Canoe safari (including cooked breakfast) this morning. Had to be at the Kalbarri Boat Hire place by 7.45 and actually made it with a moment or so to spare, after walking from the caravan park. Set off with four other hopeful souls in a very rattly bus towing the canoe trailer behind. Suspect the suspension was a bit dodgy because we bounced mightily around through the sand and dirt to get to our launching point up the Murchison River. Gilly (our guide) got us sorted with our canoes (double) and told us where to go. 
Lots of thick, sticky mud at the launch site caused much squelching and swearing. He then promptly set off in the bus downstream to our breakfast spot to “boil the billy” for our arrival, leaving us to fend for ourselves in the very shallow river. Had to portage across several sandbanks and paddle backwards a number of times when the canoe struck unexpected shallow patches, but made it to the first stop in good time.
Breakfast was substantial, with cereal, fruit, bacon, eggs, hash browns, toast and coffee or tea. Had to wonder if launching of the canoe would be possible with the extra weight but managed it without any major displacement of river water and headed further downstream another few km to the next stop. Saw a couple of kangaroos, lots of cormorants and egrets and a bunch of black cockatoos. Next stop was for a quick dip in the river and water bottle top up if required. Very refreshing , although the water was quite turbid compared to some of the crystal clear reef waters we had become used to more recently. Last leg was another couple of km (10 km all up), preluded by Ally & Jeff managing to (somehow?) capsize their canoe and fall in. 
On arrival at our exit point, dragged the canoes up through more black, sticky mud (very hard to wash off) and climbed back on the bus for another bone jarring ride back into town. All in all very enjoyable, but arms will probably feel it tomorrow.
Had lunch back at camp and then sat there doing nothing very much for quite some time. All that exertion must have taken its toll! Eventually decided to head out into Kalbarri NP in the prado (which necessitated removing most of the contents of the back of the car to fit the rellies in) to have a look at the gorges. Showed the cheapa campa crowd how to drive over corrugations properly (they were going very slowly in the cheapa campa, although can probably understand why, as suspension looks shot and ground clearance is pretty minimal). Viewed “The Loop”, then drove on to the Nature’s Window car park and walked the 500 m in for a look at “Nature’s Window”. 
The gorges here are much more open than those at Karajini, and I think, not as impressive. They also get quite hot in the height of summer, with temperatures reaching up to 10 degrees more than in Kalbarri itself (50 degrees or more possible). Probably mid 30s on our trip. Although flagging a bit by the end of this walk, we pushed on to “Z Bend” – another 1.6 km (round trip) walk to the lookout over a part of the gorge formed into a “Z” shape by fracturing of the rock and subsequent action of the water. Bit cooler by this time (about 5 pm) so not too bad.
To celebrate surviving the trip, we treated ourselves to Magnum Whites back in town, followed by take away pizza (instead of cooking a risotto as planned – perhaps tomorrow night?).