We’ve spent the last few days in Karijini National Park enjoying walks, climbs, and the gorges there.
On the day of arrival we ended up sleeping in the overflow day parking lot as this was the first weekend of school holidays. Whilst there was barely enough room to swing a cat between campsites, this has worked out in my favour as a sparky was in the camp opposite and came over when he saw me fiddling with my dual battery setup. More on this in a separate post, needless to say it worked out extremely well for me, with about an hour of free work.
The second day saw us move to a proper spot, almost without meaning to as we chanced our arms and ended up with a spot big enough for us and our new temporary guests. The crew of Pod are a lovely couple and their amazing almost two years old little girl, nicknamed Boo for her love of the game, who immediately ran the six adults around as though it was her own private kingdom.
We spent the next couple of days in Fern Pool, Hammersley Gorge, Joffre Falls and Knox Gorge.
Fern Pool was easy enough to get to, a quick five minute drive, 10 minute descent and walk, and then a swim in an Aboriginal site (allowed). The water was extremely cold, but very needed after a couple of days of no showers.
Hammersley Gorge was a drive and a half, almost at the opposite side of the park, with the majority of it being on corrugated dirt roads.
Once at the gorge the buzz of drones ruined the serenity, however these left about ten minutes after we reached the bottom. Some sandwiches and discussion over whether or not to swim was had, along with some photo opps. We then ended up in the icy cold water, significantly colder than the previous day – which is not something that I thought could happen, for a swim and then the climb to the top. Boo decided I was to walk with her to the top holding her hand. The only trouble being that some of the steps were the same size as her, so I ended up carrying her and my kit about halfway to the top. Bring on the cardio workout!
After the drive back to the centre of the park we came to Joffre Falls for a look at the least favourite named falls (we’re all game of thrones fans), before moving onto Knox Gorge where we got a couple of shots that look far worse on camera than they actually are.
Back to camp and another night of food, wine, and laughter before a pack up and Boo wishing us all goodbye as we were off on our way to Eighty Mile Beach.