Karijini & Tom Price

Our next destination, Tom Price, to get there we took a short cut, an access road owned by Rio Tinto, highly corrugated dirt road used by trucks and road trains..blah blah…what’s new really, however we had to watch a 20 minute video about the road and what to look out for, I must say I felt less confident driving on it after watching the video as opposed to before. Something funny that happened was at the petrol station a man offered to help us out by showing us the way to take, he was going on the same direction but not as far as we so he was going to start us off, of course he was driving a mining car anyway as soon as he drove off we managed to confuse his car with another mining car and we followed the wrong car! You cannot blame us as all the cars look exactly the same, white utes with the same little flags on the roofs. We did eventually realise that we were going the wrong way and lucky for us he was waiting, laughing…with us I hope not at us… Aussie tourists :)

On the way to Tom Price we came across many trains and they are really something to behold, kilometres long, almighty, we loved it, specially when they honked at us as we waved.

Overlooking Tom Price you will find Mount Nameless, or Jarndrunmunhna in the local Aboriginal language which is 1128 metres above sea level. The caravan park faces the mountain and every morning we would wake up and see the sun shining on its side giving it a bright red colour and engulfing us with its radiance and warmth. You can actually climb the mountain, a 3 - 4 hour return hike or a 30 minute 4WD drive to the summit. I could see in mum’s eyes she was keen to climb it and so was I actually, of course, Carlos preferred the 4WD drive, to be fair he did have a sore foot…

Mum and I decided to do the hike in the evening and have Carlos and the kids join us at the top for the sunset, great plan we thought so we packed water and left at 4 pm. The hike started quite easy and it was wonderful, one on one time with mum. I love spending time with her but also this was practice for her Mt Kilimanjaro climb next year in February. As we got climbing it starting getting more challenging, climbing over some rocks and a very steep track and not far from the beginning of the hike we found an elderly lady, in her 70s sitting down, as we got talking she told us that it became too hard for her so she was just going to wait for her husband to come back. At that time it was around 4:30 pm and I suggested to her to go back to the car park to wait for him there as it can get dark quickly and going down the rocks could be dangerous, I do hope she listened because we actually met her husband at the summit around 5:30 so he still had at least an hour to make his way back down. Climbing Mt Nameless with mum was very special, as you look behind you there is the most extraordinary view, once again I’m in awe and feel humbled amongst the natural beauty that is out there. Mum of course made it, slowly but surely and I have no doubt she will do well on her climb next year. Bring on the Mt Kilimanjaro climb !

The following day we decided to go to Karijini National Park, in hindsight we could have planned this better as I could hardly move from the previous day hike. I decided to take mum and the boys, Carlos decided to stay as his foot was still sore which worked out well because it meant he could look after the dogs. Like always we were running late, you would think that after being on the road for such a long time I would be better organised but not really, I packed very quickly and in my mind feeling confident that whatever I packed was sufficient to get us by for one night. We had planned to stay at the national park and sleep in the tent attached to the car awning so there was nothing else that we needed. We drove to the east side of the park first as from what we had heard the easier hikes were on that side but also the camping site was there. We drove to the east and stopped at the visitor centre on the way where a) we realised we had no water ( no good as we were hiking) and there was no water anywhere else but at the information centre and b) learnt about an incident where a man died saving his son as he slipped off a rock at one of the waterfalls. The water problem we resolved straight away, buying lots of expensive water and after talking to the boys about safety we had some quick lunch and set off to the first set of waterfalls.

The first waterfall was Fortescue falls and the walk there was quite enjoyable, through a boardwalk and lots of steps but the view was beautiful, again seeing a large gorge with bright red rocks, it's something that I never get sick of. When we got there not much water was flowing and the water at the bottom of the falls was murky and green so not so impressive and definitely not inviting. However a few meters down was the second waterfall, a very small one indeed, the Fern pool, hidden between trees and unlike the previous falls this one had crystal clear water and was simply stunning. There was a ladder to come down to it and it was very deep, which meant you could jump in and of course the kids loved the opportunity to just dive and bomb as well. Another surprise was that it had lots of fish, I sat for a while with my feet in hoping that the fish would “go to town” with the dry skin on my heels but they left me alone and went for my mum’s feet instead.

While we were there the kids wanted to swim to the small waterfall on the other end of the pool, at least 25 metres, this proved to be a bit of a dilemma for me as I’m not a great swimmer and Carlos was not there so I had to trust that the boys could swim to the fall and back by themselves. I finally said yes and I don’t think I blinked once as I watched them swim, they enjoyed the waterfall and came back without any problem, still, my heart skipped many a beat just watching them.

The last pool was the Circular pool and this one was not easy at all, we had to come down rocks and steep steps to the bottom of the deep gorge and walk across to the pool, we had to jump over puddles and slippery moss and when we finally got there it was a small version of Emma Gorge from the Gibb. Circular pool because its surrounded by a circular wall and the water, like in Emma Gorge, freezing, to the point that if you don’t move you might as well die. We did jump in but not for too long, mum also enjoyed the “hypothermia” experience and we gladly walked back, alive....

We finished the day setting camp and having some dinner, the kids were filthy from playing on the dirt around the camp and with no water it proved difficult to try to clean them before they got in the tent. We slept with all the windows open, under the stars, feeling so close to the sky, to the universe.

The following day started early, we needed to travel all the way across to the West part of Karijini where apparently the harder, more challenging hikes, the so call Weano Gorge, Handrail pool and Hancock Gorge, even their names sound intimidating. So we got there, it was confusing in the beginning trying to find the trail as they all seemed to branch out from the same car park. We found Weano by mistake and started walking, nice and easy through a small brook, beautiful trees, some rocks until we got to the water, the path stopped as we hit a creek between two rock walls on either side. We noticed that people had left their clothes and shoes behind, personally I wasn’t sure as I didn’t know what was ahead and whether we would return to a walking track, not to concerned about myself as I had sandals but mum was wearing runners so she took them off and decided to bring the shoes with her. This was the first gorge where we had to wade through water and it was different but already challenging. The bottom of the gorge was slippery so I was trying to work out how deep it was so mum could come through and in the meantime my kids were climbing the rocks trying to see whether they could get away with not getting wet but it was impossible, I could tell mum was starting to stress a little and I could definitely feel some tension as I had to keep an eye on the kids who were rocketing in front and mum who was slowly making her way behind, what a dilemma.

We crossed the water and continued following the path that appeared more like a chasm, again big rocks to climb over inside what seemed to be a rocky passage, mum had put her shoes back on just to take them off again as we had to wade through water once more. This time I decided to give mum my sandals and I decided to go barefoot, she didn’t want to leave her shoes behind so of course I had to carry them, the water was freezing.

As we moved forward the passage became narrower, we climbed over more rocks and at the end you could see what seemed like an opening or a large window, as we got closer I realised that the trail abruptly ended and there was a drop of approximately 3 meters to a large clearing. Right at the end there was a handrail, because what you are supposed to do is hold firmly to the rail with both hands, walk sideways as there is still a current running underneath you and when you get to the edge you need to turn in order to face the rocks and use rungs in the rock to climb down to the bottom. It is so difficult to describe what I was seeing but never in my life have I seen such hidden beauty, furthermore trying to express in writing what I was feeling, I mean I was in awe, I was also a bit afraid of going down but mainly worried trying to make sure my kids went down safely and then mum!

Poor mum, I am pretty sure she was not expecting this and to be honest neither was I. We made it to the bottom and the gorge is extraordinary, like a closed amphitheater, surrounded completely by rock walls and light cascading in from the top but there was more, we realised we had only done the Weano Gorge, there was more to go through to get to the end pool. We had got so far that we had to keep going, I dumped my mum’s shoes that I had, so far, had a free ride, left the water and only took the Gopro, as we had to wade through water to the end. I recall a sign on the path that read “class 5”, The definition of which states:

This trail is for very experienced bushwalkers. A high level of fitness and agility is recommended…..what an understatement I thought.

We kept going, kids ahead of me (not advisable) however I had to make sure mum was ok, this hike had all of a sudden become an episode of Survivor (Western Australia), something you’d imagine special forces or navy seals would have to go through. The water was really cold and I could barely stand on my toes so it was hard to help mum and keep afloat, the last part of the trail was too deep to walk so we had to swim, I could not believe the difficulty of this hike neither could I believe how older grey nomads manage to do such a hazardous trail!

We got to the end and there was a small pool in a place where batman could live. Kids wanted to leave straight away and that's when it hit me, as we stood still admiring the place, the adrenalin started to subside and I noticed that I was critically freezing and so where the kids, we had to get out of there and get out of there fast! We got moving straight away and knowing what to expect made the trip out a lot faster. When we finally got out of the rocky passage, came out to the sun and waded through the last bit of water it was such a relief, we were all ok and in one piece, albit wet and cold but that was soon gone after the sun warmed us up. That had been one of the hardest, most amazing thing I have done but at the same time one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Karijini quickly became my most favourite national park so far on our journey.

Still we had another one to go, we were exhausted but the second one had a spiderman walk so the kids could not wait, anyway they never get tired, it was mum and I who had to keep up. As we went down the trail we came across some people who we had also seen at Weano, I was shattered when they told me that this hike was harder than the previous, I tried not to cry in front of them, I mean, harder than the tough mudder gorge we just went through? It was impossible. So I tried to keep my spirits up and kept going. To my surprise it was not as hard as the previous, yes we had to wade through water and yes we had to climb over a huge rock where we had to use a lot of our upper body strength to get us through but in my opinion nothing like Weano. Part of this trail you have to cross a very narrow passage between rock walls, there is water running beneath so you can walk it carefully but if you are excited and motivated enough, you can climb and support the weight of your body with both arms and legs whilst traversing through the passage (so the name spider walk), kids simply loved it. Hancock was also rated a class 5 hike.

Karijini will remain with me as a very special place for so many reasons, it really tested me, it was absolutely stunning and having done something like that with mum of course makes it unique. Although it was full of obstacles and was quite challenging the kids absolutely loved it, apart from being super cold they had a blast, for them it was a playground, a dangerous one at that if you ask me. I will never forget that day for as long as I live.