Nov 5, 20228 min read

Karijini National Park, WA

Updated: May 18, 2023

October 2022

We decided rather than drive 800km back down along the coast to Kalbarri past Carnarvon and Shark Bay we would head inland and see Karijini National Park taking the Great Northern Highway Route back to Kalbarri (1,798km). Probably not the best economical decision, given the price of fuel these days. Karijini (in the Pilbara Region) is a startling savanna covered landscape of spectacular gorges, waterfalls and rock pools. The Kozbiels were going to meet us there and we realised we hadn't seen each other for over a year. We met the Kozbiels in Yamba back in April 2021 and these guys still haven't caught up with us. They definitely travel to their own slow beat and we love that.

We spent our first night at Bullara Station (90km south of Exmouth), which we had heard all about whilst living in Exmouth. This place is a working cattle station but they have put so much effort into making the station stay one to remember. They have a menagerie of old farm equipment, decorated trees, outdoor showers, fairy lights in the trees (who doesn't love some fairy lights?), roaming sheep and metal sculptures. They also offer meals from their cafe and managed to pump out 100s of burgers the night we were there, as well as live music. We enjoyed the place with some new friends and it was a great way to kick-start our road trip.

Arriving at Karijini we decided the stay at the Karijini Eco Retreat, which I had read about when I was a teenager. Surrounded by beautiful savannah woodlands and with access to a beautiful little yoga tent and some of the stunning gorges we were ready to explore. I spent my birthday morning walking along the trails to Joffree Falls and meditating in the yoga tent. We all headed over to Hancock Gorge and explored the handrail pool. The handrail section was a bit dicey for the kids so we let them play in the upper pool whilst the adults went in pairs to explore the handrail pool. We climbed down the handrail section which opened into a huge swimming pool. Directly across we had to climb out of the water and hop into another, much cooler pool before climbing out again to access a 40m long natural lap pool. The end was blocked off with a chain as the gorge continued but was difficult and dangerous to negotiate.

Upper Pool (top left), Handrail Pool (bottom right)

The next 4 days were full of short, but steep and tricky, walks down to some more gorges and frolicking in the water during the heat of the day. Our favourite was Hamersley Gorge. We arrived early so enjoyed having the upper spa pool to ourselves - this spa pool was amazing!!! Climbing up to it across the slimy algae required splaying yourself out on the gooey rocks and clambering up like an overfed seal, grabbing a hold of whatever dry piece of rock you could find. We stayed in the pool as long as possible. As you can imagine, sliding out on out butts was much easier. The climb out of these gorges was short but difficult and hot and Mali is much better at hiking without too much whinging these days. If only there was a pool at the top.

The beautiful Hamersley Gorge and Spa Pool (above)

Walking out of one of the gorges (right) and the view from above (left)

We managed to squeeze in a Rio Tinto Iron Ore open pit mine tour. We thought Mali would be slightly more fascinated but she just wanted to get back in the coach and eat crackers and lollies in the air-conditioned comfort. The $250, 000 tyres and $3,000,000 train carriages full of iron ore didn't seem to interest her. She did like the little decorative sculptures that kept moving in the sludge pond though (go figure). Tom Price was a rather nice town and is Western Australia's highest (747m). The average age of people in this town is 25-45 years old and most are mine workers. It looked like a thriving young town with sports clubs, a brand new pool and skate park and plenty of facilities. I definitely couldn't live here though - way too hot and way too far from the ocean.

At the end of a day Craig and I have been enjoying the TV series 'Revenge' (all 4 series with 22 episodes each. Yikes!). However, when off-grid in the outback wilderness, we enjoy reading. You might be surprised to learn that this can be difficult. As I begin to read my book, and Craig read his screen, quite a few insects have begun to congregate around us. After only a few minutes every insect in the caravan has come out of its hiding spot and is circling around us, dive bombing the page. Craig proceeds to put on an audiobook and hide his phone screen so the swarm concentrates on me - this includes praying mantis, grasshoppers, moths and other tinier creatures. At this point I have read the same paragraph a dozen times and there are a few squished bugs on the page. I attempt to remove some of the bigger ones (and often succeed) but this process is rather time consuming and involves climbing over the bed in order to catch them and then climbing out of the caravan to set them free. I settle back down with my little clip-on book lamp (which also acts as an insect magnet) and use the small door light as a decoy but that does not work. I shoo one away with a grunt and seconds later Craig is shooing that same bug back in my direction. This happens back and forth for a while until I burst out laughing. I give up! It looks like it is an early night. Even once the lights are turned off the irritating bugs are still inside and continue to land on our faces and hair so we flap our arms around a bit and play ping pong with the bugs until we fall asleep.

Knox Gorge was another good one although the climb down felt like more of a scramble over all the broken slate. It was definitely NOT a walk for the kids so Roxy and I did it early one morning. We had to climb around the edge of the gorge walls, hugging the rock, in order to avoid wading through the water - at times my legs were too bloody short to get me around so I got wet anyway. At the end of the walk the gorge opened up into a beautiful cathedral with a lovely refreshing pool below. You could hear the water trickling out and down into the gorge below - which we couldn't access.

Fern Pool was a lovely little oasis and Fortesque Falls were refreshing, all located in Dales Gorge. We spent hours here reuniting with our friends.

Kermits Pool and the kids pool (entry into The Goonies ride on bottom)

On our last day we returned to Hancock Gorge to search out Kermit's Pool. This was another challenging one for the kids. The walk down began with a VERY steep section, proceeded by 2 large and steep ladders. The kids went down one by one, with an adult right behind them. They all did so well. I think I was more scared than any of them. We walked along the bottom of the gorge until we found a lovely pool for the kids to play in (above). Then we donned our booties and climbed and swam through the next few sections. AT one point we thought we were in The Goonies sliding along very narrow and very slippery points where you could either spider walk above or slide along below.

After a happy farewell to our friends we headed further east to travel south to Kalbarri along the Great Northern Highway through the small towns of Newman, Cue, Meekatharra and Mount Magnet. We knew we were leaving iron ore country and entering gold mining territory but it wasn't until we counted over 100 road trains in 3 hours of driving that we knew what the Great Northern Highway was used for - transporting mining machinery north. We passed dozens of escort vehicles clearing the road for huge pieces of mining machinery delicately tied to the back of road trains (see above). They were enormous and required us to pull over on the generous shoulders and wait for them to pass. We didn't even know we had to pull over. We simply thought we could drive along close to the edge and allow the oncoming truck to pass - thank god I stopped for the first one!

Meekatharra, was once the location of the School Of the Air WA. We arrived and quickly discovered that lunch in the park and a swim in the local swimming pool was about all there was to do. Time and time again I have high expectations of some of these towns. Every town in the tourist brochures have a claim to fame - Meekatharra was the first town in Australia powered by solar energy. It is also a refuelling stop for light aircraft.

Cue once boasted a population of 10,000 during the gold rush era (beginning late 1890s). It all began, as legend has it, when a prospector named Mick Fitzgerald spotted an Aboriginal fellow named 'Governor' with a 10 ounce nugget around his neck and enquired where the nugget came from. We told Mali this story and she said in amazement "who had a giant chicken nugget around his neck?" She is clearly fascinated by history (not!). Cue is full of beautiful historical buildings and we couldn't help notice how abandoned it was - the only place pen was the pub (we went in for a drink of course and Mali found a nice patch of grass in the beer garden to practice her handstands and acrobatics). There was no one around apart from coaster buses full of mine workers in orange and blue. Most of the shops had closed down completely. The town had a school for only 12 children and our free camp spot, right in the middle of town, was right next to a basketball court, pump track and a park. Score!!! The town was very well-serviced so it was good to see support and funding is available for these towns that were once thriving and only now support tiny populations and FIFOs. Cue did have its attractions.

Walga Rock was 35km up the road, a huge granite monolith of aboriginal and spiritual significance, the second largest in Australia. Here you can see the largest gallery of Aboriginal rock paintings in Western Australia. The large cave within the rock contains a range of paintings including pictures that are said to be of ships that visited the Western Australian coast in the 17th century. We walked up it and the view was wonderful. We all had a jolly old time here. Mali was fascinated by the 'crystals' in the rock (always at the most unexpected times Mali is engaged with what we see). The ghost town of Big Bell was next. Gazetted in 1936 but deserted in the 1950s when the gold rush ended.

We also stopped in Mount Magnet, gateway to a natural Geo Park of oldest, rarest and largest rock. Mount Magnet literally stood out as the only vegetated hill in the area - surrounded by gold mines it was a stark reality of how industry keeps these towns in existence. Without it they would potentially become abandoned. It was the weekend so the Mining and Pastoral Museum and information centre were all closed. You know you are in remote towns when a museum of this sort below interests you. We did head out to the Granites a magnificent area of granite breakaways and a place of strong cultural significance to the Badimia tribe. The escarpment is about 15 metres high and is spread over several hectares with caves, rocky outcrops of soft white granite with quartz veins. It was a stunning surprise for us all.

The Granites

Heading west now into Geraldton we stopped for a lovely night in the bush at Mullewa and spotted the wreath flower, which is only just still blooming. We had the most amazing private bush camp with a campfire. It was a long route inland but we enjoyed the different landscapes, the free bush camping and found our groove for travelling again.