Karijini National Park was a must do on our list after seeing photos of Circular Pool in one of our many books. It truly is a spectacular place, and despite the wind we explored its ancient red rocks, steep narrow gorges and flowing waterfalls.

The park was also our first opportunity to really get up close and personal to the iron ore rich rocks which make the Pilabara a mining epicenter. The unique patterns and colours littered the landscape which from a distance look like standard rock but upon closer inspection reveal their true beauty.

A casual walk through Dale’s Gorge took us to Fern Pool and also Fortescue Falls and a winding track through the gorge explored the river and cliffs. We were puffed climbing out of the gorge which we later learnt was justified as it was 1000 steps!

Further exploration of the park took us to Joffre and Knox gorges which looked incredible from the lookouts. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to do any of the walks here and continued on to the Weano Gorge recreation area to have lunch and explore further.

Weano provided an adventurous location for the brave with category 6 walks including abseiling and rock climbing for the qualified. We however stuck to the class 3, 4 and 5 walks which gave us plenty of clambering, shimmying and bum sliding!  One thing we hadn’t been told by the National Parks Visitors Centre was the presence of water in the gorges, and that in order to complete the walks….you have to get wet! We found this out through speaking to people in the carpark and weren’t as prepared for the encounter as we might’ve liked.

The first gorge included the ‘Spider Walk’ to pass through a small groove in the rocks with flowing (freezing cold) water beneath. Further down the gorge you arrive at Kermit’s Pool and the end of the class 5 walk. It was a pretty walk but I think it was most memorable for the excitement.

The second half of our walk at Weano took us to another gorge and more water to cross. As in the first gorge, the boots came off and we waded through the water before clambering over more rock ledges (we elected to clamber on the rock ledges rather than swim!). The gorge narrows quickly and glimpses of the red rocks of the outer gorge protrude through to the dimly lit chasms as you make your way to Handrail Pool.

Whilst not the largest gorge we have been in, Karijini and its gorges represent a distinct change in what we had been seeing further north. The gorges of the Kimberly were much wider with sloping sides leading to mountains whereas Karijini had flat land with a sudden plummet deep into the Earth. Again the icy cold water restricted me from continuing on any further down the gorge but the Handrail Pool was certainly memorable.

On the way out of the park we went to the Mount Bruce lookout which we discovered is the tallest mountain in WA. Of course we didn’t take the 9.5km walk to the summit but instead opted for the 300m ridge lookout over one of the local mine sites. Keeping with the theme of highs, we then spent the night in the highest town in WA, Tom Price.