3rd June- Kalbarri National Park

With a lot of kms to cover today we have to be up at 4.30. Most of us promptly fall asleep again once back in the mini bus but, an hour or 2 later we stop for fuel and see the sunrise over a wide horizon. Into Kalbarri National park; miles and miles of rolling shrub growing out of red sandy soil, intersected by deep canyons. We have the option to abseil into a gorge which is fun then walk to some scenic lookout points. It's a spectacular and harsh land. The eucalypts often grow as Mallee trees which look a bit like coppiced woodland but the trunk is underground. When droughts are bad the tree sacrifices a limb or 2.

There's another endless drive after lunch until we finally reach Shark Bay where we leave the main road North and head West out to a penninsula. We stop to see the Stomatolites. These look like lumps of rock in shallow water but they existed 3.5 billion years ago and were part of the very first life forms that helped create our atmosphere, outside of Australia there's only one other place they can be found. Able to survive here due to very saltiness of the bay it's incredible to look at something that has survived through time on this ancient continent.

A final stop at shell beach as sunset comes- the beach consists entirely of cardiid cockle shells, 1 of only 2 such beaches in the world, up to 10m deep in shells the deeper layers have compressed almost to stone and were quarried for building at one time.

We arrive in Monkey Mia, Shark Bay after 1200km in just 2 days.