Day 2 was also an early start; as we were going hiking down in to a couple of the gorges in Kalbarri National Park (where the heat reaches into the 40-50 degrees) we had to be out of the gorge by 10am, which meant being up at 5:30am!!
The drive to the first gorge was about 40 minutes away from the hostel and the latter half of the drive was down a dirt/sand track. As we bumped along we all were preparing ourselves for the heat and descent into the first gorge called Z-Bend. As we arrived and started down the path the colours and smell from the sandstone was incredible. Mark our guide went first (with a stick), as we were in bushland and snakes were common he was our spotter! The walk and climb down was stunning, the 150 metres down took us to the bed of the dried up Murchison River which was lined with snappy gum trees. As we had 20 minutes at the bottom to explore and recover before the climb out Ben headed off to find the Billabong that we were told about - needless to say he didn't find it.
Once we had made our ascent we drove to the next gorge called 'The Loop', where there was a short walk to a beautiful viewpoint called 'Nature's Window', a natural rock arch framing the view up-stream. As the heat was getting more intense we headed back to the bus to start the journey onwards/northwards. Our rest stop today was at the Billabong Roadhouse, where we also had lunch, which was once again an all-in affair...the thermometer outside recorded a temperature of 42 degrees...like a sauna!! We also saw our first real 'Road Train' - see picture below.
Further up the coast we stopped to visit the oldest living and breathing fossils on the planet; the Stromatolites were 3.5 billion years old, sitting in the shallow waters off the coast we walked along a raised viewing platform as you are no longer allowed to go in the water with them in case you damaged them.
10 Minutes along the coast was Shell Beach, where we went for a paddle. Shell Beach was made up of millions of cockle shells which had been washed ashore and compacted, in parts they were meters deep!
The last leg of the journey to Monkey Mia took us through Denham, the most Westerly town in Australia. After making a 'booze' stop for supplies for our next 2 nights we headed across the peninsula to our final stop for the day - the Monkey Mia resort. We were in the back packer residents which came complete with BBQ facilities, so after dumping our bags in the room we fired up the Barbi, and cracked open a Stubbie! Ben was very happy and mucked in with BBQing the steaks, and later on we all headed down to the beach (which was 2 minutes walk away) to watch the stars and see if the dolphins were going to visit earlier than the next morning (sadly not though)...all in all a great night had by all.
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