Karijini August 2021

Web Editor September 15, 2021 Club Magazine 0

Attending in no particular order

Penny and Spence – L/C

Shane and Ralph (friend) – Triton

Dave and Megan – Patrol

Ivo and Lucy – L/C

Dave and Cindy – Prado

Karijini was the 6^th and arguably the best stop in a great 2 week trip. One of the vehicle issues occurred on the way there, as Dave F had to sort a problem with the wheel carrier on the front of his trailer and, (with possibly more brute force than anticipated) also losing all his water after a rock took out a water tank fitting. After successful running repairs at Tom Price we carried on to Karijini.

We knew all the camp sites were full, and in any case an official camp site would have meant we were not allowed a fire, so we identified a nice spot off Hammersley Gorge Rd on Wiki Camps, and sent David (the only one without a trailer) in to find us a spot for the next 3 nights.

***Our secret camp spot located somewhere in here***

It was a good spot, and Cindy got all artistic on us and took lovely photos.

Since we had arrived at camp reasonably early, David, Megan and Shane drove up to Hammersley Gorge for a climb and dip in the first of many wonderful water holes. The rest of us gathered under Dave’s awning around a neat little portable air conditioner that was one of those things Spence and I had seen at the show and decided was essential. At this point with the flies and heat we were very glad we had. One of the group consumed an unaccustomed vodka cruiser and looked very relaxed!

When the others returned we sat around the fire and discussed our plans for the next days.

Early the next morning, Dave managed to keep his battery alive to get drone shots of the sunrise. Megan and David set off to climb Mt Bruce. Awesome effort to get to the top, but I gather the view was worth it.

The rest of us went to Oxer Lookout, followed by a walk down, and for some a swim in the cold water of, Weano Gorge. It took a while to get there, but was entertaining watching the 2 wheel drive cars driving over the corrugations.. one at a time… at about 5 Km an hour. It was however very uncool to see an unaccustomed driver of a troopie taking the same approach. When they say it’s busy up north at the moment, they mean it. A whole load of 4W drives who have only ever seen a school car park are up there adventuring.

Shane, Ivo and Dave went off to the more energetic, level 5 walk of Kermits Pool.

This involves straddling the gorge sides or walking through the water. Unfortunately a lady just ahead of the group fell. The All Tracks guys offered assistance, but she needed a stretcher to get her out of the gorge, thanks to the emergency services. After lunch we headed off to the Joffre gorge area. The series of ladders looked too daunting for even our fittest members (except Ivo who had already done it before anyway) so we drove instead to Hammersley for a wonderful swim up the gorge.

I don’t know how Megan and David kept going after their marathon up Mount Bruce.

The second day our own plans for Dales Gorge, Fortescue and Fern Pools were interrupted by a broken windscreen. After waiting on the phone at the Visitor’s Centre for the RAC to tell me multiple times how important my call was to them, we finally arranged for a replacement and spent the day back in Tom Price.

The rest of the group had a wonderful time walking and swimming in Fortesque and Fern Pools.