More Karijini

[Kyle]We packed up our belongings and moved to another campground on the western side of the park. Along the way, we stopped at Kalamina Falls for a hike and a swim. Kalamina is the shallowest gorge in Karijini, but it was still very impressive nonetheless, Countless shelves of red rock on either side looked like so many hastily stacked books in piles a hundred feet high. We walked for a couple of hours until we came across a pool marked by a nearby rock arch. By then, we were pretty hot and dusty so we decided to have a swim. I swam further down the river and found that it just ended, descending underground through the gravel. I climbed out, limping because of the sharp stones and hot rocks and managed to find the water gushing out of a spring a couple hundred meters later.

At the swimming hole, another person pointed out our first snake. In spite of the dire warnings and our searching very carefully, we had not seen one snake yet. This little guy was coiled up half under a couple of leaves by the riverside. He was small enough to easily fit in the palm of a hand all coiled up, perhaps eight inches long stretched out. He was bright red with stripes and had a big, diamond shaped head – an indicator of venom glands. The guy who found him said he almost stepped on him. This whole time, we had been looking out for big snakes – tree limbs that oozed by – that sort of thing. Now we had to be worried about each leaf.

Kalimina Falls Hike
After Kalimina, we drove up the most horribly corrugated road to the Knox Gorge lookout. Wow! The gorge has completely vertical walls and is only maybe 50 meters (150 feet) across. We wanted to take the trail to the bottom, but it is supposed to be a 5 hour return and it was four hours before dark so we had to give it a miss. Instead, we drove to nearby Joffra Falls for a hike that was advertised as three hours. More wow! The gorge starts off with a wide waterfall into a circular pool, and then disappears down a chute about arms width. We took the trail around the other side of the bowl where it turns and descends very steeply to the floor, so steeply that it was necessary to turn and face the walls as we made our way down on hand and footholds.

At the bottom we found two cool pools of wading depth and a place of exquisite beauty to have our celebratory granola bars. The cliffs above were full of Corella Cockatoos going through the final stages of arguing over who gets to perch where overnight.


The Sun was getting low in the sky so we headed over to our campsite. We were pleased to find that they provided not just water but showers and a sink in which we could do dishes. What luxury.

Getting Wet

We were awakened by a different bird than the Monkey Bird. This region’s early risers sound just like a pan flute. We haven’t been able to see what it is yet, but its song is very pretty. Pan Flute Bird wakes up the Cockatoos, whose screeching isn’t nearly as melodious but they’re great to watch.

Another horrible, corrugated road (poor car) took us to our next spot, at a confluence of three gorges. We took the long way into Weano Gorge. It’s nice. It’s a gorge. Further along, it became necessary to wade through thigh high water to stay on the trail. Then the gorge narrowed even more until the only way through was to walk right down the middle of the stream, then about knee height and the width of a hallway. The hallway opened up into a ‘room’ with a pool about 10 meters across that was shaded by the overhanging walls. The river made a sharp left turn and disappeared down another hallway. We followed that. After a while we spotted the handrail of Handrail Pool. It and a knotted rope provided a handhold as we descended right in the middle of the waterfall into another pool with about four times the diameter of the first.


Weano Gorge

We thought we were all done. I put the pack down and peeled down to swim trunks. Just then, Maryanne noticed another trail marker by what appeared to be an impassable waterfall. It turned out not to be impassable, just very steep. We left our stuff behind, except for a camera in a baggie, and headed down. Wow again! At the bottom was a waist deep pool. The narrow canyon widened as it went up, and then narrowed until the walls were overlapping. The midday sunlight bounced back and forth on the red rocks until, at the bottom, it looked like permanent sunset. We waded down the gorge until we really did reach an impassable waterfall, complete with a sign warning that climbing gear was necessary to proceed. We stopped there.

The way back was just as much fun.



Hancock Gorge
For our next gorge, we hopped over to the Hancock Gorge trail. It was also stunningly beautiful. It also required getting wet to get to the impassable part. This time, with the backpack over my head, I waded through water that got to just over nose deep (for only a few feet). The Hancock trail became impassable at a place called Kermit’s Pool. This was the first place we have been that had deep enough water close enough to the edge to jump into, which we did.

Coming out, we had a laugh about the different paths people take going in vs. coming out. The people going in are daintily hanging onto the cliff sides trying to stay dry, the people on the way out chug right up the middle of the river fully clothed. It felt good. It is so hot and dry here that we were fully dry by the time we made the climb back up to the car.

Maryanne & Kyle Keeping up with the chores