We are down by the beach by 8.45 am for the pelican feeding which takes place daily on the Kalbarri foreshore. A small crowd has gathered but there is no sign of either the volunteer with the bucket of fish or, indeed, the wild pelicans. Twenty minutes later we are about to return toe van when the lady with the fish appears, but the pelicans seem to be otherwise engaged – apparently it is mating season and the waters of a nearby lake are full and food is plentiful. We hang on for another 15 minutes or so as the lady with the fish bravely tries to make up for the absence of the star attraction with some general information about pelicans (did you know for instance, that a pelican’s bill can hold 12 litres of water?). All the while she is tossing fish towards the beach to be greedily snatched up by a large flock of seagulls who presumably can’t believe their good fortune. We are just about to leave, when our patience is rewarded. The first pelican descends from the sky, shortly followed by three others. With a three metre wingspan and huge bill they are a remarkable sight in flight. Gradually they make their way up the beach coming right into the semi-circle created by the crowd, where with an expert eye, they catch the fish in their bills.
Today is the Canoe and Crayfish Festival in Kalbarri. A few craft stalls, a couple of bouncy castles and the crayfish stall form the backdrop for this event, the highlight of which is a number of kayak races in the bay and a tug-of-war. The former proves to have limited appeal, to us at least, as only the start and finish take place within viewing distance whilst the rest of the race goes on somewhere further up river. We spend a while browsing the stalls and inspecting the winners of the sandcastle competition before deciding to say our goodbyes to Kalbarri and continue our exploration of the coast.
Our first stop is at Jake’s Point, a popular surfing beach with huge curling breaks of the sort you usually only get to see on television. There are some seriously skilful surfers out today and we stand on the rocks watching their displays. But more attention-grabbing are a pod of about half-a-dozen dolphins who are also here to frolic in the waves and surf the rollers. Just like the surfers they wait in the swell for just the right wave and when it comes they swim inside it until the surf breaks. As it carries them forward they fly out of the front of the surf in a perfect arc. Then just as their performance seems to be over, the hole pod leaps, perfectly sychronised, through the back of the dying wave and swims out to sea to start the whole process over again. The simple things in life are definitely the sweetest!
Eventually, we tear ourselves away; the dolphins have tired of their recreation and we hungry.for lunch. In the afternoon we visit several coastal viewing points that fall within Kalbarri National Park – Eagle Gorge, Island Rock, and Natural Bridge- before heading on the Port Gregory to see the Pink Lake. There is little to detain us a Port Gregory which is a small fishing village-cum-holiday retreat and we make our way to a camp ground just south of Northampton collecting wood on the way for an evening round a camp fire.