Janice and I got married in this sleepy little seaside resort town seven years ago.  It's only fitting that we should bring Paige there now to see what's changed, and visit the places from our wedding and honeymoon. 

Kalbarri's about an hour up the coast from Geraldton, WA.  It's surrounded on three sides by a conservation area, with the ocean on the other front.  During the summer it can be intolerably hot here--45 C--but right now, in the fall, it's beautiful.

Being smack on the Indian Ocean, Kalbarri's got great vistas.  Above is just one of a number of points along the coast, just south of town, where you can stand and look out over the sea from high overhead. 

This is a view from the hotel we stayed at when we got married.  Just down the street is the bay, with a long sandbar that stretches out across it; you can walk out onto this and watch the sunset, which (since it rarely rains this time of year) pretty much always looks like this:

The Dutch used to come roaring along this lattitude looking for Jakarta, and regularly smacked into the Australian coast without warning; hence the whole area is crowded with shipwrecks.  Local museums (Geraldton has a fine one) are packed with shipwreck items, including chests and coins.

This is a view of the Zuytdorp Cliffs, named after one of those famous wrecks.  The cliffs go on for at least a hundred miles, with nothing but a couple of tiny sheep stations backing them up.  You can fly from Kalbarri along these cliffs, across the aptly named Shark Bay, and swim with the dolphins at a place called Monkey Mia.

Yeah... I'm having fun.  And the news that I've just sold audio rights to the Virga books makes me feel like I'm working, too!  (Actually, I am--I brought my laptop.)

That's all for now... more soon!