Gorgeous Gorges

Monday 24 May
We’d been looking forward to getting into Karijini National Park for a while now after hearing about how good it is from a number of people. Hamersley Gorge sits on its own away from most of the other gorges in Karijini so we decided to explore it from Tom Price before relocating to Dale’s Campground about 100kms away.

The 50 or so kms of corrugated dirt road to get there were a bit rough but it was well worth it. Hamersley Gorge is a beautiful sight.

The water’s a bit cold…but how could you not go in for a swim? Very refreshing – we’re told this is warmer than the other gorge’s pools because the sun hits this one. Just a short scramble up the rocks, spa pool was also beautiful.

We picked up the van from the caravan park and then headed out to Dale’s Campground. A fire had gone through in February so it was a bit barer then usual…but a great atmosphere anyway.

Tuesday 25 May

Dale’s Gorge is a short walk across from our camp site so no driving today. Yay! Walking to the edge of the gorge, the sight below is unexpected and awesome. A big drop down to Fortescue Falls. We walked down and then along the bottom of the gorge to Fern Pool. Great place for a dip…and yes the water was cold (but felt great).

We walked along the bottom of the gorge heading for Circular Pool which is a couple of kms away. The kids loved the miniature rock city that people have created.

Nice place to stop for lunch.

And Circular Pool was another great swimming hole and very beautiful (and colder than Fern Pool).

Very good sleeps tonight with lots of tired bods.


Wednesday 26 May
It’s about 50kms of corrugated dirt road from Dale’s to Weano and Hancock Gorges – and it was a shocker. I hope they have just graded it if you ever come here! But again the drive was still worth it. The gorges just keep getting better. It’s hard to put into words just how awesome they are! We started at Oxley Lookout which has views over Junction Pool where several of the gorges meet…

…and then started the trek down into Hancock Gorge to reach Kermit Pool.

The walks are categorised up to class six, with class one being fairly easy to class six needing abseiling certification to be able to go ahead. The couple of kms to Kermit Pool included a bit of class three, lots of class four and a bit of class five so we knew we had some work to get there. Beyond Kermit Pool was class six so no go for us.

We were blown away by what we saw in the gorge – the colours in the rocks are amazing. Smooth rock walls made up of layer upon layer of purples, browns, creams. Unreal! And heaps of fun climbing and wading through the obstacles in our path. The gorge walls are very close together in places.

Kermit Pool is like a postcard.

And the coldest pool yet.

The view down “the chute” (class six from here) towards Junction Pool is awesome.

We didn’t want to leave, but reluctantly made our way out of Hancock Gorge. After a break for lunch we walked across to Weano Gorge to check out Handrail Pool. More class three, four and five.

We also loved Handrail Pool…very slippery though. Needed the rope for this one.

On the way back to our campsite we had a quick look at Joffre Falls and Knox Gorge but the kids were too gorged out to go down to them (and it was too late in the day)...next time. If you have the opportunity to get over to Karijini NP do it while you still have the mobility to go down into the gorges (Hamersley, Dales and Kalamina Gorges are pretty easy).


Thursday 27 May
Happy birthday Ella!

First thing in the morning it was present time. This little “booby bra” top was a hit.

We had a bit of a drive to do today, but with a new DVD to watch Ella was happy with that. On the way out of Dales Campground the kids handed in their activity sheets and were awarded a Karijini NP Junior Ranger badge. Happy days.

Nice scenery in this part of the country – much better than from Perth to Exmouth.

We arrived in Port Hedland in time for a birthday treat late lunch. We had a few things to do while in town and as we didn’t want Ella’s birthday to be a full day of rushing around in the car we reluctantly decided to stay in a caravan park in town. Unfortunately the ‘nice’ van park at Cooke’s Point was booked out so we ended up at Blackrock Caravan Park in South Hedland which is the main residential area for the working town. To borrow from Ashley’s journal description of the van park “It was a bit of a dive and gave me the creeps.” Still cost $40 for the night – prices are high due to the mining boom around here. At least it allowed us to go out for further birthday celebrations. Birthday cake at the port with the ships lights in the background.

Friday 28 May
Back into Port Hedland town centre to check out the port and check out caravan park availability in Broome at the visitor centre. We’ve been told the whole place can be booked out and they basically close the town off unless you have something booked…could be more grey nomad panic though. We rang a few caravan parks and they said they had plenty of spots open at this stage but as of June 1 the oldies start rolling in.

There’s only a few shops in the town centre as it is mostly taken up by the port and the railways that service it.

The ships come in to be loaded with iron ore which is taken off mainly to Asian countries to make steel to be turned into cars, sinks, house frames…metal stuff. They are up to 320 metres long and can be loaded in 36 hours. When loaded they weigh around 300 tonnes and can only leave at high tide.

Took the kids a while to believe that these big white piles were salt. This is the Rio Tinto salt mine right near town.

There were no sad feelings when we left Port Hedland and headed north to Cape Keraudren. Unfortunately the camping fees have gone up this year from $45 a week to $100. Still cheap compared to a caravan park but it doesn’t have the facilities. We went out for a night and spent the afternoon playing on the beach.

The thong kicking competition was good…

…lots of nice shells on Eighty Mile Beach.

We were able to see the ‘Staircase to the Moon’ as Cape Keraudren has an east facing beach. This only happens once a month from March to November when the full moon rises over the mudflats at low tide and can only be seen at an east facing beach (not too many of them in WA). They make a big thing of it over here, especially in Broome. We figured you can probably see much the same thing over the mudflats of Moreton Bay at Sandgate or Cleveland??

Saturday 29 May
Up early for another play and then hit the road again. It’s a long way between stops in this part of the country. We passed (or were passed by) lots of road trains – at a length of up to 53.5 metres it takes a while for the pass. This big bugger was at the Sandfire Roadhouse.

We were joined by lots of other travellers at the Goldwire rest area where we spent the night.


Sunday 30 – Monday 31 May
Not far up the road we checked into Barn Hill Station for a couple of nights. Beautiful spot right on the beach about 130kms south of Broome.

Reef & Outback

Thursday 13 May
After filling up all our water tanks (water is more scarce the further north we go) we hit the road heading for Warroora (Warra) Station. The road in was long and rough but the camp spot was idyllic, right on Ningaloo Reef…shame about the strong wind. Looking out to the ocean, some big waves break on the edge of the reef about a kilometre from the shore. The area inside the reef is fairly well protected. We went for a bit of a walk along the beach checking out the great shells before settling in for the night.

Friday 14 May
Shocking windy day – great day to catch up on school work and journals. We spent the morning indoors. After lunch we drove a few kms up to the next camp spot at Sandy Point to catch up with the first Smith family that we met in Tasmania at Stanley (Clint, Andy, Ally and Brodie). We knew they were going to be here for a few weeks. We spent the afternoon chatting. It was great to see them all again and catch up on our adventures. We also met their friends Darren and Tina who are staying here for a couple of months.

Saturday 15 May
Bugger – Darren had kindly offered to take us all out on his boat to the reef to go snorkelling but the wind was still shocking. Anything left outside was soon covered under the sand. Just like Friday – windy morning spent indoors and then a big play on the beach in the afternoon when the wind had dropped.

Sunday 16 May
Yay – no wind. We were packing up to head north today, but not before the boat trip to the reef. Darren and Tina are regular visitors to this area so he knows lots of great snorkelling spots. Darren, Clint, Ally, Brodie and us Smithies all headed out and the beautiful blue water. What a top day, especially after the strong winds over the past few days.

We went to the oval, the elbow, and out beyond the waves breaking on the edge of the reef to some much deeper water.

All of us got in the water. The kids were so excited, it was great to see. The whole experience was absolutely awesome. The coral, the fish…

The stingrays and turtles…

Looks like a tank, but this is real!

Thanks Darren, Clint and Andy – unreal!


After that great experience we drove the bumpy road back out to the main highway and called in on the township of Coral Bay, about 40kms north. It’s a pretty commercialised place consisting mainly of the caravan parks, backpackers and a few expensive shops. The showers by the beach were free though!


We continued north and camped at a truck stop about a hundred and forty kms short of Exmouth. Our next planned camp spot is Cape Range National Park around from Exmouth and we have heard that it’s very hard to get in at this time of year. We thought our best chance to get in would be to arrive on a Monday morning.

Monday 17 May
We were on the road early and pulled into the visitor info centre as soon as we arrived in Exmouth. We found out the best chance of getting a spot in the National Park was to go the DEC office – they will hold a spot for a couple of hours if there are any left…and there were, only three caravan places. There was less than a couple of hours to fill the water tanks, fill the car with fuel, collect some mail, do a big grocery stop and drive the 70kms to the NP entrance. We made it easily. We were very happy to have scored a spot at the Kurrajong campground at the southern end of the NP – it’s a protected area and the camp spots are separated so you have your own space…and we were only 100m from the Ningaloo Reef.

We spent the afternoon kayaking over the crystal clear water looking at the coral and colourful fish.



Tuesday 18 May
Ripper of a day today. I was spoilt with a few pressies in the morning and then we set off for Yardie Creek Gorge at the bottom end of Cape Range NP. We did the walk along the top of the gorge and enjoyed the views over the water below.

Yummy roast for dinner tonight – the oven bag in the dreampot works well…and chocolate cake of course.

Wednesday 19 – Friday 21 May
On Wednesday we headed just up the road to Turquoise Bay for some snorkelling. This is an easy snorkel spot where all we had to do is swim out about 30m and then the current took us along parallel to the beach for about 250m over the top of spectacular coral and fish – very nice. The colour of the water isn’t bad either.

After a tiring few hours in the water we drove a little further up the road to grab some bore water for showers and washing (much to the kids disgust).

Conditions are very harsh here as it hasn’t rained for over 12 months. The local wildlife know where to go to get a drink though.

Back at camp after tea the outdoor movie was showing at our place – the kids invited some of the friends they had made and they all ha a fun night.

On Thursday and Friday we went nowhere. Some other campers had told us about another great snorkelling spot just out from our campground. You only had to swim out 20m and there was no current which was better for Ella (she loves snorkelling). We set up there for the day and snorkelled, played and fished off the kayak most of the day…very relaxing!

See the waves breaking out on the reef…

We had some success with the fishing rod out on the reef – caught heaps of these…

We didn’t know what they were, so called them army fish (we found out they are Chinaman Cod) - we threw them all back but did keep some sweetlip that we caught.


Saturday 22 May
Sad day – time to move on. As we were packing up we spied some dark clouds looming in the background. A heavy shower blew over the area and gave everything a bit of a soaking. You know what that means? Very slow drive out of the NP.

All the way back to Exmouth, hundreds of kangaroos and wallabies were standing in the middle of the road drinking the rain water. Better drinking water collected in pools on the tar than drinking out of the dirt. They were also at our campsite licking the water off cars and pipes as well as off the concrete slabs where the toilets are.


After a big restock and a few phone calls after being out of range for the last week and a half we hit the road heading for Tom Price and Karijini National Park. It’s a long drive – we put fuel in the car at the Nanutarra Roadhouse (at $1.76 cents/litre it’s the most expensive diesel for the trip so far I think), and then camped at House Creek Bridge (free camp).

Sunday 23 May
The scenery of the Pilbara region is a very welcome sight after the nothingness from Perth upwards. The landscape is really interesting with coloured mountains springing up everywhere.

About 80kms short of Tom Price we stopped in at Paraburdoo for a closer look at the Jolly Green Giant.

17 of these operated at the local mine until the 1980’s. They cost $625,000 each in 1976 and carried more than 285 million tonnes of iron ore.


We checked into the Tom Price Tourist Park and then set off to climb the tallest mountain in WA, Mt Nameless.

Red rocks everywhere – you can see the iron ore in them.

Great views from the top over Tom Price.