The starting point

The starting point

Sunday, 28 July 2019

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 .









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