Karijini National Park Day 1 - Weano and Hancock Gorges

Karijini National Park is in the Pilbara and therefore full of red, red dirt and rock and oh so beautiful! We had 3 nights there, and I could have stayed longer. Dales Campground was so peaceful and quiet at night and the gorges, with their rich red cliffs and beautiful swimming holes, were so stunning. The intensity of colour is hard to imagine and I don't think our photos do it justice.

View from our campsite

Our kids surprised me with their resilience, strength, willingness to give things a go and perseverance, as we made them do some pretty intense hikes in order to explore the gorges. Most of the walks we did were Class 4 and Class 5, which are the two hardest classes of walk, before you require the ability to abseil or travel with a guide, or both. They involved climbing down rocky, uneven, stone steps, scrambling along slippery rocks beside water, swimming through water that was over my head, climbing over big rocks, crossing water and spider walking through one section. It was tough going, but the kids did it without complaint. OK, Rory complained a bit and simply refused to climb back up the gorge walls, but the rest of it he did with remarkable happiness and skill. Tilda did it all so well and easily, except for getting distressed through the deep, and very cold, water swim. With only 2 full days, we made the most of it, exploring Weano and Hancock Gorges one day and Dales Gorge the next.

Weano Gorge
Weano Gorge is very pretty. The colours in the rocks are amazing and  so hard to describe. The gorge walls are layers of red, orange and ochre. The rocks on the ground are a mix of reds, polished grey- black  and browns and look and sound almost metallic, which is rather unique. When you accidentally kick one, it would sound like the "tink" of a bottle top being kicked on the ground. It was so unique and different to anything else I've seen.

I find it hard to describe how beautiful the gorge is, so I'll let the pictures hopefully do it for me. Unfortunately the colours aren't great as we were using Tilda's camera, as mine is now completely useless, and the settings aren't right on it and I'm not sure how to fix it.

The gorge walk starts with a very steep climb down natural rocky steps, that are all uneven and all different heights and depths. It is fairly straight down, although not as long as the climb to Gunlom Falls in Kakadu, so less than 100m in height. At the bottom is a green pool, which then flows into a series of pools and ponds as you move down the gorge.

The first pool you come to at the bottom of the "steps"

You need to scramble over and around rocks, cross the water on stones and scramble along the edge of some ponds on slippery rocks, ducking under rocky outcrops. The kids had a lot of fun doing this. We all made it as far as a crystal clear, very cold little pool of water, which then flows into Handrail Pool.

Vivid red walls, intense blue sky

You skirt this pool by climbing over the low rocks o the left hand side

Climbing over and through rocks

Rory played in the pool (naked, as he was going to wade in it fully clothed and then he would have frozen), while Greg, Tilda and I took it in turns to walk through the chasm to Handrail Pool. This very last bit, the descent to Handrail Pool, is a true test of strength and ability as you have to climb down the rock face holding onto a rail, then skim over some narrow rocks to the edge of the pool, where you can sit and enjoy. The rocks at the start of the descent were quite slippery, as the water was flowing over the edge, so it was a little nerve wracking.

The crystal clear pool Rory played in

Rory did something quite funny in the pool. He was roaming around naked in it, having a great time with no one around. Three overseas tourists came past the pool, with the girl exclaiming "oh so cute". Rory then slipped on the rocks, landed on his bottom and bounced a couple of times. He hopped up, rubbing his bottom and saying over and over "ouch, ouch, ouch!" The tourists thought he was so cute and funny and the more they giggled at him, the more he performed. It was pretty funny.

The beautiful chasm through to Handrail Pool

The handrail you use climbing down

Image courtesy of EnviroGuide Wa (as Tilda didn't get any good photos of the whole pool)

Hancock Gorge

We did a second gorge walk in the same day; another big one! Pretty much because it was an 80km round trip over dirt or a 160km round trip over bitumen and dirt to get to these gorges, that are based next to each other. I think this was my favourite walk of the day owing to the diversity of activity we needed to undertake to complete this walk. After climbing about 40m down some very rough stone natural steps, we then had to climb down 2 very steep ladders to the bottom of the gorge. This gorge was also very beautiful, with such vivid rock colours. 

One of the ladders we climbed down (it doesn't show how incredibly steep and ladder-like it was)

The walk along the bottom was again scrambling over rocks, crossing the water over rocks and walking on slippery rocks just above the waterline to stay out of the water. In the end, it was easier just to wade through the water. 

One of the pools  you could wade through or climb across rocks to avoid. I think we scrambled over slippery rocks for this one

When we gave up and decided to wade through the water. It was up to Rory's arm pits

After walking for a while you come to a deep pool through a narrow chasm. This deep pool was about 40m long and very, very cold. There were some shallow parts and slippery rocks to stand on but for part of it, it was over my head. Greg swam on ahead with Rory (who absolutely loved it) while Tilda and I tried to make our way along the rocks above the waterline, rather than swim. It got to one point where I thought it was too slippery and dangerous to keep climbing, so we took to the water. Tilda was walking along a ledge under the water, with the water about thigh deep, while I swam near her to help. At one point her ledge ran out and she didn't know what to do as it was so cold in the water and she really didn't want to swim it. Just when she started to panic, Ranger Dan came hopping along the rocks and came to our rescue. Tilda had to swim though a short stretch of water, about 5m long, and then he helped her climb back out onto the rocks and she nimbly made her way to the end. He was very impressed with her rock climbing/ scrambing skills. I swam the rest of the way. This bit of water takes you to the "Amphitheater", which had a small waterfall and pool at the bottom and a series of rock formed steps on one side. The rocks were quite warm, which was nice after our very cold swim. Rory lay face down on them to warm up as he was shivering.

This is the long, cold, deep swim. It goes about 40m or so through these narrow rock walls and around a bend

Tilda and I went on to check out Kermits Pool, while Greg supervised Rory, and then Greg and Tilda went. To reach Kermit's Pool you needed to spider walk through a narrow part of the gorge, or make your way along the bottom which was very slippery and had big rocks to climb over, then follow the stream, again on slippery rocks, until you came to Kermits Pool. I loved Kermits Pool. I think it was because it is almost enclosed, with only narrow openings above and to two sides, and also because of the colours of the walls. They are simply stunning. I didn't take the camera that far as I didn't want it to get damaged so I'll borrow some internet photos to show how beautiful the pool is. It was so bitterly cold, I think because sunlight never reaches it, but so worth the swim. Especially as I got to do it all alone. Tilda didn't swim with me, as it was just too cold. I swam to the other side, where the water discharges over a waterfall to a lower plunge pool and further into the gorge. You can't access the next part of the gorge unless you do a tour with guides, including abseiling and rock climbing. While I was there a tour group was beginning their ascent out of the gorge, two pools lower than I was.

Photo by Simon Phelps Photography

Photo from This World Exists.org