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

We drove through the desert towards Uluru/Ayers Rock. On the way we hardly passed any cars but we did see plenty of huge birds eating road kill by the side of the road and even saw a dead camel. When we got closer to the rock suddenly we were surrounded by coaches. At a lookout we could see the dry Amadeus Salt Lake and a rock which looked like Uluru/Ayers Rock but we later learned that it wasn’t Uluru/Ayers Rock but Mount Conner or Connor or Attila or Artilla, or the mountain with lots of names. Apparently Uluru/Ayers Rock, the Olgas, and Mount Conner all line up in a straight line. The sand at the lookout was even redder than at King’s Canyon and very soft.

Hendrik and Mt. Conner behind him

When we arrived at Uluru/Ayers Rock it was funny to see the village which existed here solely for tourism. It was made up of only hotels, resorts and campsites. We stayed at the Ayers Rock Resort which had mediocre rooms, the worst we’d stayed in thus far, but I found out that the hotel was the most expensive one we stayed at during the whole vacation so someone was really getting rich off the rock.

Hendrik and I went to see the rock without his parents since his mother wasn’t feeling well from yesterday’s sun. As we drove up to the thing it was amazing as it rose up from the earth in front of us. I had pretty low expectations because at the end it is just a rock but it’s definitely worth a visit. Out of nowhere there’s this gigantic red monolith which some claim to be the largest monolith in the world. Others say it is the second largest next to Mount Augustus. It stands 1105meters tall while Uluru/Ayers only 348 meters so my vote would have to go to Augustus but at least most everyone agrees that Uluru/Ayers Rock looks way more spectacular. We were definitely in awe of the rock. We visited the info/ Aboriginal cultural center and drove around the rock stopping at the highlights.  I particularly liked the Mutitjulu Water Hole, a crevice where a waterfall appears when it rains and forms a pool at the bottom. I would have loved to see the rock in the rain becasue not only would lots of waterfalls appear on the rock but also it would cool the earth down, but no such luck since it hardly ever rains in the desert.

On our way back to the resort we stopped by the sunset lookout point which had at least 100 campervans and cars all parked in a line already staring at the rock. Minus the crap-load of people if was beautiful and we were able to take many nice pictures as the rock changed colors because of the setting sun.

The typical postcard pic

Today we went on a kayaking tour.  We wanted to go sea kayaking, and the tour promised sea kayaking. Unfortunately the sea part of it was very brief but we did spend a lot of time going through, under and around mangroves. I think mangroves are cool but I think there is a maximum amount of mangroves that a single person should see in their lifetime and I definitely OD’ed. In between the mangroves in the taller trees there were hordes of bats so many of them that they turned the tops of the trees black as they all slept upside down. The guide started to make noise by clapping and bashing his oar on the kayak, so we all did it and the bats would wake up and squeal and start flying around in a panic. Yes, it was a bit cruel waking the creatures up in the middle of their night, but it was really impressive.

Stockton Beach

The following day we drove down to Port Stephens home of Stockton Beach which has sand dunes that stretch almost to Newcastle. The campsite we stayed at was right next to the beach and this is the first campsite where we saw lots of permanent residences where a shed was attached at the side to the door of a trailer. So it was a bit depressing for to see and since we were practically the only motor home there we felt very out of place. We went for a walk on the beach and saw the most spectacular sun set. I had booked a tour of the beach for the next morning, and since the rain started that night I was scared that it would be cancelled which made me sad since this was one of the things I was looking forward to from the start of the trip.