Have you ever been to Kalbarri? It’s just over 500 km north of Perth. It’s a bit of a drive, but it was just the thing we needed after a long, cold and ridiculous winter. It was quite the family affair: my brother in law, sister in law, a couple of nephews and my parents in law were all in attendance.
I was excited for sunshine and a bit of camping. Well, when I say camping, it was all rather civilised. Powered sites, our cosy camper trailer, roast dinners (not joking – Weber BBQs can do amazing things), those super comfy camp chairs that I got on sale at an outdoorsy warehouse place.
I thought I’d share some stuff you can enjoy there (because we did):
Be thrashed at Play mini golf at the Pirate Theme Park
Look, I am not that good at mini golf. Unless the wind is in my favour or I play against small children (who may still beat me). But I love a good putt. It brings out the silliness in people of all ages and the Little Mister somehow got a hole in one (this has happened both times he’s played in his very young life – what the hell)!
We played as a fairly big group and it made for a really fun morning.
Get out on the water
We got a couple of great beach days in. Sandcastles were built. Water fights between cousins were had. At one point, the Little Mister just cut out the middle man and poured buckets of water on himself, he was having so much fun!
The town is situated where the Murchison River meets the ocean and it’s just stunning – perfect calm, shallow water for kids to play in and for everyone to get on the water with every kind of apparatus imaginable!
We hired a pedal boat (they look really relaxing and fun but OMG it’s a good leg work out) and a stand up paddle board (SUP) and had SO much fun! The family shared them so the cost of the rental wasn’t exorbitant. I am not a typically sporty person as such, but if you get me on the water, I’ll try most things! Well, except for kite surfing, because I don’t want to die!
Feed the pelicans
Turns out this is a big deal! Every day at 8:45am, local volunteers will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about pelicans, and then with any luck they’ll fly in like clockwork and peeps can feed them some fish!
It’s so funny, because even though I’m so used to pelicans (my hometown being quite a popular place for them to steal people’s take away food and terrorise small dogs on the foreshore), there was something quite fun about everyone getting together and making it into an event! Some things are just more awesome on holidays!
Visit the gorges and walk along the cliffs
You cannot visit without checking out the god damn beautiful scenery. Holy shit. My eyes were just hungry for it. I just wanted to take in all that natural beauty and the wide open spaces!
We visited the gorges first. It’s probably not for anyone with a massive phobia of heights, but wow it’s worth a little bit of a wobbly kneed peek over the nice solid look out barriers at the very least!
From the gorges to the cliffs over the ocean, I was blown away…not literally, because that would be fucking scary. But you know what I mean, right?
Again, not for those with a debilitating phobia of heights, but amazing all the same. I was so scared I’d lose my phone or camera over the edge but the adrenaline rush from fearing a permanent loss of your technology really is like participating in an extreme sport for some (ahem me) haha.
I wish we’d had more time (and a more cooperative child – his new nickname is Sacka – short for Sacka Potatoes) to walk the amazing trails along the coast, but there’s always next time (I really want there to be a next time)!
Eat fish and chips
I really feel like you can’t go on a coastal holiday in Australia without sampling the local fish and chips. We went nuts for it on the last night of our stay. It was perfect because nobody had to cook and we (the middle generation) also got to shout the parents in law because they’d been really generous throughout the trip and they needed some payback!
Kalbarri has a few fish and chips spots, but we chose The Jetty Seafood Shack. May I add that it was a really good choice? Because it was. YUM.
So there you have it. The highlights of our recent holiday getaway. And as I sit here listening to my husband trying not to throw his guts up after eating a dodgy chicken servo pie on the way home (WHY?!), with the wind and rain howling outside, I am grateful we got a proper taste of spring before our crash landing back to reality!
Have you been to Kalbarri? Anything you’d add to the list? Where do you like to escape to when winter gets too long (I may just take notes)?
