Karijini National Park

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Hi there everyone. Well we drove to Karajini the next day and stayed at a place called the Dales campground. It was very quiet and bushy. We went for a bushwalk through Dales Gorge. It had a nice waterfall and of course Dad and Mum carried on and on about how beautiful it was.

But the real good part started the next day. We drove about 40 kilometres over this really bumpy road to a place called Weano Gorge. Dad said we had to do two bushwalks here so I wasn’t real happy. But I was in for a surprise. The first walk went right down into a gorge called Hancock’s Gorge but the river was still flowing and it slowly got steeper and steeper. Then some backpackers coming from the other way told us we had to swim in some sections. Mum wasn’t happy because we had no swim gear. Dad said we’ll just go on a little further but then James fell into the water. He then took all his clothes off and kept walking wearing nothing except his runners. Mum said he looked so funny walking up the river in the nude with his little white bottom wiggling from side to side wearing nothing except shoes. Mum and Dad decided to leave him in the nude because he had no other clothes. Dad said it’s lucky that he wasn’t walking nude down the gorge because all the girl backpackers would be chasing him trying to kiss him – yeah right Dad! Then Dad and I took our shirts off and kept on going with James in the nude. Mum stayed behind with the gear. We made it right down to the bottom of the Gorge to a place called Kermit’s pool. Even James made it by walking straight through the river. The water was the coldest I’ve ever felt. Then we went to Weano Gorge. This time James stayed behind with Mum and just Dad and I went. This was great. We had to swim up to our necks and go down some really steep rock sections. We got to this big pool called Handrail Pool and you had to lower yourself down using a handrail. Dad said we should stop now because he was worried I was getting cold. But I told we should keep going and we made it right down to the steep waterfall by swimming the rest of the way. I’ve never been so cold. Dad was amazed that I’d made it because it was too scary for lots of grownups to do.

We then drove back to our camp and the Information Centre. I told the lady there that I had got to the end of all the walks at Weano Gorge so she gave me an activity book and said if I completed it all I would get a real Ranger’s badge. I worked on it all night in the caravan. The next morning I handed it in to the camp person and got my badge. Karajini was awesome! Next we are driving to a town called Tom Price.

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