Karijini National Park

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We left Meekatharra quite early and headed about as far north as the trip would take us (approximately 1,000km north of Perth). We planned to stay overnight in another small town called Tom Price, from here we would have easy access to Karijini National Park. Karijini was not something we had originally planned for the WA Trip, but we had days to spare and it was part of the pleasant spontaneaity that we enjoyed. We left Tom Price early and it paid off... we did not have fly nets and relied on just bug spray. But mid-afternoon the flies were so annoying, however for the better part of the morning they were not around. So personal bug nets for your hat are a MUST!

We planned to spend a full day hiking and exploring and began the drive on the red dirt roads towards a car parking lot where we had access to Hancock's Gorge. Now as our hired car was not a 4-wheel drive we were somewhat limited, but a slow and steady driving approach allowed us to handle the dirt/pebbly roads with ease. Not bad to off-road with a little four-door Hyundai. We parked in the lot and began our descent down into the start of the gorge. After hiking down a path, a big and sturdy ladder allowed us to go deeper. It was beautiful... you could see where the water wore away the rusty red-colored land and left a layered cliff on each side. We waded through some waist-deep water and climbed on the sides on our way to the Amphiteatre and eventually Kermit's Pool. To get to Kermit's pool there was a skillfull manuevering task of making it down the Spider Way (or called something like that) but not too difficult. If you were physically able to get that far down into the gorge then you would be able to advance further.

Kermit's Pool was an awesome and quite refreshing pool of cold and lightly green water. It made for such a relaxing dip, and we spent some time just enjoying the pool. Along the one edge there were toads.. The water was cold but clean and pure. And since we had left early enough in the morining we were only accompanied by a man and his two younger boys. We found on the way out that many people we making there way into the gorge, therefore the earlier you can make it down the less people, obviously preferred.

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