Karijini National Park is an incredible place that is lucky to be still here. Whilst its natural beauty is beyond question, its boundaries seem at the whim of mining interests, and have changed many times. It could still be at risk of being mined - so the bottom line is get here while you can!
The Pilbara's story is as old as time. As the stromatolites slowly released oxygen into the oceans some 3 billion years ago, the earth's atmosphere started to change. Large quantities of iron in the water essentially rusted - and settled on the sea bed.
Move the clock foward to the present day, and the rock is now part of Australia. Humic acid from decaying rainforest vegetation has leeched the iron from the upper levels of the soil, concentrating it at greater depths. In these depths, the iron bearing rock can be as much as 60 percent iron - an incredibly high yeild - and a clue to the economic importance of this region.
Hamersley Gorge
Over the past few million years, gorges have been carved into the old sea beds, creating natural rock pools of incredible beauty. In fact the whole landscape is incredibly beautiful, and as we have explored it, many times we have not taken a photo beacuse there is no way of capturing the magnitude, beauty or scale of the magnificent vistas. You simply must come here and see it for yourselves.
Our first stop on the drive down from Millstream Chichester was the Hamersley Gorge. There was only one other vehicle in the carpark - a bus - meaning that if we were prepared to wait a little while, we might just get the place to ourselves... which is exactly what did happen. Before too long we were swimming in Hamersley Gorge - and we made our way up to a rock pool appropriately named the spa. It was devine. The only problem was we left our bathers in a bag at the bottom pool, and we didn't want to get our clothes wet. Good job we had the place to ourselves wasn't it!
We considered checking out Wittenoom Gorge, apparently of stunning beauty. As absestos dust may still be present in the area, we decided it wasn't worth risking the young lungs in the backseat, so drove through with the air conditioning on recirculation. The plus side was we were able to make our camp at Dales Gorge in good time.
Karijini National Park's highlight without a doubt are its gorges. Over the next couple of days we explored several of them. Every gorge we entered was different, exciting and fun. We had been told all sorts of horror stories of tourists getting into difficulty - especially kids, so were very cautious. For all our walks, we wore good walking sandles, and took with us our usual supplies of enough food and water for a week, first aid kit, etc etc. We were surprised at how many people were just walking in thongs and boardshorts - with no hat or even a bottle of water. I can well see why so many parts of the park now require a permit to enter.
The steep climbs into and out of the gorges were nothing too difficult. They were steep and rocky, but the kids powered up them to the point where we threatened to put rocks in their bags just to slow them down. And scrambling along the gorge floors was a lot of fun. Yes, we all got wet, all slipped at some point and had to swim in parts - but it was worth every minute.
If you haven't been to Karijini, the names of the gorges will mean nothing to you, but trust me - they are all absolutely wonderful.
With a school project promised to the Education Department about Iron Ore, we were bound to visit an iron ore mine. The Rio Tinto owned Tom Price Mine had tours that even young kids could go on... so we were booked in for a tour. We enjoyed a thoroughly informative and interesting tour of the mine - with lots of facts and figures for good measure. The majority of the numbers had lots of zeros at the end of them - completely bamboozling The Little Helper - but I hope some of them get translated into a meaningful web page in the near future. Update: The Little Helper's project can be found online here: http://project2014australia.blogspot.com.au/p/little-helpers-school-projects.html
Boys dwarfed by a retired bucket
Whilst the mine has eaten away a mountain, nearby Mount Nameless stands towering above the area. Why Mount Nameless? Well no one bothered to ask the Aboriginal people. It had a name, Jarndunmunha and from its peak you can see around 160km on a good day. We had a great day, and drove to the top to take in the views. This is as high as Rocky will ever get in Western Australia!
Our excursion to Tom Price was completed with a shop at Coles, and visit to a laundry - and we returned to Karijini keen to explore some more of the many gorges in the park.
Loving the scramble through the rocks
In many of the gorges are relic plants from rainforest times, clinging to existance in these oasis. Beautiful Native Fig trees, massive Northern Paperbark and River Red Gum trees are found here, as are some interesting palm trees.
Near Circular Pool
Did we have a favourite gorge? They were all beautiful in their own way, and amazingly diverse. I really liked swimming in Fern Pool, but the boys loved jumping from the waterfall into Circular Pool. Mum loved Hancock gorge, especially Kermit's Pool. Either way, this is a wonderful place to visit - just don't leave it until your knees give out - there were too many grey haired nomads sitting at the lookouts with knees not up to the walk down (and back up) from the gorges.
As for us, we left Karijini and headed north - for a quick stop in Port Hedland to pick up some mail, and buy lunch. An industrial town, we didn't spend long (although the boys could have spent hours watching the trains, trucks and ships) before we got back in Rocky and started heading north east, destination Broome.
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