Last week my friend Annie and I decided to take a trip up North to visit Karijini National Park.
Annie came out to Perth from the UK last year at the same time as me to work in ED. After a year of sunshine, beaches and code blacks, she decided to head home to spend the rest of her career in the NHS making kids better!
She's managed to see a fair bit of Australia this year, but had one more place on her Bucket list...Karijini. Karijini (also known as the Hamersley Range) is a huge national park in Pilbara in the north of WA. Its a landscape of hills, waterfalls and gorges with the odd mine here and there. But as the locals like to say..Karijini doesn't offer up her beauty easily...you have to work for it! And we had our fair share of challenges over our 4 day visit to the Outback!
Just getting to Karijini is difficult. Its a 2 hour flight from Perth to the nearest airport Paraburdoo. Paraburdoo is basically a metal shed with an X-ray machine! You then have a further 3 hour drive until you reach the National Park, and most of this is on unsealed roads. The nearest town is about 80km away and the nearest hospital is...well.. Perth!
Paraburdoo Airport
We decided to pack our camping gear and head north for Annie's last week in Australia.
I had arranged to hire a UTE in Paraburdoo so that we could drive the rough roads to Karijini. However when we went to the rental place, the women sorting out our UTE was off sick leaving us with no vehicle! We managed to persuade the car washer man to let us take the UTE but he had no idea how to organise payment, excess reduction or adding on an extra driver. Eventually we agreed that I could take the UTE if I left my credit card details so the owner could sort everything out when she returned. I left feeling a little uneasy about the whole situation....but at least we were no longer stranded at the airport.
Brunhilda our UTE (she had a flag!)
When I finally found our UTE in the car park, we realised it only had 2 seats and a tray so we had nowhere to pack our camping gear. Annie managed to persuade the car washer man to give us some rope so we could tie our bags to the back. Little did we know this rope would save our skins on a few occasions!
So eventually we set of to Tom Price, a small Outback town to pick up some groceries before we headed into the national park. The sprawling metropolis of Tom Price had 1 Coles (Aussie Tesco) supermarket, 2 bottle shops, a volunteer fire station, a school and a petrol station. We didn't stay too long.
Before long we got to the unsealed roads where Annie expertly drove us all the way to our campsite. There are 2 campsites in Karijini...one at Dales Gorge costing $10 per night and has no showers and long-drop loos or the Eco Retreat costing $20 where you get cold showers and flushing loos. We decided to treat ourselves to the flushing loos!
Our campsite in Karijini
The Eco Retreat
Pretty tree
The campsite was amazing, just beautiful views of the red, rocky desert! However we soon learnt that camping in a rocky desert is not easy....we could not pitch our tent on rocks because our tent pegs would break the surface! After about an hour of struggling with the ground, we managed to string up our tent with the rope and some boulders. Thank God we had the rope!
With the tent finally sorted, we decided to spend the afternoon walking around Joffre Gorge. All the walks in the area are graded from class 1 which is easy track to class 5 which involves lots of climbing and river passes. Joffre Gorge soon turned into a class 5 as we scaled down towards the water below. After my wilderness explorer course, I was very well prepared for the trek with compass, map, whistle etc etc...Annie on the other hand thought she would make it in flip flops! The gorge was beautiful and the climbing was fun. Later in the week though, we learned that one lady had fallen from the climb and suffered serious head and neck injuries. We took the class system much more seriously after hearing that!!
Annie sat overlooking the gorge. Another trekker makes the climb back up.
Beautiful stone (Yes I am a rock geek! Love me some geology!)
The sun went down and we were treated to an amazing view of the Milky Way, then we headed back to the tent for a very chilly night. The temperature dropped below zero and our bloody tend wouldn't close because of the ropes holding it up! My body is not used to such cold any more!!
The next day we set off in Brunhilda (our UTE) to explore some of the other gorges in the area. We did a beautiful 3 hour hike around Dales gorge where we saw some water falls and swimming spots.
Overlooking Fortescue Falls
We then drove on to Knox gorge for a picnic and a swim. Unfortunately disaster struck on the way and our trusty UTE Brunhilda got a flat! I have never changed a tyre on a car before never mind a UTE! So we eventually found the jack and tyre iron and set to work changing the wheel. Fortunately a very friendly farmer came to our help and we had the tyre changed in no time! Unfortunately the replacement tyre was also pretty flat but with no other option we had to leave it on as the nearest petrol station was about 100km away back in Tom Price!
I was really hoping the rental company had sorted out our excess reduction!
With that disaster over, we carried on to Knox gorge where we had our picnic then started the very sketchy climb down to the swimming spot below. It was so beautiful that we couldn't resist a swim....even though it was freezing!
Annie with Fortescue Falls in the background
Circular Pool
Dales Gorge from above
Knox Gorge swimming spot
With the sun starting to set we climbed back up out of the gorge and went back for a cold shower and BBQ fajitas before another sub zero night in our tent!
Karijini Sunset
The next day was the best day of the trip, and one of the best tours I have ever been on. Annie had booked us onto a canyoning trip whilst back in Perth. She chose the 'middle tour' which I was ok with even though I really preferred to take on the hardcore tour. But as it turned out, luck was on my side and due to the weather they were only running the hardcore tour! YES!! After a little persuasion Annie agreed to give it a go! And we had the best time! We met up with our guides Brenton and Freddie and got geared up in wetsuits and harnesses. This was the worst part because it was so cold and the wetsuits were still wet! BRRRR! We then headed to Weano gorge where we climbed, tubed, swam and abseiled our way through the gorge. The highlight was abseilling 40m down Weano Falls!
Canyoneers Ready!
Could have done with this tube for the UTE!
Practice abseil
Annie takes on Weano Falls...and gives a lesson on how to pose!
Top of Weano Falls...not nervous....honest!
I have a new respect for rope.
Annie facing her fear of heights!
It was a full on day and we were exhausted by the end. With just a short class 5 trek back to the top of the gorge, we came across a group of kids and their Mums swimming in one of the pools and jumping in. It made me feel very old because I couldn't look as the kids flipped off the rocks into the water below (I'm sure I used to do this sort of stuff all the time back home!). I felt very overdressed in my full-on harness all roped up with the kids just in their swimmers! We soon passed them, but as we were climbing out of the gorge we heard a scream and kids crying. Then came the shouts for help! Annie and I both feared the worst....I was expecting compound fractures. We ran back (looking for anything to act as a splint along the way). When we eventually got to the kids, the screams were coming from one girl who was freaking out having seen blood, the injured girl was her sister who had fallen and cut her head open. Brenton carried the girl out of the water to some nearby rock where Annie and I checked her over and bandaged up her head. Everyone soon calmed down when they realised our group of 6 canyoneers contained 3 emergency doctors! The kids were fine but Brenton had words with the Mums about letting their kids do stupid things so far away from any help! Thats when we realised just how isolated we were...medical help would have to be flown in and this could take up to 24 hours! I made a mental note to ensure I carried my first aid kit everywhere from now on!
Adventure medics to the rescue!
Another disaster averted, we climbed out of the gorge and headed back to camp for a well earned Milo (aussie hot choc!).
On the last day of our trip we took the advice from Brenton and Freddie to climb Mt Bruce before driving back to the airport. Mt Bruce is the highest point in Karijini and promised beautiful views over the national park. We set off early and started the class 5 route. The guide time was 5 hours hike (challenge accepted!). The hike started off easy as a normal trail, we were soon wondering why it was classed as a 5. However about half way up we learnt why! To continue up you had to climb up over some rocks. The climbing wasn't particularly difficult, it was just that there was a sheer drop of about 100m below! After a bit of discussion, we decided to keep climbing...not knowing what else was ahead of us. I wished I still had my harness! We made it up ok and carried on the trek, the journey back down always in the back of my mind! The rest of the trek was ok, just steep rocky uphill. We made it to the top in under 2 hours and we rewarded with spectacular views! We had a quick bite of lunch then started the trek back down towards the corner of doom! On the way back down we came across more hikers who all had struggled with the corner of doom, some choosing not to risk it. When we finally got there, I very carefully lowered myself down, trying not to think about the big drop below. We made it down without a problem but with a whole load of respect for Mt Bruce!
Half way up Mt Bruce. Chinaman's Hat in the background.
Rest stop marks the end of the easy trail and the start of the climbing!
Summit of Mt Bruce
Annie..always on the lookout for shade and water stops!
Some of the easier climbing...I didn't dare get the camera out of the tricky stuff!
I had given us a target time of finishing the trek at 1pm which would be 4 hours hiking. We made it down at 1:01pm! Good work! Then we quickly set of back to Tom Price to fill up on petrol before driving back to the airport.
We finally made it back to Perth and treated ourselves to a Jus Burger (best gormet burgers in Perth!).
Karijini is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, and it certainly helped take my mind of my ever-growing homesickness! For Annie it was the perfect last look at Australia before heading back to the homeland.
See you next year Annie!
