Life in a Humpback

Day 72: Karijini National Park (Day 3)

After three big days of walking in the gorges we took it a bit slower today. In the morning the kids finished their junior ranger workbooks and we went to the visitors centre to get them signed off. The ranger had them do a pledge, a welcome to country, and sign their books with red dirt hand prints before they could become official Karijini Junior Rangers.

Then we went on a drive to see some of the wildflowers that were blooming in the park.

To wrap up our day we walked back down Dales Gorge to Fern Pool for a swim out to the waterfall and back.

Day 71: Karijini National Park (Day 2)

Today we went to Kalamina Gorge (Nhamurrunha) to go for a walk, Theo and I walked really fast to catch up to some friends at the end. Later we walked into Joffre (Jijingunha) Gorge to go swimming - sadly the water was too stagnant to get in. Along the way to the gorge we went to Joffre View to look at the gorge from above. Then we went to Knox Gorge for ANOTHER walk in ANOTHER gorge. We listened to Odyssey by Steven Fry in the car.

On the way home we saw a car that had backed off the road. It was stuck in a ditch and couldn't get back on. There were some people helping to try to get it back on the road. So we turned around to help. Sadly Theo and I had to stay in the car. In the end a guy who we called "MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING" managed to tow the car out of the hole it was in! (This was a much more exiting end to the day than eating burritos for dinner).

Day 70: Karijini National Park (Day 1)

Today we walked a small walk down lots of stairs through Weano Gorge that got us to the Handrail Pool. We held onto a handrail with both hands and climbed down rocks bolted to the wall. At the pool we swam to the end of where we could go. It was FREEZING COLD. Then we went to Oxer Lookout. Then we had lunch. Then we went to Hancock Gorge where we swam and walked to the end. We also found a water slide that was made out of rocks in a narrow part of the gorge. While we were walking Hancock Gorge we met some friends that we made at Pender Bay (Max and James).

After the walk we went back to camp and we made a teepee fort with Max and James out of big sticks.

Day 69: Karijini Free Camp to Karijini National Park

Today started with a beautiful sunrise over the hills of Karijini National Park. Once we packed up camp we headed to the visitors centre in the park to get our maps and some suggestions of what order to do all the gorge walks in. We then drove out to our campsite at Dales Gorge.

Once we had set up camp we walked out to the Circular Pool Lookout. We then continued along the rim of Dales Gorge before descending the 300 stairs to Fortescue Falls. From the falls we walked up the gorge (past a tree full of bats) to Fern Pool for a look, and regretted not bringing our swimmers. We then walked back down the gorge until just before Circular Pool, where we climbed back up out of the gorge and made our way home to camp. All up our hike was around 8km - a bit longer than we were expecting but a great introduction to the gorges of the park.

Back at camp for the night, Olivia sat down with Dad to teach him how to crochet so they could make matching axolotls.

Day 68: De Grey River Rest Area to Karijini Free Camp

This morning we drove the last 80km into Port Hedland to pick up some groceries and have a look around town. It was very interesting to see all of the mining transport infrastructure. There were large hills of salt bring loaded onto road trains, and iron ore being moved by very long trains (over 250 carriages per train) and ships.

Once we had our fill of the sites of Port Hedland we drove inland once again towards Karijini National Park. Soon after leaving the coastal highway we started gaining elevation and found ourselves back in the red rock hills covered in spinifex and gum trees. We also passed more road trains today than we have in the whole trip, the majority of which were filled with iron ore.

Just before getting into camp we stopped at the Albert Tognolini Lookout for a view over Karijini Range and down onto the road cut that we drove through. From the lookout we could watch the road trains coming and going.

A bit before sunset we found the Karijini Free Camp site just outside the national park. Here we drove up the hill and found a great spot for the night under some gum trees in amongst the spinifex. It was the first cool evening we had had in ages. In fact we think today was the first day that it did not get to 30 degrees since we left Mataranka. We all enjoyed the cooler evening around the campfire.