18th May 2010 - Kalbarri to Coral Bay

Distance travelled: 667

Cumulative distance: 7164

Rain welcomed us this morning at the caravan park in Kalbarri as we extracted ourselves from our bathing box. We chatted to the pool man about the weather and he assured us that it would improve the further north we went. Bloody liar!!!! It rained most of the way to Coral Bay. Travelling from the Overlander Roadhouse 240 kms north of Kalbarri we saw signs about the roads liable to flooding. There were large pools forming either side of the road so we put the hammer down before the tide came in. Every time a road train passed us in the opposite direction it was like riding through a carwash. Sunny Australia .... load of cobblers. The scenery consists of low scrub and little else. There were a lot of wild goats roaming around but at least they had the sense to keep off the road and not become road kill. We came upon a shrine to a young aboriginal who died we suppose of drink as it requested no drink be laid at it. The Gascoyne river is the main waterway in this part of the world and this is a picture of it in full flood????

We turned off the main Northwest Highway to Coral Bay and crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. It was late afternoon and kangaroos appeared on the road. I saw three and had to brake to a halt as they could jump in any direction. Kangaroos can do some serious damage to a motorcyclist. Colin saw an Emu cross the road between us. It was some distance away so there was no danger. We arrived at Coral Bay around 5pm and checked into the caravan park. We originally booked a campsite but because of the inclement weather and my advanced years we "upgraded" to a slightly bigger bathing box than Kalbarri. In the evening we went to the local pub for a quiet beer. Unfortunately it was happy hour and all the usual suspects were there getting stonkered on the cheap beer. Colin and I beat a hastie retreat to a cafe down the road for a quite meal. There we met a young couple from Fremantle. The husband wanted to join the Ulysses club but he thought he was too young at 46. We assured him that he could join as a junior member as the older members needed people like him to pick up their bikes when they dropped them. The weather up north in the Kimberleys is not looking too flash. It has been raining and the Gibb River road is closed. The forecast is not looking all that good at the moment so we'll have to just play it by ear. Tomorrow we are going to swim with the whale sharks off Ningaloo reef if the weather is OK so fingers crossed.