Our Walkabout

Planet View: S22°27.994′ E118°33.428′

Street View: S22°27.994′ E118°33.428′

Maximum Temperature: 42°C (108°F)

One of Western Australia’s most famous National Parks, we were both looking forward to exploring the gorges and swimming holes of Karijini.  Karijini’s located almost 300 kilometers inland from Port Hedland, it’s extremely arid country in the central Pilbara without a hint of water or vegetation other than desert grasses.  Karijini’s gorges are fed by permanent springs, making for beautiful waterfalls and turquoise swimming holes in the middle of the desert, as well as some strenuous hiking and clambering through the narrow canyons created by water trickling over millions of years.  In all there are seven gorges in Karijini one can explore without needing any kind of rock-climbing certification.  All of the hikes are graded by the Department of Environment and Conservation, difficulties ranging between class two and six.  A class six requires abseiling and rock-climbing and cannot be attempted without some form of nationally recognized accreditation to abseil and climb on natural surfaces (not us!).  A number of the gorges become progressively harder to navigate, eventually turning into class six treks, these we walked (or clambered!) as far as we could and then turned back.  We explored six of Karijini’s gorges during our time in the area, stopping for a swim in all but Joffre and Kalamina gorges (the water there was a little stagnant).  On the day we explored five of the gorges we had hiked almost 10 kilometers by the end of it all; not too far given some of our other adventures but considering that we had to walk down and up the face of each gorge, each of which was between 200 and 300 feet deep, our thighs were pretty shot by the end of the day.  We’re glad we had the opportunity to explore the spectacular gorges as both of us agreed that in 20 or 30 years we doubt we’d be able to clamber through a lot of the tighter sections of Karijini’s canyons…