We arrived just after 8am and paid our park entry fee of $6.00, that's half price because we have an NSW seniors card.
And we were confronted with this sign wherever we went...
Then it was onto the camp host to pay our camping fees of $14.00 per day for both of us.
We were allocated site 34 on the Bungarra Loop in the non-generator area at Dales Gorge campground, and we should have put more thought into staying on this site because the van on the next site had bunk beds. It could only mean ankle biters.
All the attractions in Karijini are very accessible. It's just a matter of driving to a car park with most gorge access or lookouts 50 to 300 metres away. All the trails are colour coded from the beginner to the very adventurous.
Circular and Fern Pool was very close to our camp so off we wandered to the car park and then down into Dales Gorge. As we were going down I overheard a woman saying that there were a total of 286 steps to climb to return to the car park. Both pools were very enjoyable with Fern Pool being the coldest.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon sitting in the shade of the van trying to hide from the near gale force winds that were whipping up red dirt in all directions. Most of the trees here have been burnt and look like they will never recover whilst only a handful surrounding us have leaves starting to form. Unfortunately, the conditions remained like this for our entire stay.
The couple from the van with the bunks returned with one small child in tow, and we were then forced to listen to cartoons played loudly for the remainder of the afternoon. Around 6 pm they started up a generator so they could use their microwave for cooking their meals. Unfortunately, the camp hosts had retired for the evening so I asked them to turn off the generator but they refused and continued on until they were finished.
As we headed out the next morning to view some of the other gorges I stopped and complained about the couple using the generator. As we continued on we could hear on the UHF radio for a ranger to visit them and advise that this area was generator free. We were generator free for the remaining evenings.
The Banjima Drive North Road begins at the Visitors Centre and continues for 43 km to the gorges in the north-west of the park. This road is very corrugated and rocky for its entire length as are all the access roads off it to the other gorges. We stopped after 100 metres where I reduced the 4wd tyres down to 30 psi before stopping shortly after and reducing them again down to 26 psi to cope with the worsening road conditions.
We passed many vehicles who were driving along at a snail's pace with what I can only assume was bitumen tyre pressures. All up for the day we covered 113 km. We decided to drive to the furthest gorge then work our way back. At Weano Gorge we walked down into the floor of the gorge and followed it for several hundred metres before coming to some quite deep seasonal pools and very large slippery boulders so we decided to go no further.
Unfortunately, we are no longer agile like rock wallabies so we are a little limited to what we can actually see.
At Oxer Lookout in the Weano area, you are provided with the most amazing views out over the junction of Weano, Red, Hancock and Joffre Gorges.
Joffre Gorge, in particular, was very spectacular. Unfortunately, the falls were not running but they would cascade several hundred metres down into the gorge.
We watched a couple starting to climb out and we were both thankful that it wasn't us, mind you they were both probably forty years younger than what we are.
We drove into Tom Price on the bitumen road where we refuelled and filled all our water tanks with a free water outlet opposite the swimming pool.
We were now on our way to Hamersley Gorge on what I can only describe as a very good dirt road with just some minor corrugations and quite a lot of bulldust holes. I would rate this gorge to be one of the most spectacular in the park with its different rock formations and lovely swimming hole.
No comments:
Post a Comment