Page 68 - Bush 'n Beach Fishing mag

CARAVANNING & adventure
HKarijini National Park a WA treasure
EY guys, I thankfully there were crowded.
hope everyone plenty of swimming op- But Fern Pool was is going well portunities. definitely our favourite
Caravanning
by TODD EVELEIGH
and not going too crazy If you pack a lunch, in Dales Gorge.
in these extraordinary times.
this is a great opportu- nity for all Australians to check out their own backyard and to see all the amazing places we have here in our coun- try.
worst hit, and as usu- al the government has been of no help to them.
take plenty of drink- ing water, head into the gorges and stay there through the hotter part of the day, it’s definite- ly much cooler because the gorges are shaded, and there’s plenty of water to swim and cool off.
You can do quite a long walk from one end of the gorge to the oth- er, walking all the way through and taking in the amazing scenery and the colours of the rocks – the amount of iron ore in the rocks here is truly amazing and I reckon you could just about weld a piece of steel to it, it looked that high in iron.
Wow, who would have thought the whole of Australia would be in lockdown, but it is fan- tastic that things are starting to get back to normal and we are able to move further afield than just at home.
More importantly, to be spending our mon- ey in Australia and help prop up our tour- ism sector and fishing guides who are really doing it tough.
This month I would like to talk about this amazing place – Ka- rijini National Park, which is located ap- proximately 150km southeast of Karratha.
On our first day, we went and explored Dales Gorge.
It really has thrown a spanner in the works for us and our travel- ling but that’s okay be- cause many people are doing it tough and our thoughts are with them.
So, I plead to all to book a trip and travel, tick off those bucket list fish by booking a guid- ed fishing charter and help keep our Aussie tourist operators afloat because they are the
Karijini National Park is 627,422ha and slight- ly north of the Tropic of Capricorn in the Ham- ersley Range.
Karijini gorges are quite different to many gorges we have seen in Australia, because you are camped on a flat valley and you have to hike down into the gorges, where with oth- er gorges you need to walk up into ranges and into the gorges of the hills.
It was quite dry when we were there but plen- ty of water we could swim in, with a nice little waterfall at Fern Pool and we pretty much spent the whole day in Dales Gorge.
I don’t think there will be too much interna- tional travel in the near future with the COV- ID-19 pandemic, but
It’s Western Austral- ia’s second largest na- tional park, and the cli- mate is best described as tropical, semi desert and the average rain- fall is 250-350mm over the summer wet season through the cyclone pe- riod.
Day two and we spent the morning explor- ing Weano Gorge and Handrail Pool.
Fern Pool in Dales Gorge.
Walking through Hancock Gorge on the way into Kermits Pool.
Page 68 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, July 2020
It was very warm when we were there but
Unfortunately, we didn’t swim in these as they did look a bit green and not so in- viting for swimming – though this didn’t deter others – it was truly beautiful.
In summer, tempera- tures can top 40C dai- ly, but winter has clear warm days and cool fresh nights.
So, it does have quite a different feel.
This really was an ad- venture being our first Class 5 walk in Ka- rijini – it was so cool because you had to walk through little nar- row sections with water running down between your feet, which carved spectacular pools over 2500 million years.
The gorges have been slowly eroded over 2500 million years to form the spectacular ra- vines of Karijini.
Dales Gorge has a great staircase to head down and gives access to Circular Pools, For- tesque Falls and Fern Pool, which are sen- sational and if there were too many people in one pool you could just head further up to another that wasn’t so
Circular Pool in Dales Gorge.
Now, this was our fa- vourite by far but very challenging because the
In the afternoon, we went out to Hancock Gorge and Kermits Pool.
* continued P69 www.bnb shing.com.au