Warning: Karajini is a photographers all you can eat buffet. And while I do not claim to be a photographer I wasn't lining up at the salad bar!
Mentally I had decided that we should get a pretty early
start as we were going for a pretty decent walk in the desert and the
temperatures have been in the low 30s all week. I am not sure where my good
intentions went because as we were walking out of camp it was already 10am and
the nice Scottish lady camping next to us was just getting back from her walk!
For the next 4 ½ hours we had a wonderful time walking
through Dale’s Gorge. We started at Circular Pools where we had a swim in the
pretty cold water. The small waterfall was created by water seeping through the
rock so it was nice and warm. So we would clamber out of the cold water ,up the
rocky face of the fall, shower for 20 or 30 seconds in the warm water and then
dive back in again! It was great fun!
We headed up the gorge and had a great time as the track
varied from gravel paths, through long grassy flats, paperbark plots, rock
hoping and wading through shallow pools. All the time we were dwarfed by the 30
or 40m high cliffs of red rock towering over us. Just as we were beginning to
warm up we reached Fortescue Falls.
Here the water splashed and bubbled its way down a rocky set
of stairs about 40m long. We all swam to the bottom of the falls and enjoyed
sitting in its wake as it bubbled against our backs. After lunch we headed further up the gorge to Fern
Falls. This was my favourite! You swam the 40m across to the falls which
dropped directly from an over handing ledge in two places. The first, where the
water really pounded over I sat on the rocks as the water massaged my back and shoulders and the water against
my head created enough noise to drown out all sound. The second fell into the
water and while the water fell on your head the rest of you was under water so
it was a very different experience! Underneath the ledge was a big area that
was covered in moss and Maiden Hair Ferns.
On the way out of the water the boys were having fun with
the fish that inhabited the pond. As Jacko stood up to go his massive frame was
too much for the timber decking to withstand and him foot went straight through
it. The poor bugger was pretty rattled and a bit scratched an bruised. While he
hobbled back out of the gorge with De, Sam and I rushed ahead to get the truck
and bring it back to the closest point. It was 2:30 by the time we returned, it
had been a great morning.
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| Ants nest - surrounded by spinifex seeds |
The afternoon was spent sitting in the shade of the van reading
books while the boys completed their “Junior Ranger” booklets and returned them
to get their “Junior Ranger Patch”. At one stage we were all sitting there when
you could hear the wind increasing. A bit weird I thought, and then over the
next 20 seconds it got stronger and louder and then all of a sudden a whirl
wind passed right through the centre of out camp! It picked the solar panel up
and flicked it a few metres and grabbed hold of a foam mat and deposited it a
couple of meters up a tree 10 meters away. It was pretty cool but was happy
that it was only a small one!
The boys got a game of soccer going late in the afternoon
and we headed up for a short ‘happy hour’ at Mark & Amy’s. Soon the
telescope was out as it was a full moon and after dinner Jack got the moon map
and managed to locate some key landmarks, that I thought was pretty cool as I
had tried unseccsefully to do it the night before! We also managed to take a
couple of pics of the moon on my phone using the telescope....now that is
realllly cool!
It had been a big day and the boys were in bed and after
finishing Rowan Of Rin they were asleep before their heads hit the pillows!
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