We set out in the morning and drove to Kalbarri,  On the way we saw a leaning River Gum tree which leans because of the wind on the plains.

River Gum Leaning Tree

Once we entered Kalbarri National Park there were a few lookout points by the cliffs along the coast, which were pretty but failed to be spectacular compared to the Great Ocean Road.

We reached the town by noon, had lunch, bought a lot of bottles of water, and headed out onto the unsealed most popular road of the park which is about 25 KM long.  Originally I thought we may need to rent a 4wd but it was not necessary.  I had not done my research for the climate though.  I didn’t think it was a desert, but it was, smack in the middle of summer and the temperature was extreme.  Signs said that it could get up to 50°C or 122°F, and I think it wasn’t too far from that today.

Our first stop was a lookout which was a 100m walk, and it was incredibly hard.  I felt as if I was in an oven, and that my skin was crisping, even though I was using lots of sunscreen and had my windbreaker on.  It was definitely deadly heat.  We arrived at Nature’s Window soon afterwards and as we got out of our air conditioned car, a family next to us was just getting into theirs.  The woman told us not to go, that it was too hot and that they didn’t make it to the window, and turned back.  It seemed ridiculous because the window was only 400m from the car park.  We think the she was more concerned for my dad since he is a heavy older man, and I was glad she scared him out of going because I did not think it was wise for him to go either.  He stayed behind in the shade, and Hendrik and I went, because I was really looking forward to seeing the window which was pretty much the whole point of going to Kalbarri in the first place. I had a hard time getting to the window and was dizzy and felt my muscles shaking when I finally reached it.

We sat in its shade for about 15 minutes drinking water.  We had brought 2 liters each for this short walk, and I wished we had brought more. Hendrik seemed fine though and was thriving in the dry heat while I was begging for some humidity.  As I sat in the window I dreaded the walk back since it was uphill this time and was literally scared of it.  The window was gorgeous and the view was amazing, and suffering in the heat was totally worth it.  When I finally made it back to the car I felt as if my insides were boiling and was having trouble breathing.  I had a headache and drank more water as I faced the air-conditioning which was on full blast but having a hard time being too cold in the desert.  It took a good half hour before I felt better.

It was the hottest place I have ever been to, and would have planned differently if I was to go back.  Preferably go there in winter and not at 3 in the afternoon in the summer.  Then again, that was probably the reason we had the window all to ourselves and didn’t have to share with other tourists.  We did not attempt the z bend, though Hendrik was ready to go and feeling up to it, but I don’t think I would have survived that 500m (1Km return total) walk.  It was a shame, but I don’t think it was worth risking.

There was no shortage of Yuka trees in Kalbarri

There was one more stop before leaving the park which was a lookout right at the car park so that was ok.  Then it was just a straight drive up North to our overnight destination.  There were hardly any rest stops or roadhouses, but we stopped at one rest stop because I had to go after drinking so much water, and there I found a goat sitting in the shade of hut where the toilet was.  It was the only shade for miles and someone had made it a bowl out of the bottom of a water bottle for it.  It had no more water so I gave it some and then some more until it had finished off a liter and all our water.

I felt so bad for the toilet goat

There was a \roadhouse nearby (nearby is about 40 miles) so we could stop there and get more water.  When we arrived there, Hendrik told the man who probably owned the roadhouse that there was a goat in the bathroom.  He didn’t think much of it, laughed at us when we said we gave it water, and said that sometimes goats from farms escape and that they get rounded up once in a while.  We had wanted a rescue party to be sent for the goat.

Sunset near Denham

By sunset we had reached the outskirts of Denham and arrived at our cottage at dusk.  I was shocked by the state of the cottage which was a complete dump since the website seemed nice.  It was dirty and falling apart.  The wind from the sea roared all night, and I didn’t know how it didn’t just pick the cottage up and make it into splinters.  Denham was tiny and since it was 9 everything was closed, and we could not find food anywhere so we had potato chips, which the one bar in town was able to sell us, for dinner.

Our cottage