Port Hedland

We sadly left Karijini for the mining town of Port Hedland. It's not a place we would normally have stayed too long as a tourist but we had jobs to do.

We booked into the Black Rock caravan park for a few nights, we needed some power for a few days. The first day I spent doing washing. Took 8 loads to wash all our red dirt mess from Karijini.

Mark had to do some work on the Landcruiser and a service so that took up some time. Mark took the kids to meet his mate who was in town for work with his road train. Jake even got to start the truck.

Craig and I took the kids to the aquatic centre whilst Mark did the car. But it was only half open. No one was there, apparently it's cold and winter here!!! At least the kids pool was heated....

We had a bit of a look around Port Hedland but that didn't take long. It was interesting seeing all the industry  with the mining and salt places. So many people in fluro driving mine cars with tall orange flags. 

That's about it for Port Hedland. Not too exciting, we basically just got jobs done!

Karijini

Where do I start with Karijini, we did so much, not sure I'll be able to express it all properly.  We booked into Dales Campground for 5 nights and ended up staying 10.  In other words we loved it so much we stayed!  Most definitely one of our favourite places in this part of the country.
 We took the kids to check out the info centre, its a pretty good one with lots of info and displays.  The kids had fun filling in their Karijini Junior Ranger books.  Which they filled out and then at the end they got a Junior Ranger Badge, they were very proud!  We had a chat to a funny young indigenous bloke and found out about the area.  Info centre was especially handy for us as it had a hot shower for $2, except Vicki kept getting in before me every time!!  I did an injury on the first day at Karijini, was so mad at myself.  I think I broke my little toe, It got pretty bruised and swollen.  No good interesting story to tell either.  I got it caught on the fridge as I got out of bed and my foot went one way and my toe the other.  The perils of living in a van.  I ended up using a bushwalking pole on most of the walks as my foot got sore.   The other guys took to calling it my Nanna stick!

We went for the short walk down to Fern Pool to have a look.  Its a walking distance from the campground, which came in handy as we went there three times for a swim (Mark went four).  Its a bit of a climb down to falls and then to the pool, constantly watching the kids!  Fern Pool is a magic little place, just so unexpectantly pretty.  Just a little pool, with a couple of waterfalls and a nice ladder to climb out with after.  It was of course, cold, but as we found out the further we explored its probably the warmest swimming spot in the whole park.  We know this as Mark swam in every one, just to make sure.  The kids nick named him 'Make Sure Mark' as he always went first and made sure, test dummy style!

The next day we went for a hike through Dales Gorge to Circular pool and the rim walk.  A really nice walk with some rock hopping, climbing and fun for the kids.  Always takes us longer than expected with the kids, they like to have a play and spend a lot of the walk chitter chattering along.  Mark and the kids got in circular pool but it looked far too shady and cold for me.  We did all have a swim at Fortesque Falls which was very nice.  And very slippery getting in, had a few laughs!

Vik and Craigs big long table has come in very handy.  We cook most of our evening meals together, kids eat first then adults, much more peaceful that way!  Plus its in a very hand spot of happy hour, perfect for sitting in the sun at 4pm with a drink and a few nibblies.

Weano Gorge was a pretty special day, and a little hard and challenging too.  I'm not a fan of heights, so a few spots were a little hairy for me.  There were two main walks.  The first down to handrail pool was all good until the last bit but I just followed the others and pretended I wasn't climbing around a waterfall holding onto a handrail.  Mark and the kids got in and had a freezing swim, I took photos.  He and Charlotte swam through the gorge area to the stop sign and then both got out shivering with chattering teeth. 
The second walk was through to Hancock Gorge, doing a spider walk and Kermits Pool.  This one proved even more challenging.  You could either choose to try to stay dry and climb up along the walls or like we chose to do, you can swim through sections.  All sounds great except that the water was absolutely freezing. I must admit I had to hold my breath a few times watching the kids, especially when they were jumping from a height into the pool, no fear though! But what an adventure we had, the kids did such a wonderful job.  We all had a slip or two that day, but luckily nothing major.  We were all pretty pumped that we did all the walks at Weano Gorge, and maybe a little cold and tired.

We decided to drive and check out Hamersly Gorge on the way to Tom Price.  We ended up having so much fun at Hammersly that we actually didn't do much in Tom Price.  Its only a short walk down to Hammersly Grogre, then we had some fun climbing rocks to look at waterfalls and pools.  The kids all had a swim then Craig Mark and I swam through the gorge and had a look about.  Pretty nice way to spend some of our day.  And then we went to Tom Price for a late lunch and some grocery shopping.  Its an interesting small mining town with a great Coles supermarket at reasonable prices.  Appparently the mine pays the transport costs and that's why its not too expensive.

As you can see we ended up with a broken window, gave Jake a fright when it cracked!

The kids kinda rebelled and wanted a day off from hiking.  So Vik and Craig headed off one day to walk Mount Bruce and then we went the next day.  It was a lovely easy walk for the first half with fabulous views over the national park on one side and the mine on the other side.  We were walking along and suddenly heard a big bang, they were blasting at the mine and we could see big plumes of red dirt dust, was pretty cool.  The big dump trucks looked like little match box cars.  The second half got a little trickier but really there were only two scarey parts.  The worst was climbing up in a crevise and I made the mistake of looking down!  We made it to the top in about two hours.  Was a magic view in all directions.  We had a picnic lunch, took a few shots and then headed back down the mountain.  Some sections of the track aren't marked very well.  We kinda got distracted chatting and looking about and lost the track a couple of times.  We found our way back with only a few scratches from the spinifex grass.  It was very nice to spend some quality time with Mark without the kids.

On our second last day we all went to Knox Gorge and Joffre Falls.  Knox Gorge was a nice walk down through the gorge.  We had a swim in a little pool area and then jumped out into the sun shine.  As we were sitting there we could see a water snake swimming about right were we'd been.  The kids thought it was great and it certainly didn't stop them swimming in the next pool!  Now Joffre Falls was a little harder.  The majority of the walk is easy, except the main bit where you climb down into the gorge to walk through to the falls.  But really it wasn't too bad, if  I can do it anyone can!!  There was one moment when I looked at Vik, as we were climbing back up the rocky cliff and said, 'its Friday afternoon, why are we here, no one is making us'!  But in truth it may have been challenging but we loved it.

I had to look away when Mark climbed to the top of Joffre Falls, scarey to watch from the bottom

I love Karijini

We also did walks to Kalmina Gorge but I cant remember which photos go with it, oops!!  So I've added a few more photos of the amazing views of the very beautiful Karijini.

We were also lucky enough to catch up with the Mercer family who we met in Coral Bay and they introduced our children and then us to the Gough family in Big Bertha.  We also saw the Beesons and the Furmedges again.  Ton even took me for a walk to Fern Pool and showed me a few tricks with my camera.  You can thank her for the nicer photos I took! It so nice to be meeting so many travelling families in these areas.  Means we're not the only crazy ones! We had such a brilliant time at Karijini.  It was so nice to be back in amongst nature doing bush walking and taking photos.  The walks were so interesting and fun for the kids and for the adults.  It is definitely a place I would recommend to visit, if your up for some nature and hiking.  As we were leaving Charlotte said she'd rather stay and do all the walks all over again, and that's saying something!