Karijini {National Park}

FINALLY we made it!

After being so close last year, I would have been disappointed to get this close again and not actually make it but we did and just before the mad school holiday rush {thankfully}.

We arrived after grabbing what we needed in town and first stop was the visitors centre in the National Park.  It was a lovely building full of heaps of details regarding the local people, area and the park it's self. After having a wander around and double checking we headed to Dale's campground, saw the hosts and found a nice spot with afternoon shade.

After setting up, some lunch and a little relaxing we decided to head down and have a swim at Fern Pool as it was a fairly warm afternoon & the smalls were itching to get a look at what was around.  We drove down to the carpark for Fortesque Falls {as that extra 40 minutes walk would have meant cranky children} and then started heading down the very long set of stairs which take you to the falls and then to the right to the pool.

The walk from the carpark to the top of the falls was really easy & the view from the top over the falls and pool was breath taking.  It really does never get old looking at such natural beauty and it is simple hard to believe that when you look out over the plains when driving in it can't be seen, this gorge is something that if you went for a walk across the plain you would literally fall into it if you didn't pay attention.  I wonder how many people back in the day did just that?

 

 

After taking in the sites it was time to trek down the rather large number of stairs.  Kyla attempted to count them on the way {and back up again} but lost count after around 50.

We decided, as it was so warm to head straight to Fern Pool to take a look.  The gentleman at the Visitors Centre had told us to head right at the top of the falls as there was no signs marking the track.  It was easy to find and was a lovely shaded walk full of lovely big fig trees coming out of all the rock formations.

Then we found it.  A beautiful pool which had a nice decked landing go right to the edge.  Now it was a lovely warm day, I was very hot but the water most certainly took my breathe away when I jumped in.  It was freezing for the first five minutes at least, after that it was nice to simply float around and take in all of the beautiful scenery that surrounded us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After cooling off some, we sad and had a snack before walking back to take a closer look at the falls themselves.  They must look even more amazing when there is more water, but nonetheless it was still a beautiful site and nice to be able to get so up close and personal to them.  The colours of the rocks changed the more steps you walked down and I guess also dependent on how often they actually have water running over them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday saw us head out to Circular Pool for a look and it was a wonderful site looking down to this seemingly isolated pool of water.

 

 We then trekked across the top to Fortesque Falls to walk down those wonderful stairs again and take a wander up Dale's Gorge.  What an ever changing environment that was to explore, even better that we didn't see one person on our walk up to Circular Pool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Justin and the smalls had a swim at Circular Pool, which I decided against as the pool was all but fully shaded and it was far to cold for me to do in the morning.

 

 

 

After snacks and swims it was time to trek back out of the wonderful pool.  The stairs back up at Circular Pool where evil, but I am glad that we went up them and not down them.

We had a relaxing afternoon back at the camper.  We did some reading, the smalls did the activity book that they got about the national park and they also had a nice cool 'bath' in tubs to cool off.

Wednesday morning we packed up, hooked up the trailer and headed over to Weano Gorge for a walk there and a look at the others in the area. We headed down 'backwards' compared to most, taking the stairs down, exploring the gorge at the bottom and then headed back the other way.  We would have liked to have headed to handrail pool but sadly it required a swim and with the smalls it was not going to be possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Instead we trekked back out and went for a walk around the corner to checkout all of the lookouts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next stop is Tom Price for the night so that Justin could finish of some work he did for someone in town.