July 11 ... Karijini National Park

Heading into Karijini National Park

Our bus under a "snappy" gum

Early start today ... the bus was here at 7.30 and it was cold, and very grey, and windy, but after raining ALL night, we had none during the day. We only had a a top temperature of about 15 degrees though, easily our coldest day this trip.

Our driver was Chris from Lestok Tours and he was excellent. He was interesting and informative all day and he was just a nice, friendly, genuine bloke. He was able to tell us that the name "Pilbara" actually comes from "Pil Bara" and translates from the local indigenous language as" little fish".

As soon as we hit the first dirt road Garry and I were very glad we had spent the money on a tour ($145 each) as it was badly corrugated and we rattled and bumped and slid along for about 150 kms during the day.

Karijini is in the Hamersley Ranges and our first stop was at Hancock and Weano Gorges. The Karijini area is so ancient that it predates fossils, at least 2500 million years old. The only life forms around when the Karijini rocks were formed were stromatolites and algae.

Also in the park are three gorges from which they used to mine blue asbestos and the town of Wittenoom is only about 30 kms away. The roads into this ex-town (it has been ungazetted) have been dug up to prevent access and no-one is allowed into these particular gorges.

Hancock Gorge

Weano Gorge

There is water in many of the gorges and the waterfalls are flowing due to the unusually wet winter. During other times of the year, we would have been swimming, and while some people were, we left it for the more hardy folk. From Oxer Lookout we could also see Red Gorge and Joffre Gorge.

Red Gorge

Joffre Gorge

We did not see much fauna during the day, lots of birds though, but we stopped at some huge termite nests for a better look. The park is riddled with these mounds but this was one of the biggest.

We did walk down into a couple of the gorges and there is a track into almost all of them if you are keen. Some walks / climbs are a category 5, even a category 6, so it is best if you are experienced. After numerous rescues, a few of these have been put onto the list that says "with an experienced abseiler only"!  Fortunately, the walks we did were not too challenging.

Termite Mound

Joffre Falls

Kalimina Gorge

From the bottom of the gorges it was possible to see the rock strata which was highly layered, similar to slate, but on a massive scale. Much of it was blue ironstone, but there was also a bright red layer that was jasper. The folding process that had taken place over many millions of years also became obvious, as did the evidence of volcanic activity.

The Jasper layer(plum red)

Kalimina Gorge

After an excellent lunch and a walk along the gorge at Kalamina Falls, we drove on to the Visitors Centre. Here they had lots of great information about the formation and upkeep of the park in which the local indigenous people play a key role. They run a very lucrative business in the Eco Retreat which is luxury accommodation within the park. The Visitors Centre has been constructed out of untreated steel and is in the shape of a lizard.

Window scene from the Visitors Centre

From here we went on to Fortesque Falls, Circular Pool, Dales Gorge and Fern Pool. By this stage it was early afternoon and really cold on the top of the gorges. Garry and I still rate The Bungles as the best ever National Park, but this has to be a very close second. There was so much variety in the landforms as well as the vegetation, and much of it was very dramatic. To stand on top and look down into some of these gorges really does take your breath away. The contrasting colours are so strong that they create an amazingly beautiful scene.

Fortesque Falls

Fern Pool

Circular pool

We may not have seen any animals but we did see lots of wild flowers and Chris was able to tell us a bit about them.
The "snappy" gum is so called because in times of severe drought, it sheds a limb or two and then heals over the wound in such a way that it looks like an amputees stump. A bit weird!
There were also many different forms of Mulla Mulla and wattles, and together with many other plants, these were all in flower.

Wattle

Mulla Mulla with Kangaroo Grass

The Custard Bush

Holly Grevillea

On the way home Chris was still pointing out various landforms to us and he also spotted numerous flocks of budgies that flashed an iridescent green in the sunlight. It was a fabulous day that we thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend. We felt we had seen the very best of the park and it was completely stress free despite some taxing conditions.