Kalbarri National Park

On the Monday we headed up the coast on the Great Northern Highway for a short 6 hour drive to the resort town of Kalbarri.  The town is settled on the coast and the entire area is surrounded by the National Park reserve.  On the way there we stopped in Geraldton also on the coast.  Really nice spot with a beautiful beach and restaurants along the water.  We passed through a few smaller places along the way and soon came to realize that the west coast is large and desolate in most areas.  Despite this the drive was spectacular and of course hot.  We stopped at an old convict settlement that only was in operation for about 4 years as it was too desolate and isolated even for the prisoners it housed in 1850.  We had a really nice villa in Kalbarri with 2 rooms and complete kitchen.  We stopped at several places along the coast to take pictures of the scenery and visited Hawks head and Ross Graham look outs in the National Park.  Although the day was sunny and warm it was in the morning as in the heat of the day it is not unusual to get heat up to 55C in this area so they recommend you go hiking in the morning.  Good thing as it was still plenty hot enough.  Here are some pics of the area.