Karijini National Park

Karijini NP is an area of many spectacular gorges. As you drive along the presence of these gorges isn’t obvious as the view is of rounded hills tinged pink, as the colour of the red rock intermingles with the colour of the spinifex grass. Every now and then a crevice edged in red rock appears indicating there is an opening in the ground. The exposed rock is almost entirely multi layered iron rich rock that is a bright rust-red colour. (photo rock) We camped at the National Park Dales camp and used this as our base to explore the Dales and Weano Gorge areas. After setting up camp and before we started exploring we made a quick lunch and went down to Frans and Bev’s van (friends from Derby) to catch TV coverage of the league final, Storm v Eels. They have satellite TV so we were able to watch the final as we did the 2 semi finals when we were at Barn Hill Station a week earlier and the AB’s v Wallabies when we were in Broome. Before the sun set we had time to walk down to the top of the Fortescue Falls in Dales Gorge and walk a short way upstream to Fern Pool where we went for a swim. This is quite a large pool fed by a small waterfall and it has lots of maidenhair ferns on the banks near and under the falls.
The next day we drove to the Weano Gorge area, via 42km of gravel road that wasn’t too rough as Aussie gravel roads go, (photo road) where we had several gorges to view and/or explore. At the Oxer Lookout we viewed the meeting point of the Hancock, Joffre, Weano and Red Gorges and we decided to explore two of these.
Hancock Gorge - the track included going down steps and a ladder to get to the bottom. We walked along a narrow path between high rust red multi-layered rocks. Walked along rocky ledges and waded through water up to knee deep.
Weano Gorge - walked down rocky steps to get to the bottom. (photo Jill in narrow bit at Weano Gorge) The gorge was very narrow in places and at times we were mid thigh deep in water. At one point walked along a rocky ledge while knee deep in water, a well used path so the rocks here weren’t slippery. Went as far as “Handrail Pool” where the way into the pool was down a slippery slope with a metal handrail for security. This looked to be a bit much for us and when I saw someone trying to get out by using a rope to get herself up to the handrail I knew it definitely wasn’t for me. We drove back down the road to where there were some more gorges to look at and explore. On the way saw an emu with two chicks and a falcon in a tree eating a mid sized lizard.
Joffre Gorge & falls and Knox Gorge we viewed from the lookouts. (photo Knox Gorge)

Kalamina Gorge – easy steps down to the bottom. A wider gorge and big flat rocks to walk on. (photo Jill in Kalamina Gorge) We didn’t get our feet wet this time. Nice reflections in the pools and a very pleasant walk.
At the day’s end we still hadn’t explored the gorge near to where we were camped so decided to explore it the next day before departing for Tom Price. This walk took us along the rim of Dales Gorge through spinifex grassland with good views of the gorge below. We descended into the gorge near the Fortescue falls and walked the track to Circular Pool where the gorge ended at a pool at the base of a waterfall. The track along the gorge was beside a barely flowing stream and there were lots of trees and pools along the way. It was an easy walk as it was generally along flat rocks and we didn’t have to get our feet wet.
While at Tom Price we drove up to the top of Mount Nameless (a stupid name) and from here got a great view of the surrounding country. In one direction was a view of the iron ore mining area and we were blown away by the size of it – HUGE doesn’t cover it. In another direction was a panorama of hills covered in spinifex grass. (photo from Mt Nameless)
You would think that by now we would have seen enough gorges but no there was still one more we wanted to explore, Hamersley Gorge. To get there involved a round trip of 150km and most of it on a gravel road. We were pleasantly surprised to find the best gravel road we have encountered for a very long time so it was an easy drive. The rock formation at Hamersley was unlike those encountered the previous two days. Here the rock shows signs of having been under great pressure and is pushed up and twisted. Easy steps took us to the bottom of the gorge where we walked up stream to find “The Grotto”. We didn’t know exactly what we were looking for and had been told we should follow the right hand side of the stream. From the pool below the falls (low ones) we made our way by scrambling over the rocks beside the falls and pools above them to an indistinct track. We followed the track for quite a way through trees, over and around rocks until we came to a large pool. A scramble around some large rocks by the pool led us to an arrow on the track, marked out in rocks, indicating that we should cross the small stream. We did this and a few metres further on we found the grotto. It was a cool pool in a big cavern with a dribble of water coming in at the far end. On the rock sides of the cavern were maiden hair ferns. We retraced out steps as far as the pools at the top of the waterfall and made out way out of the gorge by following a bit of a track then walking up a rocky spinifex covered slope to get to the top of the gorge and back to the car park. Once back at the truck we made sandwiches for our lunch and took them down to the pool to eat, while sitting in the shade of a tree. After satisfying our hunger we went for a swim. The water was a bit cooler than our swims of late but was still very nice. We got some advice from a local on how to cross the falls and get to a pool above, where there was the “spa pool”. (photo "spa pool" under waterfall) This was where a waterfall has carved a circular pool in the rock. A wriggle up a short slippery rocky slope had us in the very deep small pool with a small waterfall flowing in. It was an unusual experience to be swimming in a pool almost enclosed by rocky walls.
On leaving Tom Price our destination was Exmouth at the top of a peninsula about 1200 km north of Perth and 550km from Tom Price. To make for easy driving we had two stopovers on the way. The first of these was at a roadside rest area, a clearing in the trees near a dry river, toilets and fire pit supplied. We pulled up here and while having a late lunch the breeze picked up and with stronger gusts of wind there were clouds of red dust flying in the air. We closed off the vents on the upwind side of the caravan and hoped that the wind would die down by sunset, as is the usual pattern. We went for a wander down the dry river bed to the nearby road bridge then back through the trees and under a fence into a paddock where there was a small rocky hill that we climbed to look at the view. By the time we got back to the van the wind was abating. Swept the red dust out of the van twice while we were stopped here! Our next night we spent at Giralia Station, a sheep station of 654,000 acres that was purchased by the Conservation Department in 2002. The buildings were quite modern as most things got destroyed in 1999 when cyclone Vance came through the area. The vegetation was mostly spinifex grass with lesser areas of buffel grass. The average annual rainfall is 10 inches.
The farmland we have been travelling through is very different to what we see at home. There are no lush grasses, no topsoil instead there are rocks and stones with a random covering of spinifex, sometimes other dry looking grasses, a scattering of various types of bushes and low growing trees. Every now and then there is a recently burnt area that has a little new growth on the ground and the occasional claypan area where nothing is growing.
We are now on the coast at Exmouth. We have stopped in the town for a couple of days waiting for the school holidays to finish and the National Park camps along the ocean side of the peninsula at Ningaloo Reef to have some spaces. It is apparently a very attractive area with marine reserves and sanctuaries including a coral reef within wading/swimming distance of the shore, all backing onto a coastal National Park. We will head down there on Monday 12/10 for a few days of fishing, and snorkelling and generally not doing too much or going very far.