2. Australia - Kalbarri to Wreath Flowers

Covering 8 September to 10 September 2019

mouth of the Murchison River

The next day, after a quick trip to the tourist office (everywhere seems to have one), we decide on a coastal walk.  Wildflowers are a big draw here in Western Australia and every tourist office has information about where to find them locally, although it appears to me that there is a certain amount of hype about it.  There’s even an app for smartphones and tablets that lets you know what’s in bloom and where. 

The path we took wound along the top of impressively high cliffs through what at a quick glance looked like lovely Dorset heathland but after only a slighter slower glance was obviously full of unfamiliar vegetation.  It was hot but thankfully there was a cooling breeze off the sea which made it very comfortable.  I suppose we had what was an unusual pairing to look out for, unusual plants and humpback whales migrating southwards for the summer.  

We were lucky and saw either eight or nine whales in three groups between what I’d guess was three hundred to five hundred yards offshore.  What we did see and would continue to be maddened by were flies, thousands and thousands of flies.  At least they didn’t bite or sting but they are infuriating.

well you can look faintly ridiculous

or you can share your face with a couple of hundred flies

Heather ended up getting one of those head nets for her birthday.

smoke bush with early morning light

the Aussie's penchant for calling
 a spade a bloody shovel

A more adventurous walk was decided on for the next day.  This was a 6 mile (9 ish km) walk along a big loop of the Murchison River lying well into the National Park.   Not long but described as tough because of the heat and the climbing.  We set out from the campsite before dawn at about 6.30 so that we could be starting while it was still relatively cool.  We caught up with a group of three kangaroos hopping leisurely along and then across the road in front of us.  A great sight.  Everyone warns about driving early or late and especially after dark because of the likelihood of a collision with a kangaroo.  There are enough roo corpses along the roadsides to see that this is a common occurrence.  The ones we saw looked to be four to five feet tall and hefty so you’d certainly know if you hit one at any speed.  Their gait looks as if it must take a lot of effort and it would if we tried it.  However, I understand that the tendons in a kangaroo’s rear legs act like springs, storing energy for the next leap so in fact it’s very energy efficient.

Back to that walk.  We’re not the first to arrive but suspect that at least one vehicle has spent the night in the parking area.  To begin we’re on a boardwalk but soon move onto a decidedly uneven rocky path.  Past Nature’s Window (a hole in a rock) into scrubland with a lot of bare ground and views of the river way down in a valley.  

Nature's Window

definitely off-piste

Catching up with a group of three Germans we exchange pleasantries and then clamber down a steep path to the riverside.  It is a lot hotter by now but thankfully there is a breeze along the valley.  The path is well marked but we still manage to go off piste by missing a marker and end up scrambling along rock ledges a few feet above the water while using all the limbs at our disposal.  After about four hundred yards of this, we find a way back up to the nice sandy path which we should have been on and continue.  We see our first Black Swans, about 25 of them and then a pair with Cygnets, which are grey.  It is getting steadily hotter and the breeze has dropped.  I find hot much more comfortable than hot and humid but it is true that you don’t notice how much moisture is being lost in perspiration because you just don’t get wet.  My shirt was dry but there were dry white lines showing where I had really been sweating but didn’t realise it.  We ended with a steep climb back up to Nature’s Window which by now was busy with tourists posing for photos.  It seems to us that the Orientals, especially the young women are the main culprits posing at every opportunity for a shot.

Pindar's Country Club

Leaving Kalbarri and heading south we stick to the coast road and then head inland to see flowers along the road to a place called Mullewa in the back of beyond and then Pindar, further back than that.  Distances are enormous and we are spending hours driving.  It will seem daft to a lot of you but we’ve come here to see Wreath Flowers, a local specialty and something we believe to be quite uncommon.  The plant is basically circular with a central area of leaves with all the flowers around the edge, looking like, you guessed, a wreath.  They turn out to be ten kms or so down a gravel track.  Unfortunately, we are not allowed to drive on gravel roads with our motorhome which is ridiculous because many of the National Parks have gravel roads heading into them.  I can understand that they don’t want people heading into the bush off road but we’d been told when we picked the van up “only up to twelve kms to a designated campsite” and didn’t realise it would be a problem for us.  More on this story later (so which of you understand this reference ?). 

end of the line

The young woman behind the counter at the café at this unbelievably out of the way place offered us her car so that we could drive to see the wreath flowers.   Now that certainly counts as the kindness of strangers and we hadn’t even bought anything in the cafe.  We declined this amazingly friendly offer and she told us where there were a couple of wreath flowers off the road on our return trip to only the back of beyond.  The plants were exactly where she’d described and they were about fifteen inches across.  Quite spectacular really.  With the flowers round the edge, they throw no shade onto the plant’s food generating machines which we normally call leaves.

Wreath Flowers