Saturday 24^th March, 2012

In the morning we got up early and thus we also started early. In Meekatharra I had a problem with the key of the camping as I lost it somehow after the last toilet visit. So I had to leave back the key deposit, but fortunately it was not very high. As we started driving the sky was covered by black clouds and it was not very warm. After a short time we stopped and changed to long trousers. Thinking about hot chocolate we drove to Cue and were looking for it in the sleepy village. Thanks to a hint we drove to the road house. Here we could prepare the chocolate by ourselves, but it was only one with water. In the rain we drove to Lake Austin. Here I wanted to take a picture and Sandra parked the car a the side of the road. As the car stood inclined and I opened the window, the water flowed into the car like a waterfall. With wet trousers we drive to Yalgoo to refuel. Unfortunately the machine did not accept my credit card. But we saw a church built by Monsignor John Hawes, the architect of the cathedral of Geraldton. This one we just watched from the outside and continued over the granary of Western Australia. In the interior we saw may harvested grain fields. We arrived at uur destination Kalbarri a bit after 4pm and found soon a camping. This time we got to Kalbarri without breakdown. As there was still some time left, we went to Nature's Window. Here the nature etched a window into a rock. We had to hurry as it was already late afternoon and it starts to get dark already after 6pm. On the way we met two kangaroos which left the road only after we took sufficient pictures. More picture stops followed and we reached the main road as it was already quite dark, but the the many stops were worth it.

Friday 23^th March, 2012

I was awake already at sunrise. I went outside, observed a small rainbow and enjoyed the sunrise. Sandra got awake a little bit later and thus we started early today. We hiked to the Fortescue Falls which is a bit smaller that the one yesterday. But we could climb the rocks at the sides and thus could enjoy from all sides. Then we walked on a venture along a unsigned path. It proved to be right path. We ended up at the Fern Pool, a small pool with a waterfall. We enjoyed a refreshing morning bath and swam a bit. There was a sound I did not recognise. When I saw the bats in the tree I knew the source of it. Back at the start we walked to two lookouts. On the way we often saw grasshoppers flying away. Our destination we reach after a bit more than 30 minutes. From the Cirular Pool Lookout you can see another pool deep in the gorge where already a few people were swimming. We went back on the same way, but it was a bit faster as we had less picture stops. That was our last hike in the National Park and we decided to drive to the south.

The lunch break and refuelling stop was at a road house. Here it was very busy and we a few road trains (trucks with several trailers). During our 600 km long drive we saw a few animals crossing the road. First a dingo, then two big lizards and some cattle. From time to time we met an oversize truck with different load, from big tires to houses. The further we got the more pools where a the side of the road. At one spot we could not help but had to stop to take a picture of them. A bit after 5pm we reached Meekatharra where we found a place on the camping to stay overnight. In the evening it got cool fast and we were glad about a jacket. Now the temperatures got more pleasant and in the morning and in the evening it is already getting cool.