Where on earth is Hamelin Pool? You may well ask.
Once again we find ourselves in a remote part of Australia.
At around nine this morning we left the holiday park at Kalbarri, stopping to buy some fruit and other supplies before leaving town. (Didn't buy apples were nine dollars a kilogram!)
On the way out we ventured back into Kalbarri National Park and explored Hawks Head and Ross Graham Lookout. At the lookout we meandered towards the Murchison River to explore its colourful and majestic gorges and its rocky bed. After all the cold weather we experienced at Geraldton it's amazing how warm it is here. Even though Kalbarri is on the coast, these are still arid lands and a five minute walk was all it took before we began to feel the heat.
It was noon before we were heading north again, our next stop: Billabong Roadhouse. Here we had afternoon tea and filled up the petrol tank at one dollar and fifty four cents per litre.
LPG was priced at one dollar and ten cents so passed on that as did Honey Pie on the coffee which was four dollars and sixty cents a cup (for espresso that is actually made from a self-serve machine). Settled for tea made from the thermos and some gluten free choc-coated wafer biscuits.
As luck would have it, the Overlander Roadhouse, about forty five kilometres further along Highway One, sold unleaded at almost ten cents a litre cheaper and gas seven cents.
Approximately two hundred and ninety kilometres later we drove into Hamelin Pool Caravan Park which is located in a World Heritage Listed area, on the way to Monkey Mia.
After we'd paid for a night's fees for an unpowered site we realised that there is no town electricity here and therefore the park electricity is produced by a diesel generator - so guess what?
After some consultation with the park owners we found a spot that would be furthest away from the said generator but even as I write this, sitting up in the tent, I can hear the generator loud and clear. Oh dear.
Anyway, once we'd set up camp we wandered off to view the Stromatolites that grow in Hamelin Pool which is part of the Shark Bay Marine Park (that also includes Monkey Mia and Francois Peron National Park).
Along the walk we discovered an historic shell block quarry which in the past supplied compacted shell blocks for various buildings in the area.
A boardwalk took us to the stromatolites which are the largest, oldest display to be found anywhere in the world.
Stromatolites in Hamelin Pool.
And guess what? We were witness to yet another magnificent sunset, maybe the best one yet.
Oh, and Hamelin Pool is about eight hundred kilometres north of Perth.
It's amazing, birds really DO fly across the sky as the sun is setting!
These birds just appeared from nowhere.
How sweet it is.
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