West Coast Day 136 - Kalbarri to Perth

Fowlers Camp was a lovely change and we enjoyed the peace of being on our own. We packed up, left the campsite first thing in the morning, and began our drive down the tar road to Kalbarri - about 280kms.

We stopped at the turn-off to the main road to set-up a photo of our mascot "Sharky" at the entrance sign to Shark Bay.

The remainder of the trip to Kalbarri on the tar was uneventful however we noticed the landscape change considerably after we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn - we started to see big, shady trees. It seemed funny that we were noticing trees, but we have been desperately searching for shade at each camp site with little luck. It seemed we were indeed moving into country that is more hospitable.

As we approached Kalbarri I started doing my research about the area and discussing with David our options for accommodation and sites of interest we might want to visit. We agreed to stop at a free bush camp just before the Kalbarri turn-off and then start the following day in the National Park by visiting the magnificent lookouts of the Murchison River gorge. Our camp site was located at the uppermost reaches of the Murchison River and was beautiful.

We arrived quite early, around 2pm and David was keen to do some bush maintenance on the trailer. He spent about 3 hours covered in grease and muck to remove, repack, and replace the wheel bearings off both trailer wheels. It was quite an effort as he had to jack up both sides of the trailer and remove both wheels whilst it was still attached.

While David did this I attempted to clean myself up - I felt awfully itchy. The salt water we'd been bathing in since leaving Exmouth must have built up and had irritated my skin. My face had turned all blotchy and I had 3 spots of dermatitis. Using our stores of fresh water from our last fill-up at the Cape Range National Park, I filled our sink and used a facecloth to bathe. Later, I treated myself to a "facial" - a very basic mixture of body oil and lanolin face moisturiser. I felt much better, and so did David once the trailer was fixed.