Indee Station - Karijini NP (ATA Day 2, 3 & 4)

I awoke from an amazing sleep at Indee Station without an alarm and lay there enjoying the colours of the sunrise above me. I drifted back to sleep to be woken shortly before 7am as Ben started up the truck to go get water supplies. We rolled up our swags, had breakfast and cleaned up camp aiming for a departure time of 8am but being ready to go by 7.45am...aren't we great!

Rather than everyone cleaning their own dishes the system here seems to be that someone does all the washing and someone does the drying and it works itself out that way. I'm not sure what system is best as I tried to help out at lunch and dinner last night and again at breakfast this morning but there were too many cooks already in place taking care of it. Don't want to be seen to be sitting back doing nothing but don't want to get in the way either, though I'm sure the eager beavers who've been all over it so far will tire of it soon and I can step up to the plate then and help.

We hit the road to get to Karijini National Park, a drive of in the region of 350km, half what we did on the first day. We set up camp at the Eco Resort there and stayed for 3 nights to allow enough time to explore the park.

On the agenda for the first day was a visit to Dale's Gorge where we were to see three areas of the park: Fern Pool, Circular Pool and Fortesque Falls. When we arrived Ben said we'd be aiming for two of the three and see how we were doing for time to go to Fern Pool once we'd gotten back up the gorge. A bit disappointing that he reckoned we'd only see some of what they advertise in the brochure but then again given the climb down to the first section I can see why.

We pulled up into Dale's Gorge and had a delicious lunch of sandwiches...Mmmmm sandwiches. When everyone was foddered up and in their bathers we started the trek down the gorge along a very steep slope where the steps were formed from natural rock formations and some that had been placed to bridge the gaps. There was a ladder in one portion too as the gorge seemed to be on two levels that were too far apart to climb down without assistance. This trek led us to Circular Pool, which was as the name suggests a circular pool of clear water. It was beautiful and totally worth nearly losing my life several times as I stumbled over rocks and my Tevas threatened to have me slip on the algae and muck that was around the place. This freshwater pool was our first swimming hole of the day, though from the reaction of some of the people who got into the water I wasn't sure I would brave it. One of the girls took a step off a rock, lost her footing and was trying to tread water to make her way back to the edge while struggling to breathe because the water was so cold it made her lungs feel like they were collapsing. But still, in I got...the water was as cold if not a little colder than it had been at the Home & Away beach. I waited by the edge to acclimatise before swimming over to join Una at the other side where there was a ledge to sit on. The pool was cold because it was shadowed all around and no bit of sunlight was hitting the water at all.

From Circular Pool we headed back along the same track for a portion but rather than ascend the rock path we'd come down we headed straight to trek through undergrowth and over more slimy rocks to take us to Fortesque Falls. It was spectacular, the water was warmish and we were able to swim right over to the falls and sit under the water as it sprayed down. We stayed there for a while messing about before starting the ascent up the gorge from that side. Lots of man made steps to get us there, but it was a much better option than going up how we'd come down!

All explored and tired we headed for camp and got our swags and tents sorted out. It's a hell of a lot colder here in the evening than it was at Indee Station. It makes a bit more sense to me now why we're in hostels after we leave the Eco Resort. Dinner was fish, cous-cous and salad. Ben had no idea what the fish was (all of our food is vacuum packed and stored in an eski in the back of the truck) as there was no label on it. Whatever it was..it was damn fine!

After dinner 7 of us headed off on an Astro Tour of the Western Australian night sky, one night before full moon. Una and I had strolled up to the reception area shortly after we arrived at the resort to get some bottled water (the stuff in the eski on the bus is minging and the stuff from the waterfall had creatures floating in it) and there we'd seen the sign about the tour. We signed up and mentioned it to the others when we got back to camp. The guy who runs the tour is called Phill and he's a crazy man. He came to collect us in a bus, filled it up with as many people as he could find and drove us out to 'the finest observatory in WA', that is, 3 large telescopes set up in the middle of the outback a couple of minutes drive from the resort. We were all given a day-glo yellow sleeveless jacket to wear to keep us warm and visible, and a cushion to put on our chair to keep our bums warm for the 2 hour show. He showed us the Southern Cross, the Pointer Stars, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Libra, Capricorn, Jupiter and the Moon. We got to see some other stuff too but they were the main ones. He talked a lot about how many light years away everything was and gave us some facts about our sun and moon that I'd not heard before. It was really interesting and because he was such a funny guy it was really enjoyable. The almost full moon made it very tough to see the laser he was using to point out stuff though so he had to do it over and over again with us to make sure everyone saw it. We got to take some photos of the moon with our compact cameras and mine are awesome (Una's camera was too big so she didn't get any). He took us back to camp when the show was over and presented us with a Milky Way as a treat to remember our time together.

On the second day the gang headed off after a hearty breakfast to venture to Jeoffre Gorge, Junction Pool and Oxer Lookout. I stayed at the resort to rest up my left knee as I'd been awake most of the night from the jolting pain each time I rolled onto it. No major damage to it, I'm just not that used to all that jumping around on steep rocky ground and had landed on it a bit funny a few times causing a bit of discomfort and swelling. I spent the day chilling out at the shaded reception area watching the world go by and marvelling at the tranquillity of the place. The group arrived back at lunchtime but I wasn't feeling the love for an afternoon of walking so again I stayed put at the resort electing to stay by the camp this time. The heat was incredible, the dust was blowing everywhere raising up big red clouds everywhere I looked.

On the third day I rose again and headed out with the group in the morning to get a bit of walking in. I went on the morning walk that saw us descend a set of uneven steps to an initial pool of water I deemed too cold to swim in. We sat there for a long while chilling out before moving on to Handrail Pool that was accessible by you guessed it..a handrail. We had to wade through waist high water and then cling to a rock face while shimming along to the left to the next portion of dry land. Everyone got across safely apart from poor David who fell in..on Father's Day! The rest of the way was back to the normal climbing over rocks and narrow passages until we got to the final section where you had to 'spider walk' through a narrow gap with water flowing underfoot down into the pool. At the end of the enclosed section of the spider walk you had to grab hold of a handrail and get to the other side of it to stand on a flat area of stone. From there you had to lower yourself into the pool by rope – I couldn't do it because my arm was in bits with tendinitis (I've been bold and haven't been doing my exercises). I sat and watched the others for a while before making my way back through the tunnel to the open area on the other side where I was able to soak up some sun and dry out while I waited for them to get back. The afternoon session was into Hancock Gorge that I heard was tougher than what we'd just done, so I chickened out. I enjoy walking on the flat, with a bit of a gradient and a bit of rockery tossed in...but effectively canyoning without the required equipment ain't my thing. Two of the guys from the group headed off on an organised canyoning tour earlier in the morning..they were doing grade 6 gorges..some of the ones we did were grade 5. Una, ever the adventurous stuck out all the treks despite being quite nervous in parts.

So came an end to our time in Karijini National Park...and it was ace :)