Magnificent Karijini

 

If you ever have the possibility to visit Karijini National Park in the Hamersley Range, don’t think twice. After all the places we’ve seen on this and the two previous trips through Australia, Karijini is the most stunning and impressive. Massive mountains and escarpments rise out of the flat valleys. The high plateau is dissected by breathtaking gorges, and stony, tree-lined watercourses wind their way over the dusty plain. Unforgettable hikes, wonderful baths in rock pools, stunning lookouts…

 

 

 

But before we got there, we visited another, much smaller national park, the Millstream Chichester National Park, which also deserves mentioning. Located along the Fortescue River, it has a landscape of rolling hills covered with beautiful Spinifex grass and Snappy gum trees, spectacular escarpments and rocky peeks. We did a short walk to mount Herbert and enjoyed a refreshing bath in Python Pool.

 

From there we drove to Tom Price, a charming little town in the heart of mining sites of the Pilbara. It seems like everybody living here is working in the Rio Tinto Iron Ore Mine, and everybody and everything is covered with a thin layer of red dust.

The ground is so full of iron, that a magnet coming in contact with it, is full of dirt. Robin enjoyed very much this experiment. On our way to Tom Price we crossed endless trains (we counted 232 carriages) filled with iron ore, pulled by three locomotives.

 

The red colour is what marks the Karijini as well. The banded iron formations exposed in many of the rocks in and around the gorges originated more than 2500 million years ago as iron and silica-rich sediment deposits accumulated on an ancient sea floor. This is really an ancient part of the Earth. Over millions of years these deposits were transformed by pressure of further sediments laid down over them, forcing trapped water to be driven out and gradually turning the sediments into tough, well- bedded rock. The result of this and later horizontal compression is dramatic colours, textures and rock formations.

 

We spent all together four nights in the park, starting with two nights in the East of the park, visiting Dales gorge with its magnificent rock pools Circular Pool, Fortescue Falls and Fern Pool. How refreshing to jump into cool freshwater after a long and partly very steep hike. Robin and I had a lot of fun swimming over to the waterfall, sitting under it and getting our backs massaged.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We continued to the Western part, visiting the most famous and photographed gorges like Weano Gorge, Knox Gorge and Hancock Gorge. Initially we very not sure if we could do all the hikes. They are classified from 1 to 6 (6 being for experienced mountain climbers). After our first hikes we figured out that we could do all the hikes up to class 5, even if that meant some climbing or negotiating steep sections, including Handrail Pool, Kermit Pool and Joffre Falls. We spent our days hiking, climbing and swimming through this breathtaking landscape, pushing our limits here and there (except for Robin – he just loved it, especially the climbing and sliding-down sections). Many times we had to leave our clothes and backpacks behind and continue in swimming gear. The only way to get through was by swimming or wading through deep creeks. What an adventure! Let the photos tell the rest…

 

 

From here we continue to Port Hedland, and then we’ll cross the Gibson Desert (Gary Junction Road).  We are well prepared, have got our permits (necessary because we’re crossing Aboriginal land), and are looking forward for yet another challenge. There won’t be any bitumen roads, any supermarkets, any showers, any mobile phone reception for the next seven days. But we carry 50 litres with drinking water, satellite telephone and food supplies. I will tell you how it went once we have reached Uluru.