Bev and I spent a few days visiting Andrea in Perth. Then Bev had to return to Calgary and work :(

Thursday was ANZAC day and Andrea and I  made a long weekend of it, taking a road trip north to Nambung and Kalbarri National Parks before I too had to leave early on the Monday morning. Not back to work for me yet, though :)

The Pinnacles is a quite captivating area of Nambung National Park: lots of small pinnacles, most about body height, scattered extensively about the landscape. The yellowish sand contrasts with the white sand dunes that appear regularly along, or close to, the coast.

Stromatalites at Lake Thetis

We found somewhere to stealth camp along the coast; the hotels are expensive enough in Australia without paying inflated holiday weekend prices. And Andrea actually did some studying.

A little further north we had to check out the magnificent sand dunes. This area appeared used only by 4WD vehicles but we managed to find some dunes not covered in wheel tracks. The sand was wonderfully soft with small grains.

We arrived in Kalbarri National Park on the Friday afternoon and registered with the ranger for a couple of nights camping before taking the dirt road into the area of the Z Bend where we would go down into the gorge to sleep. And check out the climbing.

Andrea set up her borrowed hammock but noticed a spider living in a hole in the tree directly above her so she decided to sleep on a rocky platform above where the Murchison River roars in the rainy season.

We found another, more impressive-looking, spider:

A pretty sweet camping spot. There was a family camping a few hundred metres upstream of us (we could see a campfire) but, apart from them, we had the place to ourselves. Under a beautiful full moon.

Our friendly (?) neighbourhood spider in the daylight. I wish I knew more about how dangerous they are…

We spent the day in the gorge, just wandering about, doing some reading, and managing a couple of climbs.

And Andrea found somewhere less spider-prone to to hang her hammock for her second night.

Flies everywhere! Now I remember those childhood Australian TV shows with curmudgeonly Australians wearing wide-brimmed hats with strings weighted with cork hanging down in a curtain to deter the pests.

An early walk out on Sunday morning allowed us a quiet view of some of Australia’s better known inhabitants:

No escaping the flies!

Did I mention flies?

A fun 9 km hike (The Loop) before having to head back to Perth (about seven hours drive) – Andrea to write an exam and me to leave after too short a visit with Andrea and to Australia.

Oh, yes. Flies. Just a few on Andrea’s pack.