Vanessa HorwoodVanessa Horwood and her family – known at the DriftingWoods4, are currently exploring WA as they travel this amazing country. Check out their Instagram – @thedriftingwoods4 for some amazing photos! They’ve been to many incredible places in Australia that are worth checking out. All images are property of them.
Where and How to Get There
Kalbarri is a cute costal town in Western Australia, where the river meets the sea. About 1800 kilometres south from Broome and 570 kilometres north from Perth. Nestled between the cities of Carnarvon and Geraldton.
What to Expect
Kalbarri is a small child-friendly town that offers lovely stores and cafes just across the road from the beach.
There’s a lovely large grass area with a pretty awesome playground. It is a great place to have a picnic or fish & chips from the local shop, while enjoying the sounds from the ocean.
Kalbarri National Park is popular for its Skywalk, Natures Window and the Murchison River Gorge. Red Bluff lookout, Blue Holes beach, and fishing or lobster charters, and if the timing is right fishing is another activity to enjoy.
Where to Stay
There are quite a few caravan parks here. So you’ll have no reason not to stay! We stayed at the Ranch just out of town where they offer horse riding daily.
Our Experience
Kalbarri National Park spans over 186,00 hectares and is a hidden gem! It’s a National Park, so you must remember to get appropriate passes. We have an annual parks pass so I’m not sure of the cost, but I think its $12 per vehicle. It has great parking and toilets nearby.
We got to the Skywalk (one of the parks newest attractions) early morning which gave us the opportunity to really take it in on our own. The magnificent steel structures protrudes 25 & 17 meters from the cliff top with a 100 meter drop overlooking the Murchison River. Walking out onto it gave us a bit of a thrill as the Skywalk started to wobble! Getting to the edge and seeing the view… Just WOW!! You see the Murchison River down below with the beautiful large hills and blue sky as the background were just brilliant!
If you squint your eyes you can see Natures Window to the right of the 25 meter platform which was our next stop. This was a short and pretty walk, lots of wild flowers light the way and emanate a pretty smell. You don’t really see it in the photos but the depth and colour of this rock are something else. The birds were singing too which heightened our experience. If you have a good eye for photography you’ll also encounter a rock that looks like you’re hanging off a cliff.
We were able to experience Red Bluff from the lookout and from the sea, pretty cool! We went on a lobster tour and charter and learnt a lot about rock lobster. We’re homeschooling (or what I like to call roadschooling!) so any kind of learning is a bonus for us!
Blue Holes beach was lovely. We got the drone up and couldn’t believe this is only meters from where we sat on the shore line. We spent the afternoon watching the surfers.
Rainbow Jungle offers a maze and outdoor cinema with lots of birds to see. You could grab a coffee or lunch and sit in a lovely outdoor seating while the kids play in the new playground that was built just before the cyclone hit. This place has since closed.
They have a market on a Monday morning too. Who doesn’t love a market!? This has everything you could want in a market. Local food, arts & crafts, clothing, massage and more.
We could really see the potential of this cute town, but unfortunately since the cyclone hit in April there’s been a lot of damage. The local council also has done little to help out. We would have been happy to stay for a few months as Marc my husband is a builder, to get the town back up and running, however there hasn’t been any accommodation for the rebuild set up. Hopefully this blog encourages more people the go check out this amazing little town, which in turn will help places reopen or stay open.
Remember to check out the @driftingwoods4 for more!
Awesome information and incredible photos Vanessa! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Beautiful place! Added to my Ultimate Aussie Bucketlist 🤩