Kalbarri, Western Australia.
I will never forget the colour palette of Western Australia. The rich iron redness of the earth in stark contrast with the soothing turquoise ocean hues as you fly South from Asia into the Southern Land. For hours gazing out of the window of the 737, all I could see were the wild waves of the Indian Ocean gently kissing the shore over endless miles of empty, rusty, barren land. I was struck by the vast unspoilt space, by the nothingness and by the raw mineral magnificence of the landscape.
Come, take my hand and walk with me, into the future,
This trip was a huge adventure. The furthest we had ever travelled from home as a family and the first time stepping foot on a new continent. After stopping for a couple of nights in Perth, we boarded a small propeller plane to the town of Kalbarri, where my brother and his family were living at the time. Kalbarri airport was a corrugated metal hut in the middle of this bare land, with a quad bike to tow the luggage for the few passengers who hadn’t gotten off as the Fokker stopped in Geraldton en route.
It was remote, isolated and a stark contrast to the bustling city we’d left behind. We left the airport and headed along the coast, stopping to check the solid 6ft groundswell and looking out into the inky depths of the Indian Ocean. The corduroy lines stacked to the horizon and I knew I wouldn’t be seeing Rhino for the rest of the afternoon.
600km to the North of Perth, Kalbarri and its glorious National Park are located on the Murchison River, whose flowing waters, over millions of years, have carved spectacular red and white stone gorges through its land. When we visited in December, it was 44 degrees, so our trip to Nature’s Window was short but absolutely out of this world. I could just imagine dinosaurs roaming against the horizontal rainbow bands of sandstone. I didn’t just feel like I was observing a prehistoric setting – I was right there in the middle of it and I wondered how many footprints had stepped on this land before me. A very sweaty baby, covered in flies, enjoyed the short trek before drifting off to a sun-induced siesta, leaving us free to marvel in awe at the gorges’ splendour.
There is no more striking display of WA’s proud earthy colours than at this famous spot.
Whilst the gorges form the inland section of Kalbarri’s National Park, the coastal area boasts impressive cliff formations, and the towering ripples of red rock that make up the promontory of Red Bluff. The coastline is wild and rugged, boasting beautiful wildflowers, white sandy shores and powerful waves, whilst the late afternoon light casts dreamy shadows in the nooks and crannies of the cliffs.
And every year on this day,
We’d decided to get married at Jakes point and with its spectacular colours, Red Bluff became the natural choice for our photos. The temperature was 43 degrees, with a cooling afternoon ocean breeze as I met Rhino on the sand. Between us and our two witnesses (my brother and sister-in-law), we juggled two babies and two children through a short, simple ceremony. It all made for a really relaxed day, baby Rhino eating seaweed at the beach in between feeds and the little ones (and big ones) playing barefoot in the crystal clear waters of the rock pools.
And just like that, I became Mrs Rhino.
Western Australia, on land, in the air and in the ocean, is alive. It is quite a sight to see a family of kangaroos hopping over the red land against a pinky sky at dusk or an emu staring you in the eye when you’re off-roading and lost down a dusty terracotta track. Of course, the wildlife is more apparent in less densely populated areas of the state and in Kalbarri, we were to be treated to frequent encounters of the animal kind. By day, we heard the rustling of snakes in the long grass as we pushed the buggy by the roadside and checking inside shoes and baby toys for arachnoid visitors became commonplace.
With the setting of the sun came the ka-ka-ka calls of the geckos and lizards that scuttled up the walls and came to join us as we ate outside in the cooler evening air. Before my time in Australia I had a genuine phobia of spiders, totally irrational and somewhat restrictive in my everyday life. In WA, I overcame that fear. I became fascinated by WA’s natural environment, and every eight-legged friend who came with it.
I suppose I learnt my place in the huge web of life that surrounds us.
No mention of Kalbarri would be complete without a nod to the wonderful Felicity Graham. Marriage celebrant, pillar of the community and pelican feeding volunteer, she is quite the local celebrity and can always be found with a smile on her face. The Kalbarri pelican feeding tradition dates back decades with volunteers providing a daily feeding session and educating the tourists on the species, whilst allowing the little ones to get up close and personal with the marvellous, long-beaked birds. The pelicans know Felicity well as a long standing friend and eagerly anticipate her arrival, swooping in for their feed and playing their role well.
We are lucky to still keep in contact with Felicity, eleven years after she married us at Jake’s beach, and we are as fond of her as the pelicans are.
Kalbarri’s economy is largely centred around fishing and tourism, and we learned that so many people fall in love with the simplicity and beauty of the area, that locals will often hold two or three jobs, being vastly ‘over-qualified’ for the role that is their predominant source of income. And that is what makes the community so special. A skilled photographer might also work at the tourist information office, in order to make the town their home.
I admired the humble attitude to life, the way quality of life was prioritised over climbing the career ladder and how the simple things were the most precious. Living on this beautiful coastline, among the fascinating nature and enjoying long sunshine filled days, brought more fulfilment and happiness than anything else. A life lesson I was also starting to learn.
South of Kalbarri is an antiquated inland town called Northampton. It is one of WA’s oldest towns and was first settled in the 1840’s. We felt like we had travelled back in time as we strolled though the town with baby rhino in the buggy. With a population of less than 900, all eyes were on us as we walked about, found a spot to eat and popped into the local shop one midweek afternoon. I have never felt like more of an outsider, and that too was an eye-opening experience.
The way we view the World and the people in it, is limited only by the boundaries we set for ourselves. The more we explore beyond these boundaries, the more we understand those who live beyond them and in turn, accept our own place on this planet. As small and rural as Northampton is, it left an eye-opening mark on us both. We were learning about the World, about its glorious diversity and how its time zones ran deeper than the hands on the clock face.
En route to Northampton we stopped at Hutt Lagoon, or the Pink Lake at Port Gregory. Now made famous by Instagram, in 2010 we had never imagined such vivid colours could exist in the natural landscape. The pink lake, caused by the presence of algae, changes colour depending on the time of day and the height of the sun. Lying next to the beautiful blue hues of the Indian Ocean, it is nothing short of breathtaking and an absolute must see.
Our eyes shall meet above the toasting glass,
At night, the red sun falls into its rusty landscape pillow and in the absence of large cities and light pollution, the darkness of the sky, even to the naked eye, brings spectacular sights of the milky way and the Southern Cross nestled within it. Many nights we sat outside, baby asleep, gazing up at the wonders of the night sky with a bottle of refrigerated Australian red wine and my brother strumming away on his guitar. Given the heat in WA in summer, ’room temperature’ is too hot for optimal wine tasting and so it is customary to keep your Shiraz in the fridge before opening.
This heat also threw a challenge in trying to keep the wedding toast chilled for the small ceremony we had at Jake’s beach. The Aussies have a solution for this and it comes in a perfectly formed invention, known locally, and now forever in our home, as an Esky.
We spent three weeks in Kalbarri, exploring the clear waters of Blue Holes, Jakes and Chinaman’s beaches, enjoying the parrots at the Rainbow Jungle sanctuary and our first open air cinema experience with one of our all time family favourites, ‘Despicable Me’. We ate kangaroo snags, ostrich steak, crayfish and abalone, that had all been locally sourced or caught by Rhino and my brother. We experienced flies that I had only ever seen on news reports of Africa and we learned that flooding had washed dead animal carcasses into the Murchison, thus making the flies worse than usual for December. We soon mastered the fly-repelling Aussie wave and so did baby rhino. We spent time with family for the first time in years. And we made a lifelong friend in getting to know Felicity, her husband and her home.
It is the simple things in life bring the most pleasure, and our time in Kalbarri was just that. Rhino got barrelled on the morning of the wedding, Felicity’s presence made the ceremony perfect, my niece found an abalone shell on the beach to hold the rings, and a local friend gifted us with leis made from the frangipani flowers in her garden. The Kalbarri locals welcomed us into their home with open hearts and open minds. Our experience had been enriched by the people we had met and the lessons we had learned. And for this reason, Kalbarri will always have a special place in our hearts.
And we shall pledge again, come, take my hand and walk with me.
We flew South again to Perth and sitting outside the All Seasons Hotel we pledged to return to WA with our children the year of our 10th anniversary, to further explore the vastness of the state. Ten years later, it turned out 2020 had other plans for all of us and so we still haven’t yet made that promise come true. We had only scratched ’Straya’s surface and there is still so much waiting to be explored. Australia had whet our appetite for adventure and planted the seed of wanderlust within us.
For once your eyes have seen the lands and skies from the ‘other side’ of the World, they can no longer rest when closed.
Wedding Photo Credits to Tracey Grosvenor.
*UPDATE* I finished writing this story two days before Kalbarri was devastated by Cyclone Seroja as it made landfall directly over the town. 70% of properties were damaged and a 3m tidal surge washed over the Coral Coast. The surrounding Midwest, including Northampton, Geraldton and Port Gregory also suffered huge devastation, as its residents sheltered from its power. As if by some kind of miracle, there were no injuries. For donations to the clean-up operation, please visit https://appealswa.org.au
