Crystalline Cascades – Day 3 at Karijini National Park

For our final day in this overwhelmingly gorgeous part of the world, we planned a leisurely stroll down Dales Gorge to Fortescue Falls and Fern Pool. We had met another travelling family while we had lunch the day before – “Excuse me, are you from Big Bertha? We have a friend in common and she told me to look out for you”. Lexie thinks we’re famous now! They in turn had introduced us to 2 more families and we had a bus chock-a-bock full of children once more. Thank God for loom bands and Lego – keeps them enthralled for hours.

Anyway. The next day we went for the walk along the gorge that the awfully negative couple had talked me out of on the first day. We clambered back down the mountain goat track and turned right instead of left and walked right along the bottom of the gorge. It was a level 3 hike, but had lots of stepping stones. We even got lost at one stage, where PLENTY of others had also gotten lost before. There was a well-worn trail leading to a dead end, thanks to a very poorly directed and rather obscure signpost.

The scenery was breathtaking yet again. The way the plants grip on and flow over the rocks are just beautiful. Karijini is relatively close to the town of Wittenoom, the asbestos capital of Australia, and there are seams of blue asbestos running throughout the rocks and walls. There are warning signs up, and we kept our distance, but it was interesting to see.

 When we got to Fortescue Falls, I was rather taken aback to find a trail of stepping stones leading ACROSS the wide pool. All the previous stones had been alongside the walls of the gorge, with well-placed crevasses for your hands. This was quite a challenge for someone as uncoordinated as myself! Sadly I chose the MOST unflattering t-shirt to wear - you would never guess that I have actually lost a heap of weight. That t-shirt is going straight in the bin, but here are the photos anyway!

As we arrived on the other side of the gorge, the tribe of children from the night before appeared on the trail, so we had company for the short stroll to Fern Pool. There are little fish in the pool, and its rather chilly, so our scardey cats didn’t want to swim after all.

We had a chilled out afternoon meeting and chatting to the other families and finishing the Junior Ranger booklets.

  

The next morning, before we left, we had a visit from a friend from my work. What a lovely surprise! Lizzie and Tim were staying at the other campground and swung past for a quick visit. It was so nice to catch up with someone from home – and so soon after seeing Jerry too!