Over the 35 days of our Western Australia travels we covered over 3,600 miles, or just over 100 miles a day. We would typically travel one day and spend the next day or two exploring the new area. Therefore, our travel days were about 3 to 4 hours on the road as we made our way to a new location.

As we travelled north from Cervantes, we passed through Greenough at about lunchtime and stopped for a bite at a now deserted settlement in the middle of sheep country. As we were to find out more about the weather in the Kimberly area, when it rains in the summertime, it rains. After a few floods of 2 to 4 feet of water through this area the town was eventually abandoned.

The area is also known for the strong winds that come in off the coast. This tree in the sheep pasture was typical of many of trees in this area.

We arrived at our next stop, a little town of 1,500 folks called Kalbarri, located on the rocky cliffs where the Murchinson River meets the ocean.

Our Airbnb was right across the road from the cliff and gave us a beautiful sunset that evening.

The next day we explored Kalbarri National Park that encompasses the Murchison River gorge. The color of the sandstone and sparse vegetation reminded both of us of areas in Arizona and Utah.

There were black swans swimming in the river below.

One of the main attractions in the park is Nature’s Window, a mini arch that overlooks the gorge.

We hiked around the area and down to the river.

Unlike Arizona and Utah, where the different colored sandstone layers are many feet thick, these layers of eroded rock were just a few inches thick and very colorful.

This red-capped robin sat on a branch for us so that we could get his picture.

We drove to Hawk’s Head Lookout, another picturesque gorge within the park.

I caught this great egret just taking off from a log in the river below.

Across the river we saw kangaroos feeding on the grass.

There was also a Rock-Wallaby in the rock outcroppings along the gorge wall. They are monitoring their movements there and this one had a radio collar on for that purpose.

We made our way back into town and stopped at the lookouts along the cliffs. We caught this Willie Wagtail resting on the sign.

The coastline looked like one side of the Grand Canyon next to the Indian Ocean.

An Eastern Osprey was enjoying the setting sun along the coast, probably looking for dinner.

It was another beautiful sunset with the 10-foot waves rolling in far below.

The weather was getting noticeably warmer now that we had gone so far north, but we had a little further to go before we turned back to Perth.