Karijini National Park - 22nd May – 25th May
We set off from Exmouth as early as we could; our next destination was Karijini NP. It was 500ks to the town of Tom Price - the park and its gorges were a further 60-100ks. The drive was fairly uneventful apart from the last 70ks or so which were dirt. It had been raining on and off and the dirt road was a little wet. This is usually a nice thing (as long as it is not too wet!!) as it keeps the dust levels down. Unfortunately road works are being carried out at the moment and they have flattened the road ready for bitumen to be laid. This has the effect of leaving a layer of muddy slime on the road. We had only around 10ks of this but to say OJ was in a mess would be an understatement! Every time we jumped in or out of her we had red slime on our legs and clothes – Not nice.
We arrived at Tom Price Caravan Park late in the day and decided to stay and somehow clean the car. They had a car wash bay and we had to queue for it. By the time we were half way through cleaning the car it was dark and Heidi was spraying the hose by torch light!
A very long train - Tom Price
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| From Karijini |
In the morning we left the caravan park in search of fuel as we had avoided roadhouses yesterday, due to their high prices. The car was very empty but we did have 2 jerries on board. The sat nav said the garage was close but then all of a sudden the car gave a little cough and died. ‘Oh No’ we had run out of fuel. We untied the jerry can and set about pouring in 19 litres of fuel on the side of the road. After a couple of goes OJ started and we drove under the bridge to see the Coles servo right there in front of us – We had run out of fuel less than 200 mtrs from it!!!
After a bit of a giggle and a fill up we explored Tom price for an hour or so. We found a big mining truck for Heidi (she has wanted to see one up close since Kalgoorlie). In this area there are also trains that can be 3-4 kms in length (Yes kilometres – that’s 1.8 – 2.5 miles for you UK readers). Well as it happened we followed one out of town on our way to Karijini NP. Hearing how long these things are is one thing but seeing it is another - Amazing.
Hamersley Gorge, Karijini National Park
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| From Karijini |
There are 3 main gorge sights in Karijini (there are others but we would only see these if time permitted), Hamersley, Weano recreation area and Dales recreation area. Our first stop was Hamersley as it was to the north of the park and not on any through road that we wanted to take. We arrived in the afternoon after the Tom Price exploration to find a lookout down into the gorge. The gorge had a cascade type waterfall at one end a swimming hole in the middle and a narrow ravine at the other end. It was an amazing sight from above but we knew that the perspective would be completely different once we were down inside it.
There were some steep steps down into the gorge and we ummed and ahhed about taking our swimming gear down with us. We had a bag packed with camera stuff and water and decided not to. Once down in the gorge we were very taken by the size and beauty of this place. Red rocks against blue sky, green trees fringing the pool full of little fish and the sights and sound of the waterfalls.
H Relaxing in Hamersley Gorge
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| From Karijini |
We hopped around on the rocks taking pictures and watching others swim in the pool – it looked good.
Heidi said that she had always wanted to swim in one of these gorge type pools but was worried that it might be a little cold. I suggested that if she ran back up to the car and then came back down, all those steep steps would make her want to cool off! So off she went. After carefully changing (without exposing ourselves!), Heidi was first to brave the pool. She said that she was going to go in slowly and set about climbing down the slippery rocks at the waters edge. After some very graceful clambering(!) she pushed off and swam over to the other side exclaiming “It’s not too bad actually”
Swimming in Hamersley Gorge
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| From Karijini |
I was next and decided that I was not messing about with the shallow slippery rocks to the side of me and just dived into the deeper area in front of me. The pool was very refreshing and crystal clear; we splashed and swam for a while. We then had to head off to camp, happy that we had ticked off another must do experience in such a wonderful setting.
Our camp for the night was to be ‘Savannah Campground within the NP. These camps are normally very basic and not very expensive. As we drove towards the camp we kept seeing signs for an ‘Eco camp’. As we pulled in we saw a reception area, BBQ’s, flushing toilets, those cabin/tents that people pay a lot to stay in and a restaurant. We looked at each other and thought “this is not what we expected, looks expensive!”
After a trip to reception (which was also an air-conditioned bar selling alcohol and meals!) we found that the camp area was now privately owned and a touch more that the $13 we were expecting! ($25) Never the less we were in the area of the park we wanted to explore so we paid our money and set up for the night.
After one of the coldest nights we have had so far we made the short drive to Weano Gorge Recreation Area. There are a few walks in the area of varying degrees of difficulty. Neither of us are big walkers, usually a challenging walk involves long distances, however all walks were short and we decided that a challenge would be fun. We had heard that one of the walks even had a shortish ladder climb on it!
We started off with a quick stroll to a lookout over a chasm where 4 gorges meet in what I have seen described as ‘a marvel of geology’. It was pretty spectacular; the area was so huge though it was difficult to take in the scale of what we were looking at – a feast for the eyes!
We then headed off on the level 5 walk down into and through part of Hancock Gorge to Kermits Pool. The walk started off on a level 4 walk down into the gorge. This consisted of some steep steps with little else (No handrails for instance). On completion of this we arrived at the level 5 section. (Just as an aside level 6 requires an official qualification in abseiling! WOW).
The level 5 section started with the ladder climb down onto the gorge floor. Safely negotiated we carried on through the gorge, we had worn our proper hiking boots and there were some patches of water. It quickly became a fun challenge to keep close to the walls and out of the water. After a few hundred metres there was what seemed to be a section that was impassable in the dry and people were taking their shoes off and wading. After some deliberation we followed suit and were just about to get wet when we saw a group go up and over the top and get safely down – all dry. We quickly pulled our shoes back on and followed their route over the top. It was a bit of a clamber but nothing too difficult. This gave us the confidence to carry on and we did a bit more ‘sticking to the sides’ over another deepish section of water.
We then arrived in ‘The Amphitheatre’ – a large hollow in the gorge that looked like it had seats for some sort of show, “What a weird and wonderful place this Park is!” we thought.
The Amphitheatre was the start of the section of the walk called ‘Spider Walk’.
Spider Walk was basically a very narrow section (never more than arm span wide) with a shallow slippery water flow running down it. Looks like we were finally gonna get wet! But wait what happened to the guys that were doing it in the dry? They must have done it. After checking up high and deciding that it was just not safe we saw ‘the dry guys’ coming back through holding themselves up just inches above the water with arms and legs across the gap. – Walking like SPIDERS!!
So with a little trepidation we set about spider walking the 100 or so metres to the next clear landing area. After clawing our way down Spider Walk we were rewarded with the very picturesque Kermits Pool. Kermits Pool was gorgeous, a green pool with red rocks under the surface and the gorge towering high above it on all sides.
At one end of the pool the water slipped away down a waterfall that was more like a rocky chute. The pools down the bottom looked excellent too. However you needed to have qualifications in abseiling to go any further. We bid farewell to this amazing little spot and headed back up the same route we’d entered the gorge. It was a little warmer by now and the climb back up the gorge side was quite hard work!
After a spot of lunch we then headed back into the gorges this time Weano Gorge for a go at the walk to Handrail Pool – so called because there is a handrail (and rope) to negotiate a tricky slippery waterfall before you can descend into the pool (for a swim if you wish – we didn’t). The walk through the gorge also involved climbing up high to avoid getting wet, then a little passage between fallen rocks. We were both amazed at the amount of trees and plants that grow down in the gorges considering there are not many hours of sun down here. I slipped on the surface a couple of times this walk, wetting both my feet, Heidi thought this was very amusing!
Next was the job of negotiating the handrail and rope. Not too difficult you would think however there was a small cascade running over your feet that made things very slippery. In the end we turned, facing away from the drop off and slowly lowered ourselves holding tightly on to the rail. This took us to a little ledge where there was a rope tied to the hand rail that went over a 2m drop. 2m doesn’t sound like much but lowering yourself over the ledge backwards holding only on to a moving rope was a little unnerving. I have to say Heidi made it look a lot easier than me! Must be a big chicken!
This was pretty much the end of the line unless you wanted to swim the last couple of hundred metres – Pool looked cold!
We sat and marvelled for a while at the towering red rock on all sides, watched a crazy guy free climb up to at least 20m above the pool with his camera (bare foot!), laughed about what fun we had had today in such a beautiful natural place.
Once back we set off for camp at the National park owned site of Dale’s Rec Area. This was the area of the park we wanted to explore next and we spent another very cold night recuperating after an exhausting but thoroughly enjoyable day.
That night whist at camp in broad daylight a Dingo wandered in and had a sniff around. This was our first clear sighting of a Dingo (larger than we expected!). We were warned by the camp host that they were around and to hide our shoes as they chew them! In the morning we were awoken at 5am by the eerie sound of many Dingoes howling together – not a pleasant sound. This was also officially the coldest night that we had experienced as the thermometer in the car showed a new minimum temp – 5C. That meant it must have been even lower outside of the car (we believe around 2-3C).
It was still pretty cool when set off for the Dale’s Gorge walk. Swimming was also possible on this walk but there was no way we were thinking about that at the moment – The warning signs of hypothermia still fresh in our minds!
This walk was not as fun as yesterdays but it was more picturesque and seeing the waterfall and tree lined pools was well worth it. Karijini NP is truly an awesome place, if you are ever in the vicinity you would not regret the small detour for a couple of nights – Brilliant, one of the highlights of the trip so far.
