Jun 3, 2008, 11:52 GMT
Kalbarri, Australia - First came the flood which was followed by a drought. Now, the time is ripe for tourists.
Calum Carruth is at his barbecue, serving emu meat to his German guests. His farm is in the middle of the Kalbarri National Park on Australia's western coast. It's an idyllic site, but the fight against nature takes all his energy.
'The Murchison River flooded all our land in March 2006,' he says, stepping on a tick the size of an ant. 'After that, it didn't rain for 20 months.'
He had to sell most of his 1,000 sheep. Soon it will be time for the goats to go. 'Because of the drought, tourism has become much more important for us.'
Carruth has an eight-bedroom house. It's hardly luxurious and some parts look as though they were built in the 19th century. The showers are not much better than those at a camping site, and the warm water comes and goes.
Nonetheless, some European backpackers consider it the perfect opportunity to get away from it all. 'I enjoy getting back to nature,' says Beena Rossberg. The Berlin native came to Australia for eight weeks a few years ago ... and stayed. She married Carruth's neighbour Frank and now works as a kindergarten teacher in Kalbarri.
'People here have more time. Money, careers and clothes are not as important,' she says.
Getting back to nature in Kalbarri sometimes means exploring ancient Earth history. Sandstone has been piling up on the banks of the Murchison river for 400 million years, laying down alternating red and white stripes.
The river follows a zig-zag path to the Indian Ocean. It dries out quickly during the Australian summer. Fossilized remains of long-dead creatures have become part of the rock walls: giant scorpions, snakes and dinosaurs. Rare wildflowers grow here: yellow banksia and grevillea, orchids in every colour, grass and eucalyptus trees, and silver shimmering thistles.
The natural wonders attract around 150,000 tourists a year. 'No one knows exactly how many, since a lot show up as Wicked Campers,' says David Waite, referring to an Australian adventure tours company.
Travelling by bus, he takes visitors through the 186,000-hectare national park, showing them the famous Z-curve of the Murchison Gulch and the spectacular river bend known as 'The Loop.'
Compared to the hordes that visit Australia's east coast, 150,000 isn't much. Even in high season, Kalbarri, population 2,000, hardly seems packed.
Kalbarri cannot offer winter sports to its visitors. But that has only made the locals more creative. After all, visitors can surf down the sand dunes, which is exactly what Jeremy and Emma Pierce are doing.
The adventurers begin with a neck-breaking drive in a mini-bus through the 'Lucky Bay' dunes. The Land Cruiser gets stuck in the sand several times and need to be shoveled free.
Once they reach their goal, they slap on helmets and climb on their boards to slide down the dunes at a 45-degree angle, reaching speeds of 80 kph. Jeremy demonstrates all the standing, sitting and belly positions.
'Keeping your balance and steering are harder than skiing,' he admits. Meanwhile, the east winds are blasting millions of grains of sand into your face ... bad for the vision but a great skin peel.
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