Karajini and Home

We arrived at Karajini (Dales Gorge Campground) in the early afternoon.  We were still in "Kimberley Mode" and spent some time setting up under as much shade as we could.  We shouldn't have bothered.  Within a few hours the sun set and the temperature dropped markedly.  For the first time on the trip, the jumpers were pulled out of the camper-trailer.  It was a bit of a relief really.

Dales Gorge Campsite Pics

As we only had a couple of days here in Karajini before we had to head back to Perth - we thought we'd go back to one of our favourite gorges (Hancock Gorge) and also visit Hammersley Gorge - as we missed out on that last time (2007).

During our last visit to Hancock Gorge, Keyla wasn't able to tackle the "Spider Walk" thru to Kermit pool.  I think this time she was a bit more determined.  We wasted no time in descending into the Gorge down a steep path and a long fixed ladder.

Climbing down the path into the gorge

Descending the ladder to the floor of the gorge

We walked and climbed our way down the gorge. It was all so familiar. It didn't seem like it was over 2 years since we had been there. We scrambled up the walls of the gorge to avoid going into the water for as long as we could. Keyla's "inner mountain goat" came out to play. She was scaling walls and hanging over high vertical drops as good as anybody else was.

A few pics from Hancock Gorge

We were having so much fun that in no time at all we had reached the "Spider Walk" - where you have to move along supporting yourself on both sides of the gorge at the same time - same as if you were to climb the walls in a narrow corridor. We stopped and had a bit of a rest and a drink before making our way thru the spider walk to Kermit Pool. Kermit pool is as far as you can go in the gorge without rock climbing gear.

Me at Kermit Pool

Keyla happy to reach Kermit Pool

That's how you get there - spider walk

After a few celebratory photos and spending some time to take in the beauty of the water-worn ironstone rock and the cool clear water, we returned to pick up our gear and head back to camp.

For the first time on the trip I took a mid-afternoon nanna-nap whilst sitting in my camp chair. Keyla was kind enough to record the event.

Nanna Nap

The next day we headed out to Hammersley Gorge.  This is the one we missed out on last time.  It is located in the western end of the park and is a reasonable drive from the campground.  When we eventually got there, we were pleasantly surprised and later wondered why it isn't as heavily promoted as the other gorges.  In terms of ease of access, it's by far the easiest gorge to access (even people with wonky knees and so on would be ok).  It also has some great swimming holes, plenty of opportunity for scrambling over rocks (which really is a lot of fun) and really tightly folded rocks that are a delight to gaze upon and admire.
After a bit of an explore around the gorge and taking a few photos we decided to keep circumnavigating the park.  Our next stop was the town of Wittenoom and Wittenoom Gorge (yes - the asbestos one).

Twisted BIF's - Hammersley Gorge

Twisted Dude and Twisted BIF's

Hammersley Gorge

Hammersley Gorge

Watching little fish swim into the current

Hammersley Gorge

Having a spell in Hammersley Gorge

Wittenoom township is a ghost town.... At first sight.  However the closer you look at the town you can see that many of the houses are still occupied (as holiday houses?). There are however plenty of offical looking signs leading up to the townsite to discourage people from entering the area.

The road into the gorge was unusual in that it was sealed.  Indeed we saw a "Bicentennial Roads Project" sign, (87/88 for you young 'uns) decaying in the weather on the side of the road.  The road surface itself was in pretty good nick except where the streams cross it and it's totally washed away.  There were a number of pleasant looking pools and campsites on the way up the gorge.  The campsites looked to be in regular use.  The gorge itself is VERY picturesque.  It's such a shame that it's been contaminated with asbestos (although I did wonder what any monitoring results might indicate).  We did pass some old mullock dumps that were over one side of the gorge as we headed further up.  We didn't take the turn-off to go and look at the mine itself.  After checking our maps I noted with some wry amusement just how close we were to the other (very popular) gorges in the national park as well as the eco-tourism campground.  These are approx 5km away as the crow flies (just over a hill or two really) - but over a hundered kilometres by road - and yet no mention of asbestos is made about visiting or staying in those areas.  As we were leaving a strong northerly wind came up lifting dust from the ground and my amusement became wry-er(?).

Typical scene in Wittenoom Gorge

Rather than backtrack to our campsite at Dales Gorge we decided to keep going and complete a circumnavigation of the Hamersley Ranges.  With a brief stop at Auski Roadhouse we continued onto a lookout over Munjina Gorge to have the windiest lunch stop we've ever had.  At one stage we had to stop the ham from blowing off the table - and it was a block of ham in a tupperware container!  We laughed at the futility of making ham salad wraps in those conditions.  We needed 4 arms and 3 elbows each just to hold everything down.  Somehow we managed to eat something in any case.  I think it involved eating the various  ingredients of a ham salad wrap at distinctly separate times.  At least there were no flies to be seen and the vista was quite pleasing.

I recently got another "boy toy" for our camera (a long lens).  In the late afternoon/evening we started to go "hunting" and see if we could "shoot" anything interesting.  Birds that flit about always seemed to be over-represented in the hunting photos however.  Probably because they're fun to "hunt".

Bird - Mum/Dad name?

Hill

Another Bird - Mum/Dad???

Same bird taking off

Kite or Eagle waaaaay up high (click on image to enlarge)

oh yeah and the Moon

We had intended to break the 1,400 odd km drive up into a couple of days to get back to Perth in time for a friend's wedding that we were to attend.  It was mid afternoon - we were almost halfway back and beginning to think of places to pull up for a quick overnight stop when we came into mobile phone range at Meekatharra.  Keyla got a message that one of her good friends had died suddenly a couple of days before and that her funeral was on the next day.  I decided to push on through to Perth and let Keyla say goodbye to her mate.  We had no problems with fatigue as we were both on active 'roo spotting duty throughout the evening.  Good thing we both had our eyes peeled as we had to pull up quickly a few times to let roos amble off the road before we could proceed.  I've since fitted some decent HID driving lights to the Beast so that if we drive at night again, (not one of our usual practices), the task will be all that much easier.

We arrived back in Perth at around midnight and crashed in our own bed for the first time in a long time.

We had covered about 8,000 km in just under 4 weeks, acquired approx 5kg in books and maps, traversed several billion corrugations (well it seemed like that many), came back with 3 more trees than we left with, took 1,400 photos, drank 15 bottles of wine and an olympic sized swimming pool's worth of water.  Our relationship with ginger beer was renewed as was our relationship with sunscreen and daggy hats.  The portable generator and fuel wasn't touched once, neither was the camp oven nor the insulated pots.  The cobb cooker was used once only and I forgot to take the awning.  We met old friends and many new acquaintances.  There was a bit of huffing and puffing on some of the walks, but equally, there were many moments on those same walks that simply took our breath away.  It is a beautiful, beautiful, part of the world.

It has been one of those "trips of a lifetime".