Karijini National Park Day 2 - Dales Gorge

Our second full day we spent exploring Dales Gorge. We didn't push as hard this day as the kids had put in a huge (4 or so hours ) effort the previous day.

There are 3 pools to explore in Dales Gorge, each offering something different. Dales Gorge is more accessible, and according to Tilda "only" a Class 3 gorge. It involves walking down over 270 metal steps to get to the bottom of the gorge. That is a lot of steps to climb back up! But it is much easier than climbing over the rough, uneven natural rock steps of the other 2 gorges - just hard going on the thighs. You get some beautiful views of the gorge walls and Fortescue Falls as you walk down the stairs.

Fortescue Falls

We started our day by going on the short walk to Fern Pool at the bottom of the steps and I am so glad we did. In all of Australia, Fern Pool is now my favourite place to have swum. It is a sacred site, so you are asked to approach the pool calmly and quietly. The pool has an incredibly calm and serene feel to it and is so incredibly pretty. It is set in a shaded, sheltered location surrounded by beautiful, lush vegetation. The water was very cold, although not as cold as Kermit Pool. I loved it! Only Rory and I swam, and I was worried about him as it was so cold, but he was so keen to swim across the pool to the waterfall. It is so hard to find the words to describe the experience. The pool is deep, and green and you can't see the bottom but you can see the fish swimming in it. The edges are surrounded by ferns and sedges and the whole pool is surrounded by lush vegetation and trees, with the rich red gorge walls as the backdrop. Even though there were other people there, there weren't many and I could float on my back and look up at the bright blue sky and feel like I was in another world, enjoying the beauty all by myself.

We found these two amazing trees on the way to Fern Pool 

The little spot almost to the falls is Rory and I

We then hiked back to Fortescue Falls. The kids played in the shallows, but you had to be so careful there as the rocks were incredibly slippery. I found myself sliding down a rock even though I wasn't walking or moving, it was just a combination of the slippery surface and the slope of the rock.

After a lunch and a rest we visited the Circular Pool and Three Gorge Lookouts. You can actually walk along the bottom of the Gorge from Fortescue Falls to Circular Pool but no one other than I wanted to do it, so we decided to just visit the look outs. We had asked a lot of the kids the day before so it was only fair to give them a break.

Circular Pool

The walk to Three Gorges Lookout

The Gorge wall above Circular Pool (loved the stark white tree hanging to the wall)

And the main reason I wanted to come to Karijni National Park... to see Spa Pool in the Hammersley Gorge. And after all that, we didn't see it as it was over a 220km round trip and the walk to the Pool is closed as too many people were breaking their arms and legs. So here is a photo of my inspiration for coming to Karijini. How absolutely stunning is it?

Photo sourced from wildswimmingaustralia.com