Karijini 2020

We drove from Perth to Karijini in two days, stopping in Meekathara for one night. We went and visited the local museum, the viewpoint (near Luke’s Pit) and watched the sunset at Peace Gorge before having a kebab from the local food van and having a reasonable night sleep at Meeka Accomodation Centre (in a donga at the local caravan park).

The drive from Meekatharra to Karijini was through beautiful arid landscape. We stopped for lunch at The Dome in Newman and refuelled at Auski Roadhouse. There’s a few big machineries on display on the way out of Newman.

In Karijini we stayed in a tent at the Eco Resort which was quite nice – had a proper bed and most importantly had its own toilet and shower!

First day in Karijini we went to Dales gorge (near the visitor centre). The walk was spectacular, so was the gorge with lots of people sunbathing there. Ferndale pool was serene and quiet. The walk to Joffre Falls was spectacular, and afterwards we completed the walk around to the viewpoint and then back to the camp.

Hamersley Gorge is on the other side of the national park from so we chose it as our first destination in the morning of our 2nd day in Karijini. It’s definitely worth the drive, and has an amazing setting with three pools flowing from one to the next. Probably a nice place to swim. There was a guy from BHP having his lunch there – just perfect for a lunch spot!

On the way back we stopped in Tom Price for lunch, then went to see Kalamina Gorge and walked on the bottom of the gorge all the way to the Rock Arch Pool – spectacular. We saw some skinny hungry dingoes on the way back.

Last day in Karijini we hiked up Mt Bruce. We had an early start / before sunrise. The walk was spectacular on the crest and offering views to the Marandoo minesite. The walk took us about 6 hours with lunch and all stops. We then drove back to the resort and went to Weano gorge, got there just before sunset. Lucky we did as it was fantastic – we only managed to walk to Handrail Pool before it got dark, we left the walk along the bottom of the gorge for our next trip to Karijini.

We left Karijini escorted by a pack of 4 dingoes. It was a long (10.5 hr) drive to Broome after very brief stops in Port Headland, Pardoo and Sandfire. We arrived in Broome around 5 pm and stayed at Blues Seas Resort, where the rooms were very nice – spacey, with everything we needed.