Day 1 of hiking through Karijini National Park gorges.

Woke up to a freezing morning, everyone was shivering, Luke had made some hot mulled wine last night in the hope of keeping the cold away, didn’t work.  We all stood around the bar-b-que pretending to help Luke cook bacon and eggs because it was the only warmth in the place.  Bacon and eggs and the sun coming up managed to get the blood flowing through the veins.

 On to the walks into the gorges of Karijini.  All the gorges we visit start with a trip to the edge of the gorge, we walk down into the gorges, along them for a while, then up the side and back to where we started.  The climbs in and out are very exhausting.

First up for the morning walk to Dales Gorge which has the Circular Pool at one end, Fortescue Falls in the middle and at the other end is Fern Pool.  One of the main challenges of the day was jumping in the cold water for a swim, because there is limited water for showers and there is the ‘Karijini Challenge’ which encourages everyone entering the park to wash in the fresh water pools rather than shower….we all passed the challenge but the cold water in the various pools made it extremely difficult.

The walks were all down into the gorge, hundreds of steps then along the gorge and at the end climb back up a hundred stairs….calling them stairs is also stretching the description, a loose assortment of rocks randomly placed and called a path is a better description.
Sorry about all the photos.....just haven't got time to delete them all.....

At the top of the gorge...let the show begin...

Without the interference, Fortescue Falls at the bottom of the gorge.

Where we are heading.

The river below.

Luke and Emily talking about bees and Snappy Gums.

Pam looking forward to a trip down the gorge.

To there.

The group almost lost in the spinifex on the way to the point where we descend.

And down we go.

Taking photos from the bottom.

Chris and Emily on the rocks.

Colours everywhere.

Reflections.

Circular Pool

Chris and Emily taking a dive.

And making it back

Some rock crawling to keep going.

Past Fortescue Falls.

And around them

Trying to keep the group together.

On the way to Fern Pool

Some creek crossings.

Scrambling over fallen rocks.

A little window in the wall.

Pam and Emily squeezing through.

Bit of climbing involved now.

Past some Strangling Figs.

To Fern Pool

Emily and Chris (and Aude) under the warm waterfall at Fern Pool.

Swimmers making it back.

And playing silly buggers.

Back to camp for lunch and then to Weano Gorge and to the end where we scramble/climb/clinging to rocks and balancing through slippery water courses to get to the challenge of getting through a narrow gorge a little over shoulder width to a hand rail where you have to hold on to it and get down to water level.  We all managed the climb in and were even more skilled on the way out.

Back to camp just after dark for a well deserved drink and prepare ourselves for another freezing night.

This one looks a little tricky?

And it's getting very narrow.

Not sure if Luke knows what he's doing leading us through this?

Over the water, clinging to rocks.

Luke helping us all through the difficult sections.

Pam looking agile.

Getting our feet wet in a shallow section.

Emily looking on in disbelief.

But we followed anyway.

Chris making it to the top of Handrail Pool.

Everyone climbing down the rail.

To the swimming pool.

All in the freezing water.

Refections on the water.

More reflections.