Karijini National Park Dales Gorge

Waking after a chilly night as we are in the desert and a higher altitude than the coast, we walked the short distance from the camp to Dales Gorge. The landscape in this area is completely flat and it would be hard to know the gorges are there. Three gorges meet here with pools at the end of each with waterfalls that must be spectacular in the wet season. After dropping down into the first gorge we went to the circular pool at it's terminus - the way into it is like a movie set from Indiana Jones, completely natural but looking like an ancient fort. After visiting the Circular pool we back tracked and took another gorge, walking along the bottom with towering walls either side. The river crosses several flat rock areas creating more pools and falls. Fortescue Falls has terracing leading down to the blue water and was busy due to the Western Australia national holiday (about 20 people there). We continued deeper into the gorge to the Fern pool past Fruit Bats in the trees and looking out for the snakes we'd been warned about on this stage. As it's not super hot they aren't too aggressive- so that's all right then! The Fern Pool was very quiet and serene with a waterfall at one end. The water was luke warm and the waterfall water was actually quite warm. The blue water is quite deep and has many fish that like to nibble your feet.Read more