Early August 2022, Mitch and I made our way to Karijini National Park in outback Western Australia. For me that meant a 5:00am start for the drive up to Sydney Airport, the 6 hour flight across our vast continent to Perth, Western Australia. Next morning a 5:30am start to catch a 2hr flight from Perth to the remote airport of Paraburdoo, pick up our hire car, 45min drive north to the mining town of Tom Price. Grab some supplies for the week, then a 90min drive into Karijini National Park. Accommodation options are "limited" in the remote Australian outback, we had no camping gear with us so we had booked a cabin at the Karijini Eco Retreat - this proved be the perfect base from which to explore the many stunning gorges of the park!
Karijini is Western Australias' second largest National Park. Apparently there are at least 11 gorges in Karijini - many with swimming holes and water falls. Erosion over the past 2.5 billion years has created this stunning landscape, decorated with beautiful Ghost Gum trees, red gravel, spinifex, scrub and wild flowers.
Our first afternoon we headed off too check out Weano Gorge and Handcock Gorge - a nice introduction.
That night, after a bit of planning, we decided to spend the next day exploring Knox Gorge, from sunrise to sunset! Some stunning Ghost Gums on the cliff edges catching the morning sun, a hike through the gorge to the most amazing rock formation ( ‘Eye of Sauron’ ), plus time to explore the ‘surface’ with one of those amazing outback cloud patterns!
Next morning it was Knox Gorge again for sunrise, this time with the possibility of some cloud cover providing some sky colour! After sunrise we headed west to explore the valley that we had driven through on our first day. We were looking for possible vantage points to shoot either sunrise or sunset, interesting trees, red ridges dotted with spinifex. Lots of bush bashing. Our research indicated that snakes are quite plentiful in the park, so we had taken the precaution to bring our trusty snake slippers (gum boots!) with us.
Perfect for bush bashing!
Tuesday morning, Knox Gorge again for sunrise. Again, the chance of a colourful sunrise. This time it was colourful … for a brief moment!
We then headed back into Tom Price for some more supplies, fuel, and a great late breakfast and coffee at The Pickled Bean cafe - a nice find! Our plan was to then head out to Dales Gorge for the afternoon, explore the gorge and stick around for sunset, hoping for some nice colour.
Fern Pool was beautiful, as was Circular Pool, and the hike pretty good too. However the view from the lookout was spectacular! Shooting hand held, hanging out over the edge of the lookout was quite the challenge!
That night, we rewarded ourselves with a burger from the Eco Resort - very satisfying at the end of a long day!
An early start for Wednesday, back out to the valley for some bush bashing and exploring, looking for potential locations and compositions.
Next day it was sunrise in the valley. Mitch and I had identified a couple of ridges and trees that we thought would look great in the early morning light … it was just going to take some bush bashing with head lamps across the plain, then a climb up the ridge to the vantage points. First task was to try and find, in the dark, the section of the road to head off from. Then, with fingers crossed, head out over the plain and hopefully up the chosen ridge!
Without to much hassle, all tasks successfully completed - now to wait for the rising sun …
Karijini !!!
Fabulous experience, well worth the effort to get there!
Many thanks Mitch for being my travel buddy … again.
We had some great discussions.
And great music and podcasts. Alas, only a single loaf of banana bread this time!
The most I’ve hiked in ages … especially in Gum Boots! 😆
Ghost gums, Red rocks, Blue skys and Wildflowers. 😍
Another Bucket List Item ✅
(You’ve just read the Book, now see the Movie! => Karijini )