A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Karijini National Park, Australia by TravelPod blogger Rachelhwalsh titled “Karijini National Park”
Rachelhwalsh’s travel blog entry:
“We awoke early, with the sun streaming through the windows of the van and with no running water at the campsite, decided to head straight down to Fern Pool for a bathe. Fern Pool is to be found a little beyond Fortescue Falls. It is a quiet and shaded spot, with a wooden deck and those special kind of sounds that weave themselves together into a sort of silence – bird song, running water and an absence of any other people. Our senses suitably revived, we were ready to embark upon our tour of Karijini, courtesy of Jeff and his Pilbara tour bus.
Phoning to book the tour, we’d spoken to Bev, Jeff’s wife, the catering branch of the operation. She was ecstatic that we were signing up for the day and reassured us that she had some bran muffins going into the oven that very minute. We knew then that we were in for the personal touch and we weren’t to be disappointed.
Jeff was a small and wiry, with the complexion of a man who’d spent his life out of doors and with the calves of someone who devotes a lot of time to scrambling in and out of gorges. He enthusiastically introduced us to Julie and Malcolm from Queensland, and Heinz and Karen from Köln all of whom were middle-aged and therefore incredibly (and unduly) impressed with our (non-existent) athleticism and bravery in the (not really) hairy bits of the tour.
Usually, I’m not a big fan of tours – being jollied around from one place to another, hurried onto the bus when you wanted to stay longer but given ample time at the gift shop; making small talk with strangers over the inane droning of the harried tour guide. We went on this tour from necessity, but were really glad that we did for many reasons, the first of which was that we met Julie and Malcolm from Queensland. They were representative of the sort of small-town Australians that we otherwise would never have had the fortune to chat to. Malcolm had recently sold a pest control business and got into taxis, largely because he was so restricted by the ‘Greenies’, who initially I thought to be some sort of termite, but transpired to be any political group that leans slightly towards environmental issues. Malcolm has very interesting ideas about the Aboriginal issue and told me that while Aboriginal people hold Uluru (Ayres Rock) to be sacred and abhor the invasion of it by outsiders, I must ignore their request and climb it because it’s brilliant.
The enthusiasm with which Jeff beseeched us all to make friends was a hallmark of his tour. He had an extensive repertoire of brainteasers and the prize for solving one of them was sweeties – woohoo! He kept up a constant stream of banter which included bad dad jokes, his feelings about Prince Charles’ second marriage and more informative facts about termites than one person should be a receptacle for. For example, did you know that termite mounds can take 200-300 years to grow several metres in height. They are as solid as concrete while active, but on the death of the ‘queen’ termite, the mound is evacuated and begins to erode. Settlers used ground up termite mounds to make cement for the foundations of their houses and clay for their tennis courts.
Jeff also knew all about the local flora and fauna and the history behind the names of the gorges we were visiting. The gorges themselves were utterly spectacular. Waterfalls that had slowed to a comparative trickle in the current dry seasons fell hundreds of metres to black plunge pools. The colours were extraordinarily vivid – bright blue sky, bright red rock. At Junction Pool, where several large gorges met, we saw a testament to the astounding power of water.
We later hiked down into the heart of Weano Gorge, into the silence and shade. Our destination was Handrail Pool, and to get there we first had to cross a large pool. Most of the gang made slow progress, shuffling along a shelf just below the waterline at its edge. Rhiannon and I stripped to bikinis and swam across. Soon, the gorge narrowed so that I could touch both walls simultaneously. At that point, the portly (Malcolm) and the nervous (Karl) chose to pull up a boulder and wait as the rest of the intrepid adventurers followed our fearless leader in his scramble over slippery rocks …”
Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rachelhwalsh/1/1255853869/tpod.html
Photos from this trip:
1. “Fern Pool”
2. “Knox Gorge”
3. “Gorge”
4. “More gorge”
5. “Me and gorge”
6. “Snake Pool”
7. “Handrail to pool”
8. “Australian savannah”
9. “Sunset at the campsite”
See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-00c3-e526-2020?ytv4=1
Duration : 0:1:40
