Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Karijini - Dales Gorge

We drove to Karijini Eco Retreat and checked out our cool eco tent...complete with ensuite! This is my kinda camping..."glamping"! We had a decked wooden floor, queen size bed and outdoor shower and toilet. 'Outdoor' meaning it was open to the sky which was kinda fun...although they do warn you to keep your toilet lid closed as frogs like to frequent them! The only think missing was air-conditioning or a fan but luckily it was cool enough at night to sleep when we were there (Clinton also brought some battery operated camping fans which were great). We have had friends camping there in July and freezing at night or in Summer and boiling at night...late September - through October seems to be a great time to visit Karijini. Don't get me wrong, it was really hot during the day but we were able to swim in the pools of the gorges whereas a couple of months earlier the water would have been far too cold.
Saturday afternoon we drove to Dales Gorge and started by trekking down to Fortescue Falls.This is the view from the top of the water fall. 

We then started walking to Fern Pool and got very distracted by the beautiful overarching bushland.
It seriously has a magical feel...





Then a dip in Fern Pool - it was so refreshing! We took a few Go Pro photos but I'm yet to look through them. 


Then back to Fortescue Falls for a few more photos
I love the sun flare in this one



You can just see Fortescue Falls at the bottom of the gorge...it was hard going climbing out of the gorges in the heat. 
We then hiked into Circular Pool - I say 'hiked' because this was a deep descend...here is the pool from above.
This was the scenery on the way to the pool
Pretty wild flowers popping out of the rocks

Circular Pool 


Clinton putting his shoes back on...we were going to swim but saw little leeches in the water and thought the better of it!

A shallow pool of water on our way out of the gorge...I love the reflection 


The sun was beginning to set on our way out of the gorge 


When we got back to the camp ground we had a shower and went to dinner at the restaurant. It was really nice food and very relaxed but we were getting tired...it had been a big day!

Karijini - Hamersley Gorge

Clinton's parents very kindly agreed to look after our kids so we could go to Karijini for a long weekend (Clinton had an RDO on the Monday). We left in the morning on Saturday the 11th of October and got a pass to use the access road, which made our drive to Karijini only about 4 hours. It was so nice to have that long drive together, without kids talking, crying, complaining, asking for snacks etc in the back! It was general conference weekend so we listened to general conference talks on our drive up and back and had pretty much covered it all by the time we got home. I saw these pretty flowers on the side of the road and told Clinton to stop so I could take a photo...
After taking these photos I slipped on some mud next to the car and fell over. Good start...I'm sure Clinton was wondering if I'd be able to climb into the gorges after falling over on flat ground.
Our car got covered in red dirt...our snowflake sticker on the back wind shield was caked in it.
We stopped at Hamersley Gorge on our way into Karijini National Park...it was around midday and very hot. This isn't the best time to take photos as the sun is too bright but we enjoyed exploring.


Clinton used his phone to take a photo of me with the tripod and camera set up




Spa pool



The colours were amazing!

On the road again in Karijini National Park