KALBARRI

EVENING SKY

A piece of news creeps into my consciousness and I’m reminded that a lot is happening in the rest of the world, outside of Kalbarri where we are at the moment.  The school holidays have come to an end and the thousands of caravans, trailers loaded with boats, utility vehicles, off-roaders, bikes, campers, some pulling cars behind campers and plain cars are meant to be heading back down south to cooler climes:  but there was not much evidence of this on the way in – they must have taken a different route out of the small town of Kalbarri.

CERVANTES

CERVANTES BEACH

CERVANTES

A beautiful and peaceful little fishing village 3-hours north of Perth, but far enough north to experience warmer temperatures.  We’re greeted by an energetic little pudding of a man with a flushed faced suggesting regular quaffing of the local syrup.  Owner of Cervantes Holiday Homes, a row of cabins with all the necessary mod cons, large living room, kitchen, bathroom with the scalding hot solar heated shower, and double bedroom with an added single bedroom in case one is too dizzily disorientated to miss the former.  While effusively explaining the features that we are not to miss in the village, I look down and see he has the Australian disconcerting habit of walking about in bare feet. His blonde knife and fork hairline frames his moon face as he tells us of his visit to Scotland – which he loved, between showers of drizzling Scottish rain.  But the Tattoo, “fan-bloody-marvelous!” 

In the local grocery shop with prices that would outdo Harrod’s in London, is the reluctant owner with that “I’d rather be fishing than standing here ripping off tourists who have no choice but to buy from me” look in his eyes.   

Equally disdainful is Ma Broon in the liquor shop.  She serves me with a frown and I remark, ”You have a lazy little town, here.”

“That’s the way we like it,” she threatens as I read in her eyes that she would get the local sheriff to knee-cap you at the slightest hint of noise after 19.00 hours.

In the corner stands a teller that charges $4 for a withdrawal so I pay with a Halifax Clarity credit card which she examines with suspicious eyes, nary a smile on her fat face.  We pay for a cardboard box of cheap and nasty red wine, my preference and I can’t bring myself to pay the ransom for the release of a $48 bottle of the slightly better concoctions that Australia seems to pride itself in – that is, the unspoken belief that the more you pay for a bottle of the grape juice the better it must be.

We take a walk down to the whitest sand I’ve ever seen, people throwing fishing lines into the Indian Ocean and catching the seaweed.  A fin appears and I think “shark”, but as it bobs up and under the waves, FM assures me it’s only a dolphin. But the sunset –amazing!

We   head off to Hanson Bay and the Greek sounding Lake Thetis which has the stromatolites, one of the oldest living forms on earth.  They once had a BBC programme about them and they really are remarkable, lying like old pancakes under the water of the lake with a salinity 1.5 times that of the sea.  I dip a finger in to taste it and a couple of hours later after various quaffs of the aqua I can still taste the acrid salt. FM suggests it might be poisonous but I is still here.  They vary in size and grow to about one-metre in diameter, produce oxygen and apparently may be responsible for our evolving into who we are as a human race.  Hello, forty-millionth cousin, I think.

Birds of all kinds of feather gather around the edges of the lake and I spot for the first time a black swan, gliding elegantly over the middle of the lake.

SUNSET ON THE HORIZON

After other visits to the aptly named Hangover Bay and Thirsty Point, we watch in wonder as the scarlet sun sets again over the turquoise sea and we retire to our Unit 2 on Malaga road for the evening meal.

A BIT OF HISTORY

On 22^nd July, 1900, there was a violent hurricane that struck Karridale in SW Australia and the electric telegraph cables were ‘parted’ so that all communication was lost.  There is an account on the jetty of Hamelin Bay where we visited today. 11-wrecks were littering the bay and apparently several lives were lost.  This information is given on a photocopy of the transcript in beautiful cursive writing.  

 Also, The Katinka  landed on a ‘nasty beach’ where five-men tried to save their lives by swimming ashore, but only two managed to save themselves by swimming ashore.  The chief officer was killed under the collapsing rigging while the remainder of crew saved themselves by climbing the rigging where they were rescued.

The whole coast line is littered with wrecks and the ghosts of the drowned wander about the shore.

Today, we travelled down to Augusta:  beautiful beaches with white sand and turquois breakers far out where you could see small black dots – surfers enjoying the thrill of the waves.

Because it is now the winter season, not many people are around although the water of the Indian Ocean is warm enough to swim in and the rain is far away.