The adventures of Dave and Michelle: June 2006

Kalbarri corridor.

This is the corridor where Michelle climbed.

This is the shirt that was on the ground beside Michelle. Its also Dave's fave shirt but better a wrecked shirt than a wrecked wife!

A fantastic spot for a swim after a day's climbing. Invigorating!

Klimbing @ Kalbarri

X marks the spot where you should not touch if you want to live. Kalbarri rock is quite loose and we are lucky to be alive. Several rocks fell right beside Michelle who was belaying, one fell on the rope flaked infront of her. Once Dave was safe and Michelle off the rope, Dave accidently dislodged a mumma rock that would have sent Michelle into eternity yet she heard Dave yell "Run for your life" and that she did so we are both happy to be alive this very day. Worst rock fall experience while climbing!

Dave climbed to the left of the black mark.

Back to Kalbarri.

So after a full day in the water with amazing creatures it was time for the dreaded drive South to Kalbarri in day so that we could allow for a day rock climbing! The trip south was better as we had a skipping rope (thanks Fiona) that we used every 100km or so just for something to do!

This is a river. Even in winter there is no water!

Dave the rock star.

Humpback whales!

OK, we had the bestest day ever cos not only did we get to snorkel with turtles, swim with WHALESHARKS, see big manta rays, but we also got to see some humpback whales. And some people don't even get to see one of these creatures on some trips, it all depends on if the animals decide to show up or not. But we think that God just blessed us for travelling a billion kms to get there just to see a whaleshark and we swam with not one, but TWO different whalesharks.

So we started the day by snorkelling near the reef and seeing turtles and heaps of cool colourful fish. Then we were lucky and had a couple of hours in the water with the whale shark. The boat drops us in front and then we wait for the shark to swim past us and then we swim with it. The first drop was the best cos we didn't know what to expect but there was this huge but gentle and very beautiful creature just gracefully swimming around not at all concerned about some crazy nosey snorkellers.

Then when everyone was exhausted we had a very late lunch then headed off for another snorkel with whatever was on the water when we spotted some humpbacks so we followed them for a while. Then our skipper decided to look for manta rays and instead we found a second and different whale shark so back in the water we went.

Michelle dropped in and saw all the other snorkellers in the distance and thought she was in the wrong place and was looking under the water for a fish when she looked down and realised that the whale shark was underneath her about 4m, she had a slight panic attack for wanting to get out of his way but once out of his way she was once again in awe cos this shark was bigger than the first!

Then after shark 2 we did spot some manta rays but they skitted away too fast to swim with so we enjoyed them from the boat!

This is the Ningaloo reef.

Humpbacks!

kk

Whalesharks.

You can get the idea of scale by this photo that is darker than the others.

Swimming with WHALESHARKS!!!

So here we were, it was Day 3 of holiday and we had only spent one day in Kalbarri and not rock climbed as Michelle had been dying to do since we got to WA. But we both had been wanting to swim with whalesharks when we had heard that Ningaloo Reef is the only place in the world that you can do it. SO we decided yep and the next day drove over 800km on the most boring roads ever, with only a stop in Carnavon to buy some bananas and a stop at coral bay for a swim and to buy Michelle a pair of shorts cos the temperature was significantly hotter than Dalwallinu. And the roads are straight and there is NOTHING to see along the way, just arid land, and it was painful, soooooooooo painful and hard to keep the mind focused, cos there is NOTHING to see along the way. The thing about Western Australia is that there are beautiful things to see but it takes a long time to drive there to see them.

But as you can see we had the most amazing experience and the long drive was worth it.

This is Dave's leg.

The view of the whale shark's cool spots.

Dave in front of the gentle giant.

Swimming with turtles!

None other than THE gorgeous Dave himself ready for jumping in with the whaleshark!

Keen swimmers.

In this pic you can see some snorkellers and someone's arm sticking straight up. That person is called a spotter and is showing us how far away to stay from the whaleshark.

Before our boat was radioed that with a whaleshark citing and location we went snorkelling close to the Ningaloo reef and Michelle was over the moon and very excited to spot a couple of turtles. They are just so tranquil and graceful.

Kalbarri gorge

You can see a line of people in this photo that paid for a guide to walk them through the gorge. We climbed down into the gorge and intended to rock climb but unfortunately we had no guide book to know what area of the gorge that had the primo climbing, AND we were overcome with the serenity that we sat down and soaked it in for a couple of hours. We were completely alone as no other people ventured down there. This is one of Michelle's favourite places in WA for beauty.

This is called "Nature's window" and must be the most photographed rock in the park. We got our token shot! Nice to actually have the both of us on a photo.

For the unaware, this is Michelle standing beside an anthill! Although Michelle is not reknown for her extreme height there were some anthills that were taller than Dave!

K

So um we found the continent of Australia in the Kalbarri gorge, though Tasmania seems to have shrunk!

Kalbarri

So there was not enough rain in the wheatbelt for us to carry on seeding so our boss told us to go away for a week and we had the bestest time. We headed North to a place called Kalbarri that has gorgeous red rock and is meant to be some of the best climbing in WA.