The Missus and myself just completed a trip up to Karrijini and Ruddall River NP's in WA.
I'll get the trip report up over the next few days.
With the Patrol packed and ready for its first adventure, we decided to head off in the early afternoon and at least get a few hours up the road. We were on our way to Karrajini National Park for a few days then out to Ruddall River NP and attempt to get to Hanging Rock WA.
In a typical scene on the Great Northern Highway, we were soon greeted with a couple of oversize trucks to slow our progress. We took the opportunity and pulled over and cut up some firewood from a dead roadside tree. We would be pulling over for the night at Jibberding Rocks, just North of Wubin. I should have remembered that anywhere with Rock in it’s name, is usually a difficult spot to get tent pegs in the ground. The hammer drill soon sorted that problem out and the tent was set.
We had an early rise and were on our way North once again, nothing too exciting to report. Our second night was spent a couple of hours south of Newman at the Gascoyne river (Middle Branch) There were quite a few camped along the river bank, but we found a spot well off the highway and away from the traffic.
We arrived at Karrajini National Park around noon on our 3rd day and made our way over to Dales Gorge campground, camp sites are $10 per night per adult + NP vehicle entry fee ($12) if you don’t have an annual parks pass.
The camp spots don’t offer a lot of privacy, particularly as a recent fire has burnt most of the shrubbery out and it’s all pretty flat and open. No drama though as most of the time is spent exploring gorges anyway. We camped across from these 3 termite mounds and looked forward to the next days adventure.
We set off early to explore Dales Gorge with the first stop being Fortescue falls, very picturesque, but the water was too cold for me!
After this we decided to hike along the gorge floor up to Circular pool, when I rounded a corner and nearly stood on this King Brown (Mulga) Snake! Scared the absolute crap out of me, clad in my shorts and thongs which wasn’t exactly hiking fare, I beat a hasty retreat while trying to blurt out the word snake! I’m not sure who was the most shocked, me, the snake, or the missus who got shoved out of the way in my hasty retreat! (I have a bit of a snake phobia)
The snake disappeared behind a rock that was right where we needed to go, so we watched and waited. He slowly stuck his head around the corner and looked at us and then decided we were no threat and he headed across the track and out of our way.
I shudder at the thought of the outcome of being bitten by one of these so far from help. Once my heart returned to normal we carried on to circular pool:
Then back past Fortescue falls for a look at Fern Pool:
The round trip in Dales Gorge takes a couple of hours, allow longer if you’re going swimming, by far the easiest entry is the Fortescue falls end, as it has steps built most of the way, and then it’s an easy walk to Circular pool and back.
The next day we headed over to the other side of the park and started with a wander along Kalamina Gorge. Nothing too spectacular here, but worth a walk. This day I decided to take the sat phone and a snake bite bandage with me, and I wore my shoes, hahahaha.
Then it was over to Weano Gorge for another beautiful hike, before heading back to camp and a few well deserved beers and bourbons. This would be our 3rd and final night in Karrajini, before heading off in the general direction of Running waters which was around 400k away. Weano Gorge has a spot called the handrail pool, spectacular little area. We had to swim through a section to get to it and unfortunately I went arse over head and dropped the phone/camera, so no pics in this section . We did manage to dry the phone out though using some bags of desiccant from some wraps we had in the fridge.
A word of advice if doing Weano and/or Hancock Gorge, it is advisable to take a dry bag as there are a couple of sections where you’ll be swimming to get through the gorge, the best footwear would be the reef hopper style of shoes, as some sections it is easier to walk in the water, and trust me it is as slippery as bat shit in sections.
The below pics are from Hancock Gorge which we did on the way out of the park. This is classed as a grade 5 hike, so some level of fitness and dexterity is required. It’s really not too bad, but there is a lot of rock scrambling and one little tricky section called the spider walk. I am not fit by any means and still found it relatively easy. This was the best gorge of all and should be on the must do list for anyone visiting the park.
We had to swim this section on the way to kermits pool at the end of Hancock Gorge.
The below pic shows what is called the spider walk, some fitter than us types like to clamber through here using their arms and legs outstretched on the gorge walls. We just walked through the shallow water,which was far easier.
Kermits Pool at the end is a spectacular little spot for a swim, it was a bit crowded for us though, as two large tour groups arrived about 5 minutes after we did. Bren got a quick swim in before the hoardes arrived.
Heading out of Karrajini, we had decided to go and have a look at Hamersley Gorge which is about 100km drive as we also wanted to head past the old Abandoned asbestos mining town of Wittenoom. Despite now being classified as a ghost town, there are still three people living at Wittenoom, I think the government may be battling to remove them.
Hamersley gorge has some spectacular rock formations, and you can see how the rock used to be molten as it flows in waves.
The whole Wittenoom area is really quite beautiful and it’s a pity it had to be abandoned due to the dangers of asbestos inhalation. Most buildings are still standing and we could here a generator running from one, so we didn’t hang around in town for long, just a brief look and a drive out the old mine road.
We didn’t feel comfortable staying near Wittenoom, so we headed back off in the general direction of Newman. We found a lookout/roadside pullover with heaps of room for camping about 15km’s East of Auski Roadhouse. This would do us for the night as it was nearly dark already.
Stay Tuned for more updates.
.
Reply With Quote
The spinifex is a very real issue if you are offtrack or early in the season, we checked it every time we stopped. The guy at Parngurr said there had already been a vehicle lost to a spinifex fire on the CSR this year.
