Karijini National Park
- Michele Payne
- Aug 19
- 3 min read
The road from Broome to Karijini National Park is 1,000 kms of monotonous driving, punctuated only by the massive industrial exclamation mark of Port Hedland. The landscape after Broome changes quickly with the sharp edged, red cliffs of the Kimberley being left far behind to the northeast. The remaining journey south is flat and uninteresting until the rounded, purple red domes of the Pilbara finally erupt across the horizon.
This is iron ore country and its colour is everywhere. The Pilbara is geologically far older than the Kimberley, with the former being up to three billion years of age. The rocks are essentially still undisturbed,which is amazing. In fact you can often see ripple marks on their surfaces which show the flow of an ancient sea moving across them when they were laid down.
Karijini National Park, near Newman, was the place I most wanted to reach having seen photos and read articles about it for 15 years.
Dales Campground was our first stop as it gave walking access to the famous Dales Gorge plus Circular Pool and Fern Pool, both beautiful but visually very different swimming holes. Within moments of arrival we'd pulled on our walking boots and began the "rim walk", for in the Pilbara you are at the top of the gorges and need to descend into their cool depths and pools - the reverse is true for the Kimberley.
The sun was low but still quite intense, backlighting the tall grasses with its lengthening rays. The cliffs of the gorge glowed a dark maroon, but the tops of them were heavily studded with pale, sage green spinifex interspersed with white barked eucalyptus trees. It was an artist's dream scenery, so still and painterly. This then finally, was Karijini and it didn't disappoint.
We spent two perfect days walking, exploring and relaxing there before moving on to the more upmarket Savannah Campground, still in the National Park but run privately by the local indigenous people - and providing such luxuries as warm showers, flushing toilets and a cafe/restaurant.
The walks there were more varied in both length and difficulty, and the scenery quite different. Our walk to the Handrail Pool at Weano Gorge was definitely the most impressive. We negotiated smooth, waterworn rocks which threaded through a narrow chasm of red blue (yes! they truly are) cliff walls, to a slippery tunnel with a handrail, which appropriately led to the final Handrail Pool. The colours were unbelievable, with tiny pockets of iridescent blue water reflecting the complex colours of the chasm walls. I'd seen photos of this gorge before and always imagined them to have been photoshopped to produce such striking shapes and colours, but I now realise that they were absolutely authentic.
It was difficult to leave Karijini. Four nights had not been enough to quench my thirst for its tranquility and raw beauty, nor for us to see the more difficult to access gorges, such as Hancock. (The roads here are often truly atrocious and not suitable for our AWD car).
As if in empathy and to lessen my sorrow at leaving, the drive from Karijini to Nanutarra Roadhouse was massed with wildflowers. First majestic plumes of purple, then mounds of yellow, pink or white flanked the road, turning our day of travelling into a passing mosaic of bright native flowers. I was appeased, if not totally content, and ready to begin the next part of our adventure.
But little did I know the turn of events which was in store.
This was Part Four of a five part series. Check out the other articles in the series too:
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