25 Oct Karajini National Park
Dales Gorge
Apparently it hasn't rained much at Karajini for two years and it shows. Even where there hasn't been a recent fire, the vegetation is sparse and brown. Most of the camping areas are being rested and the remaining ones have little shade even at 4pm when we arrived. Our big hope however was for beautiful cool spots in the gorges cut deep below the hot dry plains.
We weren't disappointed. This morning we packed our school work, the laptop and plenty of food and headed down into Dales Gorge. We spent the morning beside Circular Pool at one end of the Gorge, after a spectactular clifftop walk.
Here the water comes seeping out of slatey layers at the bottom of the gorge wall and drops into the cool pool below. As the hours pass other visitors come and go. Mid afternoon we packed up our work and walked down the gorge to the junction, then up to Fortesque Falls for another quick dip and finally to Fern Pool to round off a beautiful day in a beautiful gorge.
We returned to camp in time to catch the last rays of the sun and the last few flies before both disappeared altogether.
Kalamina Gorge
The next day we packed up and drove first to the visitor's centre which was closed, then on to Kalamina Gorge.
This is a small gorge with a little waterfall and a beautiful natural arch above a relatively shallow swimming hole. Then we retraced our tracks to the award winning visitors centre for some learning before continuing further to Knox Gorge.
Knox Gorge
Maggie had climbed enough steep goat tracks for one day and stopped halfway down for some sketching. John and the kids continued to the gorge for a swim in the large pool, then descended to narrowing gorge to a point above a natural waterslide where tour groups slide off to the pool below and continue out via the bottom of the gorge and up via a different route. We didn't know this and couldn't have got back up, so we enjoyed being in the deep gorge before returning to find Maggie.
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