Gorgeous Gorges

Exploration of the middle areas of Karijini was on today's agenda. Kalamina Gorge, the forgotten gorge was first up. It is a beautiful wide shallow gorge. Clumps of grasses and snappy gums hug the edges of the stream running through the centre of the gorge. As we round a corner in the gorge, the stream would open up to a large still pool of water reflecting the red walls and sky. We crossed this watercourse negotiating stepping stones on several occasions. Other times as like at Dale's Gorge, we were walking along large slabs of flat rock or teetering along the rock shelves of the wall.

 

 

The end of the walk is signified once you reach Rock Arch Pool. We were very lucky to have this place to ourselves while Andy and the girls went for a dip in the very chilly water. Shortly after, we were inundated with quite a few groups all arriving within minutes of each other. Time to go! We spent more time here than we had intended. 

 

The road through to Karijini Eco resort was a little corrugated however the road to the Weano Gorge area was much worse. We drove straight to Oxer Lookout, which overlooks the merging of three deep gorge systems - Oxer, Weano and Red Gorge.

Back at the car it was lunch time before returning to the Hancock gorge carpark from where our next walk started. Written information advises to wear appropriate footwear - ie not bare feet or thongs. We all chose our runners not wanting to get our hiking boots soaked. 

The descent into Hancock gorge floor involves ladders which are much easier going than negotiating a slippery uneven rocky path / stairs. On our way down a group of young tourist were discussing who was going in shoes or not. We listened to their debate back and forth. They then began asking people who were returning from this walk what they wore. Many of them were in reef type shoes however there were also quite a few in bare feet and even less in actual shoes.

When we reached the first deeper pool of water, the young group then decided on bare feet. Ella joined their lead and the rest of us kept our shoes on. Careful foot placement along the gorge wall ledges was required. You were able to pass people here by either moving higher or lower.

 

Around the next corner was another deep pool which everyone was wading through. Here we all joined Ella’s lead taking our shoes off to wade through this thigh deep water.

From here, the gorge narrows and one can choose to swim in the deep cold water or again slowly negotiate the the smaller rock ledge of the gorge wall. Most including us chose the later.

We had now arrived at an area known as the amphitheatre - a wider corner in the gorge where people were sunning themselves on the rock ledges after having come back from Kermitts Pool.

Now for the most exciting and amazing part - spiderwalk and Kermitts Pool. As the name suggests, spiderwalk can be done by place hands and feet on either side of the gorge wall as it is so narrow. No one did though. Instead we walked in the gushing stream keeping three points of contact and trying not to slip over!

And then we were at Kermitts Pool, named for it's greenish tinge! We all slid in and swam to the other side clambering out unceremoniously as quickly as we could to shiver in the limited area of sunlight. This pool was cold. Despite the warning of being slippery - Katy managed to do a slippery slide down a few ledges landing back in the water and Ella went arse up as her feet slipped from under her! Both were lucky not to be injured.

As we made our way back across Kermitts Pool and again negotiated the slippery edge, we noticed a ranger had appeared. We chatted to him. He has several quicker routes down into the gorge, trying to blend in to the surrounding at the same time as stalking the masses to help out when an injury occurs (which is usually quite frequent.) A combination of stupid tourist doing stupid things and the nature of the gorge. Last month an older gentleman had fallen in Handrail Pool after trying to help out his grandson. He sustained serious head injuries and unfortunately passed away in hospital. As a result Handrail Pool was currently closed. Last week another lady broke her leg in a fall. It took rescuers over 9 hours to manoeuvre her out of the gorge. Anyway, wanting to warm up again, we made our way carefully and without incident out of this wonderful gorge.

The final part of the day was to visit Mt Bruce - Punurrunha. Like I said on previous blog, it is WA second highest mountain and is a 10km return hike. Andy was keen to do this as a run. I was less keen knowing it would take much longer with me in tow and the girls were not at all interested so would remain at the car. We arrived in the carpark late afternoon. I accompanied Andy up for a short distance before dropping off and returning to the car completing a 30min run.

Andy managed to make it to the top and back down in the allocated 90mins we had given him. He was very sweaty and also very happy!

The sun was sinking into the horizon as we drove back to Dale's campground. As our headlights lit up the rolling floodplain close to the campground, an animal appeared facing away from us on the side of the road. My first instinct was that it was a baby deer!! However this baby deer turned around to face us and was in fact a chubby faced dingo! Our first sighting. We pulled up beside the dingo - it was as curious as we were before we both continued on our way.