A playful whale calf breaches amongst a foreground of coastal bushes south of Kalbarri.

Lichens, mosses, algae and stone combine to create a rainbow of colour in the Kalbarri National Park.

There’s something so wonderfully optimistic and maybe naive about the single metal signs on the fringes of rural towns extolling their virtues.  Port Gregory’s is no different, telling you all about trading hours at the local store and about the CWA and local tennis club.

Faded, rusting, you can’t but wonder what it was like when the sign was first put up.

Coastal Kalbarri.

A wave preempts a break in the Indian Ocean, south of Kalbarri.

Kalbarri is a coastal anomaly in Western Australia as it’s the only area in the southern half of the state where sandstone meets the ocean.  In general, south to Perth and north to the North West shelf, all of the cliffs are limestone.  This anomaly makes for a fantastic melange of contrasting colours.

Coastal sandstone fringed by low shrubs south of Kalbarri.

The last photo from the gorge for now shows the wonderful layers of sediment and the very clear definition between each.  Tomorrow it’s on to the ocean around Kalbarri!

As mentioned yesterday, the Z Bend is caused by a fault, which is clearly detailed in the left hand side of the image vanishing towards the centre.  The fault also allows for a lot of trees to get a start.

Galah is both a quintessentially Australian word and animal, and never has a truer word been used, with perhaps the exception of the Sloth.  This playful lot were impressing the tourists at the head of the Loop Trail into the Murchison Gorge.