Karajini NP Day 1

Walking Dales Gorge with the Ralhs

Circular Pool from above

The iron ore in layers

Goanna we saw near Circular Pool

Circular Pool

Rock garden

Fortesque Falls

Fern Pool

Swimming in Fern Pool

 

 

 

 

 

I expected it to be a bit colder here, being higher up, but it’s really not bad at night, and warm during the day (high 20’s). Even though it’s a huge campsite with about six different sections and lots of people here, you really don’t notice it, because of the way the sites are all situated on a circle drive around the centre BBQ’s, and we’ve faced ourselves away from the centre of our section so we’re looking at the trees around the edge which is really nice. This morning we took it a bit slower and started with the Visitors’ Centre out here, which is great, lots of easily accessible information about the park, including lots of stories from indigenous people about how it used to be living and working on the station which used to be here, some of which involved some stolen generation stories, and some which were quite positive about life then (even though they weren’t paid!). I really enjoyed it even though the kids didn’t take in too much as usual J Then we had lunch back at the tents before going on a big walk this afternoon for 3 ½ hours through Dales Gorge which was spectacular. The rock is layers of iron ore and silica apparently, broken into jagged rocks everywhere when the gorge split apart. If I remember rightly, the when the iron came into contact with the oxygen in the atmosphere created by the stromatolites (them again!) it oxidised and became iron oxide, which is why there’s layers of it all through here. It’s what is obviously what’s being mined around here, and I think there’s quite a bit of pressure for more of it!

We actually really went on three separate walks, one along the top with lookouts which then went back down through the gorge, a side bar to Circular Pool, and another side bar to Fern Pool which was beautiful. Along the Dales Gorge walk we turned a bend and came upon what we called a rock garden, where someone has built about 30 or 40 rock towers, ranging in size, which looked fantastic and the kids thought was really magic. We also saw quite a big goanna on the way to circular pool, which surprised me in its ability to climb up the rocks – I thought it would need something like a tree trunk to stick its claws into, but it somehow managed to scale rocks as well. The water is an amazing bluey green and we even all jumped in at Fern Pool, most making do with just their undies, and swam across it to the waterfall. The water of the pool was breathtakingly cold to start with, but really refreshing by the end – we were all due a bath anyway! We’re all now feeling very proud of ourselves, not only for the walk but for getting into the water, and being back at the tent in dry clothes, beanie on and a stew Nick made this morning heating up…. Couldn’t ask for much more.

The red dirt everywhere looks really cool, and the funny thing we noticed is that the tarmac road here looks like it’s split in two – the side of the road coming into the national park is just tarmac, but the side of the road going out is covered in red dust, which seems to get in everywhere.

I expected it to be a bit colder here, being higher up, but it’s really not bad at night, and warm during the day (high 20’s). Even though it’s a huge campsite with about six different sections and lots of people here, you really don’t notice it, because of the way the sites are all situated on a circle drive around the centre BBQ’s, and we’ve faced ourselves away from the centre of our section so we’re looking at the trees around the edge which is really nice. This morning we took it a bit slower and started with the Visitors’ Centre out here, which is great, lots of easily accessible information about the park, including lots of stories from indigenous people about how it used to be living and working on the station which used to be here, some of which involved some stolen generation stories, and some which were quite positive about life then (even though they weren’t paid!). I really enjoyed it even though the kids didn’t take in too much as usual J Then we had lunch back at the tents before going on a big walk this afternoon for 3 ½ hours through Dales Gorge which was spectacular. The rock is layers of iron ore and silica apparently, broken into jagged rocks everywhere when the gorge split apart. If I remember rightly, the when the iron came into contact with the oxygen in the atmosphere created by the stromatolites (them again!) it oxidised and became iron oxide, which is why there’s layers of it all through here. It’s what is obviously what’s being mined around here, and I think there’s quite a bit of pressure for more of it!

We actually really went on three separate walks, one along the top with lookouts which then went back down through the gorge, a side bar to Circular Pool, and another side bar to Fern Pool which was beautiful. Along the Dales Gorge walk we turned a bend and came upon what we called a rock garden, where someone has built about 30 or 40 rock towers, ranging in size, which looked fantastic and the kids thought was really magic. We also saw quite a big goanna on the way to circular pool, which surprised me in its ability to climb up the rocks – I thought it would need something like a tree trunk to stick its claws into, but it somehow managed to scale rocks as well. The water is an amazing bluey green and we even all jumped in at Fern Pool, most making do with just their undies, and swam across it to the waterfall. The water of the pool was breathtakingly cold to start with, but really refreshing by the end – we were all due a bath anyway! We’re all now feeling very proud of ourselves, not only for the walk but for getting into the water, and being back at the tent in dry clothes, beanie on and a stew Nick made this morning heating up…. Couldn’t ask for much more.

The red dirt everywhere looks really cool, and the funny thing we noticed is that the tarmac road here looks like it’s split in two – the side of the road coming into the national park is just tarmac, but the side of the road going out is covered in red dust, which seems to get in everywhere.