25/7/19 Another day another gorge

  Kalamina Gorge was todays destination , we'd been down here before , but didn't reach the rock arch at the end of the walk . 

 There's a waterfall tucked away below a paperbark tree at the start of the track , making for a very impressive start . It's in the next photo , but hidden by the tree .

   Water is seeping down plant roots & cracks in the rocks , as well as coming over the top of the rocks . The suns out making photo's hard to take with huge contrast between light & dark .

 Visual indications on the trees of previous floods - 2 metres of water flooding down here would be a sight to see .

 The walk here is over a lot of flat rock shelves in a wider gorge than previous days walks .

  A fig tree was clinging to life and the gorge wall , roots following the cracks & crevices to find water .

 I got to take some time exposures in some spots , they came out well .



  Very few flowers down in this gorge - this was the only yellow flower we saw and it contrasts well against the orange of the gorge wall .

  There are some larger pools of water , most aren't very deep at all .

  Rock formations again feature regularly .

  And we reached the end , to find a large deep pool of water disappearing past a couple of high gorge walls , there's also the rock arch on the right hand side . The water is cold , a couple arrived after us and went for a swim - they weren't in for long!!

 These next photo's are looking back from where we came .

 We made our way back to the carpark , and I made a short diversion to the waterfall under the tree - it was in shade and made for better photo's .

  This is the pool the waterfall flows into .

 And with that done , we had some lunch before heading back to the van . Here's a map link :-https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Qa3WAv7xCoSROivmM_pEsYJDaKXWKnc3&usp=sharing

24/7/19 Some new spots for us

  We headed out to Weano Gorge today , to do the extended walk through Upper Weano Gorge then down to Handrail Pool . The road out to here was rough & corrugated , did I mention dusty - extremely !!

 Arriving at the carpark , we got organised and headed off up the track - it wasn't a long track but we hadn't done that end before . 

  Check out the photo - what do you think it is ?

 A close up of a termite mound of course !!
Trees grow in some bizarre places , wherever they can find a grip I suppose .

 There were very few flowers , so when one appears , here it is .

 If you look closely at this rock it's almost like a jigsaw - the top piece looks like a neanderthal kids jigsaw puzzle that got fossilised !! Hahaha

  Trees grow happily in the gorges , some have had a harder life than others .

 Need I say more ?

 Back down into the main ( busiest ) section of the gorge , and this next shot shows some of the interesting ways you have to traverse the gorge .

 Another small tree .

  And this is where Weano Gorge starts to get very interesting . The gorge gets narrow and vertical , the rocks are highly polished from the water passing through during flood events .

 These narrow sections lead to this huge pool - Handrail Pool - you can see the slot in the rocks where you come out into this pool area , the handrail itself runs down nearly to the water and there are a few blocks bolted to the wall to use as foot steps . It does get very busy down here and there's not a lot of room for too many people , so after my photos I headed back up and disappeared up into the slot in the rock .

 This is just above the handrail , gives you an idea how slippery it can be on the polished rocks .

  Back to the top and some lunch before tackling Hancock Gorge . it's only about 100m away from Weano Gorge , but is different . It also requires you to do some wading through water - about 500mm deep - and it's also rather refreshing .

 There's sections where you walk along the edge of the pool , in the water , out of the water and it can be slippery as well . This pool is 2m deep in parts and only about 1.5m wide , little wonder that they shut down this walk if it rains , far too slippery !!

 After wading through this next pool , you arrive at the amphitheatre .

 More colourful layers in the rocks.

This is the small waterfalls in the amphitheatre , the water runs to the right , through a small shute and over another little waterfall about a metre high , so more walking through water .

 This is that waterfall .

  Water flows down that shute over a wider U shaped section and down into Kermit's Pool - a lovely narrow pool of beautiful green water . 5m past the pool is the end of the walk , with a roped off section .

 This is one of the best reflections of the day - this is the 40m section where you're in the water & out of the water regularly , and people can only go one direction at a time , I waited for 7 people to come through before I could make my way back out .

 We met some young backpackers from Canada & Netherlands yesterday , they were here at Weano Gorge today and should have been coming down Hancock Gorge as well . We found out later that 3 of the 6 had gone downstream from Handrail Pool and had been gone for 20 - 30 minutes . Given the cold water , one of their friends reported it to the ranger who was there - he then went swimming , looking for them - they had gone into an area where they shouldn't have been . They were escorted back out and had to report to the Head Ranger , who proceedingly told them to pack up and leave the park - they had been camping near us at Dales Campground - not anymore though !! So it pays to do the right thing !
  We decided to go out to Karijini Drive and do a larger loop drive rather than going over the dusty track again , It was a good decision with excellent scenery and also some fiery action as well - they were doing controlled burns in the park , and it looked spectacular as it was racing up the hills .

 What an exceptional day , here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=15pKrUDn1ak_2Ey4R2mD0q0aVQlP8Ile8&usp=sharing

22/7/19 Back to an old friend

 Port Hedland was now in the rear view mirror and we were heading south . Everything seemed to be dry , dusty & tired with some areas freshly burnt , whilst others were burnt last season and still recovering . Some wildflowers were trying to come through , but they were few & far between . 

 Stopping at Auski roadhouse for some fuel before heading to one of our favourite free camps - Albert Tognolini Lookout . It was very popular today with many people already here , so we drove up past where we normally camp and found another spot further away from everyone . Turns out a lot more people kept coming in and there would have been 50 odd vehicles here .

 We headed out for a walk up the track for some exercise , views as usual , were stunning .

 Back to the van , the drone came out for some aerial shots . As you can see there were a few there , with more crammed in later .



  The highway runs through the gorge in the middle of the photo .



 Here we are on the left just beside the track running up the ridge .



 This is the highway heading north to Auski Roadhouse and Port Hedland .



 Just another sunset to suffer through haha .

 After a great night's sleep we fiddled around for a while before heading off into Karijini and Dales Campground for the next 4 nights . About an hour passed by and we were setting up in the campground . After some lunch we headed down to the parking area for Fortescue Falls , and went for a walk along the gorge rim toward Circular Pool . These next photo's are of Dales Gorge .

  After about 30 mins we were at the descent to Circular Pool and started on our descent into the gorge  . I went for a quick walk up to Circular Pool , the most striking thing here is the large slabs of rock that seemed to be placed here - they are all naturally located - no help required .

 The creek runs down over the slabs , dropping down to the next level again , and again , and again .
There's a section where water is seeping out of the cracks and has a nice collection of ferns growing .

 Circular Pool is then reached after a scramble over the rocks , and is an awesome sight - crystal clear green water , grasses ,  reeds and water lilies growing happily , water dripping from the rocks on the far side . No one was swimming here as the pool doesn't get much sunlight , if any at all , so doesn't warm up .

 This is a slab of rock about 4m x1.5m and 200mm thick - what a table top that would make , if you could lift it !!

 Back to the gorge and we walked the opposite direction to the way we had gone before . The gorge walls were a sight , with layer upon layer of rock going all the way to the top .

 Water was falling off the slabs of rock on it's way downstream , overcast conditions allowed me to take some longer exposure shots of the water .

 There were many pools of water , giving up some picture postcard shots .

  This was an interesting stack of rocks , almost like a column created by a bricklayer , supporting a large amount of rock above it .

 Reflections again were awesome .

 Colours in the rock are quite astounding .

 Fortescue Falls is always beautiful , and a nice way to finish the walk up the gorge - apart from all those steps to get back up to the top .

Here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=19Id8KejBEYouAgFCHK1dE1rwseYMzaIg&usp=sharing