A Few More Highlights

The last week in Kalbarri April 3 - 10

Except for the very last day, our final week in Kalbarri was much cooler. Mornings were quite chilly. One more trip to Nature's Window (my first, John's second) at 5:30 am. The moon was still full. 

Natures Window rock formation above the Murchison River. A tricky hike in the dark before sunrise but glorious. 

View of parkland and Nanda Country from Meanarra Hill. We went looking for mallefowl here, but later we learned they had not been seen for years 

On Saturday we took a boat ride with other tourists out into the ocean with a lobsterman and his sister. A well run operation, a couple of miles up the coast, collecting 12 lobster pots (about 4 feet square by a foot and a half tall) each with 6 to 10 "cray," tho not all were kept. I got a bit seasick, but didn't hurl. Each adult on the boat got 3 lobsters (we donated 3 of ours) and we ate our fill for the next 2 days. Learned a lot about the industry and licensing The captain was very entertaining. 

Captain measures a lobster to see if its a keeper. His floats were marked by specific colors. His sister hooked pot lines, fed them into a winch, and he hauled the pots aboard manually. He measured each lobster. Keepers went into a tub and she clipped a tail fin to indicate they were not for commercial sale. This guy goes out everyday and loves it even in rough weather. His family members too.

Our share of the catch. We were instructed to put them in the freezer for several minutes to kill them humanely before boiling for precisely 8 minutes. They don't have claws like Maine lobsters but are just as scrumptious.

John's bird photos from an April 7 river hike

More hiking and birdwatching along the river, then on Thursday we took another boat tour, this time up the Murchison just before sunset. The rains from the cyclone more than week ago caused a slow moving flood in the river. It turned completely brown overnight. The captain called it a "chocolate river" which he said confounds the fish and makes them easier to catch. The river was deep enough to get about 6K upstream. We saw roos, feral goats, and a non-native fox on the shore (one young guy wanted to shoot the fox which is considered an invasive species).


On the "chocolate" river

Sunset back at the mouth of the river. The brown plume disappeared into the ocean. The riverboat could not go out into the entrance which is said to be the most dangerous in Western Australia.



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