Sand Dunes

Kangaroo Paw

We turned off the Brand Highway and headed towards Kalbarri. The first thing we noticed was the colours of the wildflowers, stopping for a closer look at the bright red Kangaroo Paw. As we passed the road to Kalbarri National Park we dropped in to do a few of the walks which overlooked the Murchison River. We realised here that we have been very spoilt with the gorges and natural wonders we had seen up north. At the first walk, Kate was watching a lady take a photo of the views and asked her “what are you taking a photo of?”. Kate was quick to tell the lady that we have rivers just like this at home. The Murchison is quite different to our rivers at home, but I did tend to agree with Kate it was not amazingly spectacular. 

Murchison River

We arrived at the coastal town of Kalbarri to find the weather conditions perfect. We enjoyed the beaches and of course the playground for the day. We met a local family here and they had travelled Australia before they had children so they were interested in hearing our experiences with the girls. They offered for us the stay at their home for the night, but we were keen to get to the sand dunes to have some fun.

Driving to camp

We headed to the famous Kalbarri sand dunes to find a camp for a few days and enjoy more great weather. Darrin and I had camped here over 10 years ago on our first trip so we were going purely on memory of how to get there. As this is a place the locals all escape to there are no signs or directions, just the local knowledge of how to get there, or in our case I think it was just pure luck. Amongst the maze of tracks we made a few wrong turns and dead ends we finally found the little village of shacks that people have built over twenty years ago to enjoy weekends and holidays in them. We found a great flat spot amongst the huts behind the dunes on the sand.

Sand boarding

The next day we walked onto the beach to check the weather, once again perfect conditions. The girls played amongst the dunes while Darrin and I sat on the sand watching whales for a while.  It was then time to jump in the Troopy and drive up the beach to find the massive sand dunes. Along the way we found an old boogie board on the beach which was broken so we grabbed that to break in half and use as two sand boards. We arrived at lucky bay, it was just gorgeous. The bay was a fantastic spot for swimming with a backdrop of massive sand dunes to have some fun with. We drove over the dunes, which were very firm for driving, and then further up the beach the sand was starting to get soft so we turned around and instead of going back over the dunes we decided to drive back along the beach, but the sand got too soft for the Troopy. The girls grabbed their boogie boards and went for a swim while Darrin and I dug the car out of the soft sand.  With much digging and reversing back the way we came we made it out. We stopped at the base of a sand dune for lunch and we all had so much fun sliding down the dune.

The girls went for a swim while we dug the car out of the soft sand

Lucky Bay

Darrin's big stack

Driving the massive Sandy Dunes

We drove along the top of the dunes and of course stopping again at some really steep dunes for a slide. Kate went flying down and stacked it as she hit the bottom and knocked her loose front tooth out. When she realised she had lost the tooth in the sand she was absolutely devastated. It was time to get back to camp, still sobbing when we returned Kate sat down and wrote a letter to the tooth fairy explaining that she had lost the tooth in the sand at the base of a sand dune. Kate went to bed that night with tooth beary and the letter in her pocket and puk (dolphin purse) ready to put the money in! And with the tooth fairies magic she must have found the tooth shining in the moonlight on the sand as she left Kate some money and some sand in her tooth beary pocket, hence we woke to one very happy Kate.

Emma was keen to catch some waves with her boogie board so Darrin took her to the waves just out the front of the camp and they had so much fun catching some waves. That night the girls cooked pizza for dinner and we enjoyed a night around the fire. It was a full moon so it was such a light night.

Sleeping with Toothy and Puk ready for tooth fairy visit

 

Where's my teeth???



loving Lucky Bay