Back to Kalbarri NP again , there's a few more lookouts and walks we want to do . The Murchison river is carving it's way into the landscape , and creating some beautiful scenery as it goes .
Our first stop is Z Bend Lookout , a 1.2 klm return walk , the temperature was only 22 degrees at 9:30 - that's about 10 degrees lower than we've had usually .
The road in is about about 12klms of bitumen , then sandy corrugated tracks for another 19klms . It didn't bother us , but some campers didn't like it much , we overtook 3 on the way in .
Making our way from the carpark , down the steps , then more steps , we could see the gorge up ahead - at least a bit of it anyway . We made it down to a sign with a picture of an ancient looking scorpion - about 600mm long - these things used to roam around here millions of years ago - talk about watching where you put your feet !! Very close by is the fossilised footprints of one of these creatures - they are about 120mm wide and you can see this in the ripplestone - what was once beach.
Not far away was the lookout , with views straight down the gorge - right down some fault lines where it has eroded the surrounding rock away . You can see the layers in the rock - layers of siltstone and layers of ripplestone & sandstone .
Wandering back up to the car park , we spotted some everlasting daisies - a little bit on the used side, but still out & flowering , unlike millions of others that have long since gone , it must have been quite a sight when they were all out .
We also found a ground cover plant that was flowering as well , we didn't see any of this yesterday - if you look closely at the flowers , the petals look like feathers !!
We decided not to go down to the river walk - it was graded 5 - being the worst , so we headed back out and went to Natural Window and West Loop Lookouts .
We weren't prepared for the amount of people there , we were lucky to see 6 people at the earlier lookout , now there were about 80 people ( I know , that's not many , but when you're not used to having lots of kids and foreign tourists around you , you kind of like the solitude !! ). They were all crossing over in front of us , walking through the bush , not on the bitumen paths , trying to walk through you , not bothering to say hello - we did !!
The 500m walk was easy , starting with some stairs , then down the formed track till you get to a covered seating area , the track then goes to layered rock shelves . There are views down into the gorge , the river curves its way around and makes an 8 klm loop that nearly comes back on itself .
We find our way around the rocks to Natures Window , a hole in the layered rock , that depending on where you , you can view the gorge or the river , or any of the many tourists queueing to get their photo taken sitting in the window .
After seeing what we could , it was time to dodge the crowd and leave them behind , back to the top for lunch . It was a bit disconcerting on the way down , all these people coming back up were puffing and panting - looked like some were ready to collapse . We came up the track and up the steps , the heart rate up a bit , but nothing to be worried about - those other people mustn't have been terribly fit!!
There are tables and chairs under a round covered roof, to give you some respite from the sun . There was a breeze blowing , which helped keep you cool . Lunch complete , we head around to West Loop Lookout . It looks back toward where we just were , and has views of a big sweep of the river .
Covering everything we wanted to see , we headed back to town , checked for mail that hadn't arrived , then did some food shopping before heading back to the RV , then it has been catch up time with Facebook & the blog - my computer decided it wanted a rest again !! but is now operating again.
Todays map :-https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z1G8gwwxwyYo.kv7BkbyX_CgM&usp=sharing
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