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Published: April 27th 2007
Karijini gorge
Of course it's red - what other colour would it be in the Australian Outback? As shown in the last blog entry, we awoke bright and early to the sun rising over ToPri. We packed up our stuff and left the luxury of our campgrounds (complete with electricity, showers, running water...) and headed deeper into the Outback. The coast was far behind us when we pulled into Karijini National Park. Kim decided we would first do a couple of hikes before heading to our campsite in the park. So we stopped and headed out. We needed our close-toed shoes (and prime fly protection) for this hike.
I can't really describe the beauty of this park - luckily I can attach lots of pictures! It was a challenging hike down through the first gorge. We had to do something called the "spider walk" where there's a little stream flowing beneath you and you have your legs and arms spread out as you inch your way above the stream. Ah, look at the pictures, you'll understand! Our final destination was Kermit's Pool, a small pool of fresh water deep in the gorges of Karijini. We were all happy to jump right in after the rather challenging walk! The water was very deep, so you could jump
in off cliffs about 5m high. It was like paradise...
Funny side story; because things like flying at my face, I got something stuck in my throat that I SWORE was a fly. My guess was later proven right when I coughed that bad boy up at Kermit's Pool. Kim then decided that it was a fly leg which was stuck in my eye. And I'd like to add that flies are attracted to your face for the liquidness. So they LOVE LOVE LOVED my gunky, watery eye. Which I HATE HATE HATED. I wore my sunglasses to keep the flies out, but the gunk (which was all over my eyelashes too) would fog up the glasses. Basically, I was doing these dangerous gorge hikes without depth perception. It's a wonder I returned from the outback alive...
Anyways, after our swim we headed back up the way we came (through the spider walk again...only this time I slipped and got my foot wet. Luckily, as I was told in the ToPri hospital, everything dries super-fast in the outback.) We had a quick snack before heading on another gorge hike. This one wasn't as challenging, although we did have
Some water in the gorge
We didn't swim in that... to go in between literally a rock and a hard place. The most difficult part was at the very end. The pool we were going to was called "handrail pool" because you have to climb down this STEEP rock face using a handrail. If you slip, you end up in the water. And having about $1000 worth of cameras with me, that was NOT an option. We went for another swim here. There was an even higher cliff which Kim did not advise jumping off, but some people did anyways. I was happy to watch and photograph.
We headed back up the handrail (not nearly as difficult as coming down) and back out to the buck. We made a quick stop at the Visitor's Centre before checking into our luxury campsite, complete with TWO outhouses. The Visitor's Centre was really nice and had lots of great quotations which I photographed for your enjoyment. After setting up camp and getting some food in our bellies, we headed for another gorge hike, this one not far from where we were camped. This was the easiest hike with few dangers - and the best reward! Not just a pool, but WATERFALLS!! Now
THAT was heaven!
When we returned to our campsite Kim told us we could tie-dye with the red dirt. I didn't have anything white, so I decided to use my green shirt instead. We covered our shirts in dirt, tied them in knots, then put them in dirty water, and hung them from trees. In the end, mine turned out kinda camo, which is cool...
We had an AMAZING chilli dinner (best chili I've ever had, hands down) and then sat around chatting. We had been told earlier to make sure we always closed our tent doors because dingos like to wander in to tents. And Kim couldn't have been lying, because we actually saw a couple of dingos while sitting around! Luckily, none of us had babies.
In the middle of the night, I heard Athena call out if anyone was awake. The first time she said it, it woke me up. The second time I registered what she was saying and, since I was awake now, decided to acknowledge that fact. She was afraid of the dingos and wanted someone to go to the outhouse with her. So I kindly accompanied her. We had our
first (and only) sleep-in of the trip the following morning so I wasn't TOO beat up about it. Although that girl has a knack for waking me up...
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Anana
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What a hike! I doubt the photos do justice to the sights. I love that quote too.