Karijini National park

I had never even heard of Karijini National park until we started researching this trip and discovered that many people rate it as the most beautiful national park in Australia. Set in the hot, arid Pilbara region, Karijini is renowned for its spectacular gorges and waterholes -  all the more appreciated as they are completely surrounded by desert. We focussed our attention on Dales Gorge as it was near to our campground,  2wd accessible,  has permanent waterholes and the walks are all Class 3 or 4 (Class 1 is a wheelchair accessible path,  increasing in difficulty to Class 5 which is for very experienced bushwalkers with a high level of fitness.)

We started with the easy walk to the Fortescue Falls lookout,  a stunning outlook which spurred our enthusiasm to go on with the Fortescue falls walk.  Some 250 steps down the gorge wall later and we were clambering over the rocks at the edge of the pool.

We then turned right and followed another path to Fern pool.  A reasonably flat track followed the side of the creek between enormous strangler figs to an unbelievably beautiful pond,  complete with ferny banks and a picturesque waterfall.  It came as no surprise to learn that this was a very sacred site to the local aboriginal people. We sat on the wooden platform at the side to cool our feet and discovered that the pool was teeming with fish.

After a break we retraced our steps back to Fortescue falls,  crossing the outflow on very slippery stepping stones and walked the full length of Dales Gorge.  We took our time, enjoying the scenery and multitudes of birds.  Traversing the gorge involved scrambling over boulders,  numerous Creek crossings and balancing on narrow ledges.  Luka and Freya declared it the most fun bushwalk ever!

The far end of the gorge contained the surprisingly cold Circular Pool.  The planned swim turned into a bit of wading and splashing, which cooled us down sufficiently for the steep ascent directly up the wall of the gorge via a very uneven rock staircase.

Once we had reached the top and caught our breath,  we took the short easy walk to Circular pool lookout before following the top of the gorge wall all the way back to our beginning point at the Fortescue falls lookout.

Four very hot hours of challenging walking and we had completed the Dales Gorge loop.  We were incredibly proud of Luka and Freya, who managed the whole walk with very minimal assistance. They also had the additional accomplishment of becoming Karijini Junior Rangers after completing a workbook and some prescribed activities. Their Ranger badges will be sewn onto their backpacks at the earliest opportunity.