Our morning started with driving from the free camp at Galena Bridge North (long-drops) to Hawks Head Lookout. We set off pretty early so we could make sure we had a full day of exploring and a chance to do a hike!
Hawks Head Lookout and Ross Graham Lookout are on the same road in from Kalbarri, with Hawks to the left and Graham to the right. Hawks Head was definitely my favorite as you saw more of the Murchison River Gorge. Ross Graham, I feel, would be good if you wanted to chill out by the riverside. After we looked at both lookouts, we continued to the other spots at Kalbarri.
Our first stop was the Z Bend Lookout. It was a 1.2 km return with a few hills and lots of flowers to see on the way. The view at the end was spectacular, and we got some really nice photos. Both walks at the Z Bend were closed when we went, but we already planned to do the bigger one at Nature's Window.
We then drove to the other side and stopped off at the Kalbarri Skywalk, took some photos, read the history on the Skywalk, and saw some army planes shoot past. The walkway is actually quite wobbly (doesn't help Adam decided to see if he could wobble it). We then drove over to the Nature's Window car park, had some lunch, and walked down to it. It does get pretty busy, but we managed to get some good photos. After a bit of a debate if we wanted to do the 9 km walk with the flies, we decided let's do it!
The walk started by going along the cliff top overlooking the Murchison River and then descending towards the riverbed. There is a sign at the bottom after the cliff walk, saying to turn back if you didn't have enough water, and we did see some people do this, but we were fine and continued on. Somehow we actually missed a sign along the walk and ended up going off-path and on some sketchy, spider-ridden rock-climbing path and thought that it was the most difficult walk ever until we saw a couple walk past us above us and realized what we had done (duh!). The rest of the walk was along the riverbank, lots of beautiful flowers, and a bent-over tree to take some good photos. We didn't go in for a dip, but did put our hands in and it was nice and cooling. The walk finishes with a steep walk to the top but back to the beautiful cliff-top views. It took us about 2 hours to do the whole hike and we were needing a beer!
We then headed back to the van and drove to the town of Kalbarri. After a quick stop in the visitor centre, we went to Finlays Brewery and I had a tasting paddle. It was actually my most favourite beer I've had so far in WA and would recommend it to anyone passing by.
By this time it was around 3 pm and we found a free camp after the ocean drive so we decided to get on our way. Our first stop was Mushroom Rock, where we did the short walk down to take some photos (Also from here you can see the Red Bluff Lookout-which if we had more time, we would have checked out), then drove to Rainbow Valley (which was very similar to what you saw at Mushroom Rock), then to Pot Alley (a bit of a steep dirt road down), then the Shell House Lookout, then to Island Rock where we did the boardwalk to the beautiful Natural Bridge. Keep an eye out for whales along the coast here, we saw so many!! Also, goats which are walking all around the cliff-top!
Our camp the evening was in a rest bay at the Kalbarri welcome sign (no facilities), it had beautiful views but would only stay there one night at max.
Just as a little extra: From here visit Hut Lagoon Lookout and see the pink lake, stop off at the Lynton Convict Depot (gold coin donation) which gave us an insight into the convicts and the mining in this area and then take a walk around Northampton and spot the painted colourful sheep.
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