western australia: murchison house station

Just a few kilometres north of Kalbarri is Murchison Station on which you can freecamp in the sand by the beautiful Murchison River. The station is a working property where goats run throughout the year until summer when some 5000 are mustered. There's plenty of history here being an old farm. It was once owned by a Turkish Prince. The cost to stay is $11 per person per night and there are showers, toilets and a camp kitchen. 

We've seen and met so many backpackers on this part of the West Australian coast. It was hardly surprising when a couple of 2WDs got themselves firmly bogged in the sand and had to be towed out. It was a new thing for us and J was pleased when he manouevered out of the sand without any trouble. The kids played in the river sand and from the rope swings for hours (when they weren't doing school work, that is!)

Unfortunately the biggest downside of the area is the fly population. I'm not kidding when I describe a plate of dinner with at least 50 flies on each plate and when those pesky little critters went to sleep the mozzies were waiting to move in. 

Our girl is obsessed with all things horses at the moment. Big River Ranch (on the highway towards Kalbarri) has pony rides and trail rides depending on age and experience. Our kids were pleased to have a half hour pony ride each. 

Our boy, on the other hand is bird obsessed since we stayed with friends in Hobart who had two pet birds. Every other day B is asking for a pet bird (remember him wanting to trap one to cuddle at Bay of Fires?). We've said that we'll need to finish our trip before well consider buying a pet bird. The next best thing was taking the kids to Rainbow Jungle - a parrot breeding centre - in Kalbarri.

western australia : kalbarri, z bend lookout

The oranges and pinks combined with the soft greens of this country gets us. And the clear skies and the warmth. We love it. 

You could base yourselves at Kalbarri for a week exploring the surrounding gorges and beaches. There's so much to see but you must be prepared for the flies. Swarms of them. Herds of them. This was the view from the Z Bend Lookout. We would have walked down with the kids for a swim but it was late in the afternoon and the walk up would have been impossible. 

We have the rule in our family that you can play with sticks as long as it's responsibly and away from others. B took us both on in a show-down.

The backpack weighed a few extra kilos. 

western australia : kalbarri, natures window

It's hard to get the balance right when you're on the road with the three kids. We need to factor in the needs of everyone and sleep for the baby is generally a priority. Baby A does so well transitioning from his car seat and the pram but on days when we don't have to go anywhere I like for him to have his sleeps in the caravan. What this means, too, is that B gets a good solid morning of schoolwork completed.

On one such morning (while A slept and B did schoolwork) I took P to the camp kitchen at Murchison House Station and we made fresh rice paper rolls with carrot, cucumber, lettuce, mint, spring onions and a soya chilli dressing. 

This meant that we couldn't leave until lunch time for the the second walk we wanted to do near Kalbarrii - Natures Window. We ate our rice paper rolls under a shelter in the car park with an incredible view across the gorge and along with the gazillions of flies. They were dive bombing the dressing and it was so bad that even Baby A didn't bother pulling his fly net off because he was happier with it on!

Natures Window is a very short but picturesque walk but it was so hot on the day we did it. 

And when we arrived a Malaysian couple, who live in Perth, were having their pre-wedding shots. They looked amazing. The juxtaposition of the glamorous wedding shots against the back drop of the dusty and somewhat isolated outback with the swarms of flies wasn't lost on us.