Karijini National Park (By Simon)

WARNING: This blog contains pictures of snakes (that's for you Chris C!!)

As we arrived in Karijini National Park the clouds trailing off Tropical Cyclone Quang started to roll in and we were expecting rain at any minute. Regardless, we set up camp and went for a hike along the top of Dales Gorge and then down to Fortescue Falls and onto Fern pool. A great hike and both very beautiful water falls and natural pools.

Overnight we had 20mm of rain and awoke to a lot of red mud!

By 10:30am the rain had slowed and we set off on a another hike, again to Fortescue Falls but this time returning along the floor of Dales Gorge to Circular Pool. The hike was a lot more challenging, crossing the creek quite a few times requiring us to remove our boots and go bare foot.

Arriving at Circular Pool we were greeted by a crystal clear pool set at the base of 60m cliffs with a water fall at one end. We all plunged in. Given the towering cliffs shade the pool most of the day the water was quite cool but very refreshing.

Returning to camp we were relaxing with the kids playing nearby when Nath ran back with an excited look on his face. "Snake" he said, pointing to a clump of Spinifex 10m away. We cautiously made our way over looking for the snake and there in a clearing was a 1m King Brown snake.

For those interested (I know our US readers are always interested in deadly Australian animals) I did a quick search and found the following:

 

"King Brown Snake (Pseudechis australis) is the heaviest venomous snake in Australia and has the largest-recorded venom output of any in the world - delivering 150mg in one bite... northern specimens are much more agitated if disturbed - when they throw their heads from side to side and hiss loudly. King Browns bite savagely, even hanging on and chewing as they inject massive amounts of highly toxic venom, which destroys blood cells and affects the muscles and nerves." http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-environment/2012/07/australias-10-most-dangerous-snakes/

We then had the privilege to watch the snake circling the clump of Spinifex smelling the air with its forked tongue. After about an hour he plunged in and to our surprise a 30cm Lizard scrambled out the top. Unfortunately for the Lizard the damage had been done, and he sat there gasping for air, with the snake watching on, waiting for the venom to take effect. Once paralised the snake moved with surprising speed and swallowed the lizard head first! Gruesome but great to watch in the wild!

The next day we set off in the car to the Weano and Hancock gorges which are on the western side of the park, about a 1 hour drive on unsealed roads. We really had no idea of what to expect but as we were soon to find out these gorges are very different to Dales gorge (and others we had visited at Kalbarri and Cape Range).

Within the first 5 minutes of hiking down into Weano gorge we had to change into our bathers and swim... and it didn't let up! We had to swim another 3 or 4 times before making it to Handrail Pool at which point we had to traverse down a near vertical rock face, standing in a waterfall, holding a slippery hand rail (hence the name). Once in the pool we had a final 50m swim through a towering narrow gorge... it was breath taking.

Unfortunately, at this point we met 3 German tourists who had ventured further down the gorge (restricted area for good reason) one of whom had fallen and injured her back. There was not much we could do but the Ranger was alerted and a well rehearsed rescue swung into action. The Tom Price SES (State Emergency Service) lays claim to being the busiest in the country and does the most vertical winch rescues each year for one reason... Karijini National Park! For this poor girl this is exactly what happened, over the next 10 hours she was immobilized, floated to an appropriate access point and winched out on a stretcher. Not a nice way to end your holiday to Australia!

After making our way back out of Weano Gorge and having a quick bite to eat we headed into Hancock gorge. This time we were better prepared and wore nothing but bathers and water shoes. Again, 5 minutes into the hike we were neck deep swimming through the narrow, gutter like gorge ending at a pool cut deep in the earth.

At the start of that day we never expected we would have done what we did but were all thrilled by the experience.

Safely back at the car we headed back to Dales Gorge camp hoping to get to the 6.00pm church service run by the Uniting Church Frontier Ministries. Arriving right on time, we were disappointed to see that the time had been changed to 5:00pm! However, as it would happen, we ran into Rev John Dihm as he was about to leave and struck up a conversation. We mentioned that we had hoped to attend the service at which point he said "no problem, let's do communion and a blessing right now". So after donning his garments and preparing the bread and wine we shared communion as a family around the back of his truck (diesel engine still running), followed by a blessing of our family and travel. It was truly a God orchestrated moment!

The next morning we were in no hurry to leave Karijini so after packing up the camper we headed back to Circular Pool for one last swim before driving back into Tom Price. At Tom Price we did the laundry, showered, did a little food shopping and bunked down for a good night sleep before tackling our next adventure!

Travel Log:
Tom Price to Karijini : 100 km
Total Trip: 7300 km