal Cliffs viewings. The distance from Kalbarri to Natural Bridge is 16 km.

Natural Bridge turned out to be a very popular spot with large carpark, shelter and toilets. It is also the start of the Bigurda Trail, an 8 km trail one way from Natural Bridge to Eagle Gorge. We saw quite a couple of groups of walkers tackling the challenge.


Natural Bridge and Castle Cove are best accessed from this car park, although you continue on along a board walk to Island Rock, but we will drive around to that car park after this visit.


Natural Bridge Lookout




Natural Bridge


Castle Cove

A few new wildflowers were spotted along this trail to the lookout.


Murchison Rose

We drive North to the next lookout, Island Rock which is also connected to Natural Bridge by a boardwalk as part of the Bigurda Trail.


The Boardwalk


Island Rock


Carole getting a photo of the rock from the board walk


Shellhouse Grandstand is the unlikely name of the next lookout, nevertheless, we dutifully turn up to have a look. We can see some semblance of a Grandstand in the layering of the rock platform. The relevance of the Shellhouse evades us.



 The only Gorge on this stretch of Coast we are covering today is Eagle Gorge. You can also access the beach from the look via a relatively steep crude path.




Pot Alley is next, an area which is supposed to provide the best shore fishing, if you are a mountain goat. Apparently is is called Pot Alley as it was infamous with Lobster Fisherman for losing pots on the many bottom snags along this stretch.


Pot Alley

We drove on to Rainbow Valley, which is more of a trail to mushroom rock, which we did a few days ago. However, we always walk part of the way in a hope it may deliver a different experience. It was a bit more of the same, but we did spot this wildflower.


It is time to head back to our van, but we divert to Stiles Road which is on the recommended list of wildflower drives. The wildflowers we had seen before, but the emu that emerged from them was a bit of a surprise.





It is time to head back to the van for lunch, after a very interesting morning, albeit a chilling one.

We bought a BBQ Chicken from IGA for lunch, and a supply of cold meat tomorrow, when we will be back on the road.

Our neighbour is from Bunbury and was curious to ask us if we had been on a lobster boat, motivated by the aroma coming from our BBQ last night. I think they will sign up for the same trip after hearing our experience and salivating over the cooking smells last night.

This afternoon we just went for a walk along the beachfront and around to Chinaman's Point. Kalbarri is a great destination to enjoy the amazing National Park, and there is plenty to offer in the town.

Tomorrow wc are off to Geraldton.



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