Karijini has been somewhere on Matt’s to do list so it was somewhere we wanted to experience fully. Doing our usual thing of arriving after sunset, we dropped our park fee ($12) into the entrance gates (kind of like an honesty box situation rather than a manned booth but you have to display your receipt alongside your campsite receipt on your dashboard for the duration of your stay) we headed straight to the Dales campground (one of only two within the park but this one is run by National Park volunteers), a volunteer guide met us on our drive up to settle our fees ($10pp/pn), tell us the dos and don’ts [I don't know if it's just us but we kind of get a little offended when they feel the need to tell us that you shouldn't leave rubbish behind etc...why would we ever do that?!!], he was a lovely man and I know it’s his job to tell us but still! He also warned us of the snakes and dingoes, apparently it was the time of year that snakes are active both day and night so you just need to keep an eye on where you step because the last thing you want to do is step on a snake.
Anyway, after a decent nights sleep, we packed up and headed to see the volunteer again to get a bit of info and some maps ready to tackle the gorges. As we were just in our 2WD camper that allows an irritatingly low 500m of unsealed road use (just to a carpark or official campsite!) we stuck to the routes around Dales gorge, all on unsealed roads and actually just one carpark needed as the whole route was just one big loop consisting of Fern Pool, Fortescue Falls and Circular pool. They were all so tranquil, Fern Pool and Circular pool are actually both sacred aboriginal sites so no jumping in/messing around is permitted and it is requested that you enter the water quietly, which is probably a good thing to have to remember because it would be all too easy to shout and squeal at the shock of the cold water especially on a 40degree Summer’s day.
Having chatted with the volunteer at the campsite, we definitely wanted to get off track a little bit and visit the more “interesting and adventurous” walks and gorges so, with the “once in a lifetime” mentality, we decided to spend the chunk of money and time to hire a 4WD… World, meet Roger! Roger was our all singing all dancing 4×4 complete with truckers radio!
Roger cost us an almost 4hr round trip (to get from Karijini to Paraburdoo to pick it up and back again) and $161 (inc GST) a day (for just 100km inclusive usage, any additional km’s had to be paid afterwards at a rate of 0.25c/km [we did an additional 300km]) but he was worth it! If only for the thrill factor of crusing around in a 4WD, any bumps or corrugation that had rattled our bones in the camper were just another bit of road, with any impact fully absorbed. And of course, it allowed us our second day in the park to visit Hancock gorge, Handrail pool, the Amphitheater, Spider Walk, Kermit pool and Hamersley gorge.
We drove back from picking up the car in the evening so we could be up and ready to tackle the gorges as early as possible, we stayed at Savannah campsite (the second site in the park, with private ownership), it was a much bigger campsite – a resort almost, with bar and restaurant as well as showers (not available at Dales). On the road by 7.30am we had the trek to Hancock Gorge to ourselves, all the way down to Handrail pool at the end where we spent a good half hour splashing around. Handrail pool is so called because you have to use a handrail to get down to the waters edge as the gorge walls are so steep, I was a little apprehensive at the thought of this, especially as the rocks are known to be super slippery but as it turned out, it’s just good fun, and especially nice as we had the place to ourselves, obviously you have to have a reasonable level of fitness to be able to heave yourselves back out using the handrail and a few strategically placed rocks which act as a ladder. The pool, view through the gorge walls and overall atmosphere is definitely worth it though.
The walks on the second day were definitely more interesting, graded as class 4 or 5, they included walking over slippery rocks, some scrambling and the odd leap of faith but they were all pretty well sign posted and we managed without any problems at all. The walk to Kermit pool (including the amphitheater and spider walk) involve getting our feet wet, again we managed to have the walk there to ourselves once we’d overtaken a few people at the very start. A few small ledges to negotiate and a walk through the stream down Spider Walk brought us to the small green pool that was Kermit pool. We managed to have 10 minutes there alone before a couple of groups came to join us although they didn’t brave the cool water. Some people seemed to be making hard work of the walk with many opting to leave their shoes behind…heaven forbid they got them wet! (Mine took all of 3 minutes to dry in the 38 degree sunshine). I’m sure at a wetter time of the year (basically after rainy season as a lot of the walks are closed during) that the walks would be a lot trickier as wet feet did make for some slippery rocks but we managed to negotiate them all without issue, we passed a few people struggling to do Spider Walk literally like spiders – legs and arms stretched out to the side to avoid touching the water below – but it really wasn’t necessary, 2 inches of water is nothing when the point of the walk is to get to a pool – it allows you to slowly acclimatise to the chilly water too!
We drove the 70km off-road track to Hamersley Gorge, we knew that there wasn’t much walking involved with the this one but it was one we’d definitely heard of and as we had the car, it seemed silly to miss out. We wandered to the lookout point and it didn’t look all that impressive, just another pool but as we walked down, we turned right instead of following the few people that were already there and realised/remembered why we’d heard of it, across a beautiful blue pool, with a bit of effort to heave ourselves over some very slippery rocks (against the flow of a small waterfall) we came to a spa! A small opening with a big waterfall pouring in, it was ridiculously deep and surrounded by slippery rocks but it was a small piece of paradise.
Legs tired from doggy paddling (floating was a near impossibility because of the pressure from the waterfall) we slipped and slid our way back into the other pool for a final swim before leaving the park.
Karijini was everything we hoped it would be, I was very glad of the trickier walks on the second day purely because we like a bit of a challenge (and yes we kept our record of halving the suggested walking times), it was a beautiful place with different scenery and lots of opportunities to swim but it does require a vehicle that allows you to do the bit of driving on unsealed roads.
A couple of photos from a stop in Tom Price, near to where we dropped the 4×4 off. The town is known for its mining and this big ol’ thing is now a photo stop. Much obliged 
Karijini trail maps & info:
All: http://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/karijini
Dales Recreation Area: http://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/downloads/parks/20140579%20DalesWalkTrail_v5.pdf
Weano Recreation Area: http://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/downloads/parks/20140578%20WeanoWalkTrail_v8.pdf
