Karijini National Park

Our campsite at the Mt Robinson rest area before entering Karijini National Park.

We arrived just after 8:00 a.m. and paid our park entry fee of $6.00, which is half price because we have an NSW Seniors Card. And we were confronted with this sign wherever we went...

Then we headed to 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 given more thought to staying on this site because the van on the following 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 points or lookouts, which are typically 50 to 300 metres away. All the trails are colour-coded, ranging from beginner to very adventurous.
 
Circular and Fern Pool were very close to our camp, so we wandered off to the car park and then down into Dales Gorge. As we were descending, 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 rest of the afternoon sitting in the shade of the van, trying to hide from the near gale-force winds that were whipping up red dust in all directions. Most of the trees here have been burnt and look like they will never recover, while only a handful surrounding us have started to grow leaves. Unfortunately, the conditions remained the same throughout our entire stay.
 
The couple from the van with the bunks returned with a small child in tow, and we were then forced to listen to cartoons played loudly for the rest of the afternoon. Around 6 pm, they started up a generator so they could use their microwave for cooking. Unfortunately, the camp hosts had retired for the evening, so I asked them to turn off the generator, but they refused and continued until they finished.
 
As we left the next morning to explore some of the other gorges, I stopped to complain about the couple using the generator. As we continued, we could hear on the UHF radio that a ranger was being called to visit them and advise that this area was designated as a generator-free zone. We remained generator-free for the rest of our evenings.
 
The Banjima Drive North Road begins at the Visitors Centre and extends for 43 km to the gorges in the north-west of the park. This road is very corrugated and rocky along its entire length, just like all the access roads to the other gorges. We stopped after 100 metres, where I reduced the 4wd tyres to 30 psi, before stopping shortly after and dropping them further to 26 psi to cope with the worsening road conditions.

We passed many vehicles that were driving along at a snail's pace, with what I can only assume were bitumen tyre pressures. In total, for the day, we covered 113 km. We decided to drive to the furthest gorge and 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 reaching some quite deep seasonal pools and very large slippery boulders, so we decided not to go any further.

 

Unfortunately, we are no longer as agile as rock wallabies, so we are limited in what we can actually see.

 

At Oxer Lookout in the Weano area, you are treated to the most amazing views over the junction of Weano, Red, Hancock, and Joffre Gorges.

Joffre Gorge, in particular, was very spectacular. Unfortunately, the falls were not flowing, but they would cascade several hundred metres down into the gorge.

We watched a couple start to climb out, and we were both thankful it wasn't us; mind you, they were probably about forty years younger than we were.

Kalamina Falls was 6km along a very rough and rocky road. We walked down to take some photos, but the actual swimming hole looked stagnant and not very welcoming.

We drove into Tom Price on the bitumen road, where we refuelled and filled all our water tanks at a free water outlet opposite the swimming pool.
 
We were now on our way to Hamersley Gorge along what I can only describe as a very good dirt road, with just a few minor corrugations and quite a few bulldust holes. This gorge is one of the most spectacular in the park, featuring a diverse array of rock formations and a lovely swimming hole.