Day 49 06/08/2013 Karijini NP.
It was the coldest night we have had for a while.....we were awake early but then snuggled under the doona and went back to sleep. It was after 7am when we woke again! We had a cooked breakfast and didn't leave camp until 9.45am....aren't we the lazy ones???? We, or should I say I, drove 45 minutes to the Weano Recreation Area where there are several gorge walks and a couple of swimming holes. Nowhere in the literature we have does it say that walking through water is necessary for any of these walks. I had even spoken to the Ranger as we set off, and had said to him "any tips?" He had replied, "watch your step"! So......we were totally un-prepared....and quite annoyed because we could have taken our Wickelfisch and our water shoes, as well as our hiking boots!!!! We can only assume that the amount of water in the gorges was unusual because even the signage boards at the gorges themselves did not mention wading through, (often waist-deep), water. The Wickelfisch was back at camp, and our water shoes were in the car, but we had gone too far on our first walk to turn back to get them. So.....when we came to deep water we left our hiking boots and the back pack with the camera, (no, we hadn't brought the water camera either!!), and continued with the walk....or in my case, sometimes swim, (yay.....we had brought swimmers 'cos we knew there were permanent pools to swim in!), through the water. It was really cold! We did the hardest walk first, through Hancock Gorge. This was classed as a Level 5 walk for the main part and there were two ladders to negotiate down into the gorge.
The walk went via an 'Amphitheatre' and ended at 'Kermit's Pool', which was reached via the 'Spider Walk', a steep, narrow section which was only 'easy' to negotiate because you could hold on to both sides of the wall as you climbed down. Again, this section had water in it, so it was inclined to be slippery. I had a quick swim in Kermit's pool.....it was cold. Brrrrr!
We re-traced our steps and were back at the car park for lunch, two hours after we had set off. Following lunch we walked to Handrail pool, although didn't quite make it down to the pool! We just looked into it and decided that the very steep, slippery climb down to the pool, via a handrail, was not for us! I'm sure we could have managed it, but we are a long way from help out here if anything should go wrong. Anyway, one Class 5 walk in a day is probably enough at our age! Again, there was water to wade through on this walk too.
We were back at the car by 3.15pm and decided to call it a day, even though there were more walks in the area. We felt that we had done the best ones!
Tomorrow we are going to be more prepared for every eventuality!
Back at camp we had a cup of tea and relaxed until dinner. We both felt rather tired!
It will be early to bed, so that we are ready for more gorge walks tomorrow!
It is shaping up to be a cold night!