The decision was made to go and explore the Kalbarri National Park Gorge walks, so we headed off early to check these out. We decided on the River Walk at the Z Bend of the Murchison River. Wow. Such a beautiful and challenging walk. It was only 2.5km return, but over steep rocky terrain, which made it challenging. You are climbing rocks and stairs, so if your knees are bad, I wouldn’t recommend this walk. For everyone else, seriously add this to your list! It takes approximately 45 minutes to an hour to navigate. That is including stopping for photos. Some of the photos below are to try and give you an idea of the trail and the steepness, but this is hard to show in a photo. The challenge of the walk was fun, it was not too strenuous, I think it looked worse than it felt.
When you get to the bottom you can go for a swim. It didn’t appeal to Col and I as the water was pretty green.  But there were people swimming in the water. It was just so nice to sit and watch the dragon flies and the fish swimming around. So peaceful and relaxing after the walk down. Just breathtaking.
Col let me know that he wanted to go for a walk up the river to fly the drone. I was happy to sit and take in the beautiful surrounds. After a while I started to wonder if Col was ok, as I had expected him back sooner. It was about 30C and I was sitting in direct sunlight. I was keen to start making my way back to the car, as it was an up-hill climb from here and was not going to be easy. I waited, and waited, and waited. Every now and then I saw a glimpse in the distance of Col. Just a flash. Enough to know he was alive and well, but I was wondering why he wasn’t coming back. He had been a very long time. I don’t know how long, as I didn’t check the time that he left. But I was getting very uncomfortable in the sun.
Finally I see him heading back towards me and I was inwardly rejoicing. When he got near me I could see that his face was red, he was sweating and breathing heavily and very clearly stressed. But otherwise, he looked ok, not injured. Col said…. ‘I have lost the drone’. Whaaat? Oh no! Really? (no April Fools Joke here). Col came back to let me know what was happening and wanted to go look for it. He said that he had flown it up above the cliff edge and the wind had caught it, it then ran out of battery and crashed somewhere up the cliff face. I kept saying to Col that the cliffs are made out of sandstone and very crumbly, the drone is not worth risking your life for, just let it go. He was adamant that he wanted to try and search for it.
We agreed that I would head back to the car. There was no mobile coverage there so I wanted to know when to initiate the emergency help plan. Col and I agreed on three hours, as the drone had crashed approximately 1km away. That gave me an hour to get back to the car and gave Col 2 hours to look for the drone and an hour to trek back. So off we both went, in different directions. It was fairly stressful.
I had been back at the car for approximately 45 minutes when I see Col turn up. He had found the drone!!! There is a last known GPS co-ordinate saved when it lands and Col followed this to the location. It said he was 50 metres away when he reached the base of a cliff wall! He found a way to climb up and this is the view looking down the cliff face.
Just a reminder of what this place is like, to get an idea of this Cliff face from a different angle.
Col found a way to climb down and this is what he sees.
Not sure how he found it, but what relief that both he and the drone were ok. I was so happy to see him come back in one piece. We watched the video of the drone after it had crashed and it shows Col walking briskly backwards and forwards, crossing the river, climbing the cliffs. So close and yet so far! I don’t know how many kilometres Col covered that day – the 2.5km return walk, and then many kilometres backwards and forwards, up and down cliffs looking for the drone!!! Thank God for Surf Life Saving and Col’s incredible fitness levels!!!
So after recalibrating and recovering, we headed off to another short walk to see Natures Window. Absolutely stunning. Needless to say that the drone stayed in the box in the car!
View from the lookout on the walk to Natures Window.
Stunning just stunning photos beautiful walk & I imagine yes challenging.
Another oh no moment talk about testing the stress levels halalujah it’s found..
U need a bevy !
It really was stunning and I think the fact that it was challenging made you appreciate it more.
I did forget to mention that there was a little family of a Dad carrying a 2 year old in a seat on his back and the mum was about 5 or 6 months pregnant (maybe more and she was just super fit and super small!!). It was challenging enough without carrying any kids with you! So impressive.
OMG we were so relieved to find it and yes a bevy indeed!!!
x
Absolutely beautiful photos. Had to do a double take and expand the photo of Col at Natures Window as it looked like he had grown hair ….. its just the shadow of the rock !!
Col is such a mountain goat but seriously stop stressing us out with the (mis) adventures of the drone. Stick with the photos they are stunning as Karen said.
Thanks Tania, I had to go back and look at the photo of Col to see – I was cracking up but Col doesn’t find it as funny as us
It kind of looks like a little hat. OMG funny.
Seriously, you don’t want to hear about Col’s misadventures? I thought you LOVED them
I will try and collect more stunning photos for your amusement.
x
Haha same here about Col in shadow …….
Funny. I didn’t notice it when I took the photo, but when I went back to check it did make me laugh
x
We are loving the misadventures here ,but feeling your apprehension and stress levels though ,but with a good ending its a lovely sigh of relief…..a good story always have you ,intrigued, in tears ,biting nails ,wetting pants with laughter …..
There is something in common with any of our adventure stories ..always the men giving us these high stress levels .hahaha
That is very true Jo! x
Oh i forgot ,the drone looked like it was looking for shade just like you Kris .and so glad both Col and the drone are ok
very true! I can’t blame it, it was hot!
Col looks like he has a Jewish hat on – I had to do a double take to ensure it was actually him. I bet you both slept well that night. I admire his persistance and am so glad it ended well. xxx
It does Sam, funny!
You are right, he was super persistent and it paid off in the end. Very impressed and we are both very relieved. x
Just spoke to a customer at work & she has spoke about Kalbarri & the horse riding, apparently you can go quad bike riding & boat rides, she made them sound exciting to do, hope that could be within your budget of something to experience!
yes Col had heard about the Quad bikes, you can go on a punt across the Murchison river then jump on the Quad bikes and you can drive down to the beach to fish. But unfortunately we really don’t have the money to be doing that type of stuff at the moment. Annoying that you have to balance the time as well as the money. You can’t do the tourist holiday for a year, the bank balance doesn’t like it! Hopefully we can pick up some work in Broome and then do some of the expensive stuff. Will have to do another lap to do the things we miss
x
Would taking the hand held radios be of use when you two go out exploring? Not sure if you would get reception in the valleys. Just a thought for safety .
great idea
Great idea Tania, unfortunately Col has the sort that is fixed in his car and I have the hand held radio. But might be worth getting a second hand held one in the future. But as it only works in direct line of sight I don’t think it would have worked in that situation. We actually have a sat phone for emergencies, but don’t think to pack it on short hikes. But need to start throwing this in.