Day 5 – Karijini (Weano, Hancock, Knox & Joffrey Gorge)

Monday, 15/08/2022

My sleep was rudely interrupted at 5:45am by Daniel’s blasted alarm going off. After mumbling my annoyance at him, I curled up and went back to sleep while he crept out of bed to get some sunrise timelapses. Once the sun had actually crested the horizon, I finally dragged myself from the comfort of the tent and we made quick work of packing up. With four gorges to get through we needed the early start. It was about a 1hr drive along some corrugated gravel roads to the small group of gorges from Dale’s campground.

We decided to start with Hancock gorge, which is home to Kermit’s Pool. We parked at the carpark and followed the signs to the entrance of the gorge. The descent was very steep and quite a long climb down. From the bottom it was a trek alongside a riverbed with plenty of slippery rocks and precarious ledges. We came to a point where people had been leaving backpacks, so we followed suit and stashed ours before continuing. The gorge was spectacular. Now I’m probably going to say that about all of them, but it’s true. From where we dropped our pack it became a bit of a rock-climbing adventure where you could either trek through some deep water or traverse across the rocks and ledges on the sides. We opted for the rocks, clambering along some very narrow and slippery ledges with small hand holds. Eventually we had to walk though water in some sections, so the shoes got wet as we navigated the freezing water ways.

Before long we popped out into a natural amphitheatre. Here, we ditched our sunnies and hats as we prepared to make the final climb to Kermit’s pool – A very narrow crevice with a flowing stream over slipper rock underfoot. It was relatively busy, so we had to wait for a few people to climb out of the crevice before we went in. The gorge narrowed to about one-person width, and the rock beneath the water was coated in black algae that was like grease to stand on, both with and without shoes. I opted to go for a Spiderman approach and climbed very carefully through the narrowed section by planting my feet and hands on either side of the gorge and straddling my way through. I couldn’t look back to see how Daniel went for fear of falling or slipping. Shortly, the gorge started widening to about 3m across – more than I could straddle. So, I was forced to take on the slippery decline on the floor that led down to Kermit’s pool.

As we rounded a slight bend in the gorge, we finally saw Kermit’s pool. Wow. Just, wow. This beautiful little pool was nestled under towering walls of rock that twisted and turned their way to the top, leaving very little gaps for sunlight to reach the pool. There was a small natural ledge around one side of the pool, and some people were bravely climbing into the water and getting some cool photos. We politely waited for them to finish before we stripped off our shoes and shirts and jumped in. Holy Mother of Lord was it cold! The pool didn’t get much sunlight at all throughout the whole day, and as a result the water is icy cold. It was enough to take my breath away, and Daniel’s too. But it was incredible to float on your back, looking up at those twisting rocks above you in this private little pool. It was absolutely incredible and well worth the freeze. Eventually, once we’d gotten our share of photos and GoPro footage, we put our shoes back on and made the parkour climb back out to the amphitheatre.

After a quick sunbake on the rocks to defrost, we made out way back up to the top. The climb out was a decent cardio workout with my heart rate working well up into the high one hundreds. We had a quick drink break at the top and then it was on to the next gorge!

Weano gorge was right next door to Hancock, and home to the famous Handrail pool. I was very excited for this one. The climb down wasn’t too bad – we’d had worse. Before long we were clambering over slippery rocks that poked up from where they’d fallen into the gorge. Trees still grew all along the bottom of the gorge, fed by the small stream of water winding its way down between the rocks. This gorge was also classified as Class 5, which was fair enough. The gorge started to narrow until we were walking single file, navigating the slippery rock base and shear, smooth rock face on either side. The walls of the gorge twisted as they rose up, blocking off any direct sunlight and casting us in cool shade. We navigated around a small rock pool, or at least Daniel did – I was still wet from Hancock gorge, so I walked straight through it! The ground started to slope downwards, the walls only about a metre apart, and the rock underfoot was smooth and slick from the constant stream of water from somewhere upstream. We rounded a bend and were rewarded with the end goal – Handrail pool.

It was incredible. The gorge opened right up into a massive circular opening, with the walls opening up too, allowing some sunlight to shine down to a small part of the pool. A majority of it was still under shade permanently though, which meant this water would be extremely cold. From where we were standing, the rock floor dropped down a few meters in a sheer cliff face, the water creating a nice little waterfall to the right into the pool below. This was where the name Handrail pool originated from – There was a handrail that you held onto to climb down the cliff face, and a little ladder had been built out of bits of rock bolted to the rock face. We made the final descent and took in the view.

I was keen to have a swim, so I left Daniel to his careful foot placement and slipped and slid my way down to the water’s edge. The moment I stepped into the knee-deep water I understood what people meant about Fern pool being ‘warm’ in comparison. The deeper I walked, the colder it got. It felt like a thousand tiny knives piercing my skin wherever the water touched. It truly was cold to the point of pain. Being the lovely caring girlfriend I am, I made Daniel come in too. He bravely ventured in to about waist deep and decided that was enough for him. But I just had to go all in and know what it was like, so with Daniel ready to take a photo with the GoPro, I dove into the middle of the pool. The sudden cold literally makes you gasp. It’s like your lungs constrict of their own accord as you swim through the glacial water. I lasted about a minute before I headed back to shallower waters.

From here we saw you could continue down the gorge in the water. The gorge walls narrowed back down to about 2-3m wide with layered rocks creating a textured wall on each side. The walls also started to overhang again, leaving the water in permanent shade. I have never, ever swam in water that cold before. It made Green’s Pool in Denmark seem like a thermal spring by comparison! But damnit, we really wanted to know what hidden treasure was waiting at the end. After rounding a few corners, our bodies actually numb to the cold now, we came to the end. There was a bit of rock you could climb out onto, so we stopped for a break. The gorge continued but was chained off to stop people from going any further. And for good reason! Beyond the chain the gorge dropped a good 10-20m into more twists and turns and continued to drop down into further sections. It was stunning to see, but given how slippery the ground was it was quite terrifying too. One slip and you would be a goner. So, after admiring the view from a safe distance we made our way back through the arctic river to Handrail pool.

We enjoyed the sights and wonder that is nature and made the climb back out. Weirdly, as cold as the water had been, I didn’t feel cold once we were out. The ambient temperature was so nice, you didn’t stay cold for long. We made it back up out of the gorge (another cardio workout) and headed off to the next two – Knox and Joffrey gorge.

Unfortunately, we had taken a bit longer than we’d expected in the first two gorges, and by the time we got to Knox and Joffrey we only had time to explore one of them before sunset. After checking out the lookout to Joffrey Falls and the gorge there, we decided to do Knox instead. This was by far the hardest one we’d done. It was proper Class 5! The climb down was more like finding your way along a goat track that twisted down a slightly crumbled part of the gorge wall. There were loose rocks and shale and gravel, large drops to climb down, and steep slopes. All I could think was that if going down was this hard, I was NOT looking forward to climbing back up! In saying that, it was quite fun and had a lot more of a ‘natural’ feel to it compared to the other gorge entrances we’d been down.

Once we got to the bottom, we peaked right to check out a beautiful little pool with jungle/rain forest type trees surrounding it. Looking up, we saw HUNDREDS of bats hanging from the branches! I’ve never seen bats in the daytime before and never so many in one spot. But they were having some kind of chaotic family meeting, making a tonne of noise screeching at each other and probably at us for standing in their territory. Some of the bats were shoving each other like siblings having a squabble over something petty. We stood and watched them for a while longer, entranced by the strange encounter with the bats. Eventually we trekked back to the main path and started our short walk down Knox gorge. Well, I thought it was short, but Daniel thinks it was the longest out of all the ones we did, so who knows.

This was by far my favourite gorge to walk through. The walls towered impossibly high above us, much higher than the other gorges we had explored. And the hiking trail was a bit like a natural jungle gym or adult parkour course that had me really excited. There was a lot of finding your way across random, uneven, slabby rocks, walking through streams or large puddles, and skirting deep pools and small crevices by scaling along the gorge wall by your fingers and toes. We made it to the end of the gorge in good time considering the uneven and tricky footing along the way.

What awaited at the end was incredible. More Karijini magic, as I was starting to call it. A small stream flowed along the gorge floor, with walls about 1.5m high on either side, a small ledge on which you could walk, and then the towering gorge walls. The end had been chained off as the gorge walls narrowed and the stream dropped off a ledge into what looked like a very narrow canyon. Looking through the gap you could see the gorge went on a lot further, with more twists and turns and drops – Definitely not somewhere I’d want to be walking, but fantastic to look at.

We climbed down to the rocky stream bed and took some cool photos looking back up the gorge. Once again, my amateur photography skills failed to capture the full magnificence of the gorge, but it at least gives you an idea. We stayed and took some more photos and filmed a bit before starting the trek back. After a couple of small detours and missing the path out of the gorge completely, we eventually found our exit point and started the climb back out.

I had been right to anticipate this being a difficult climb! Some of the rock faces we had to climb back up were a good foot or two higher than me, so there was a bit of proper rock climbing happening. I opted to hand Daniel the backpack to make it a little easier for myself, but I was well and truly in my peak cardio zone by the top. Daniel fared better once again, what with his extra long legs and extra height making a lot of what are rock climbing experience for me into casual step climbing for him. We got back to the car and enjoyed the AC before getting ready to head off again. After all the driving around Karijini, and the DMAX’s larger-than-expected appetite, we had to make a trek into Tom Price for some more fuel. It’s about a 100km drive to Tom Price from the Dales campground, and probably about 80km from where we were at the carpark for Knox gorge. So, we used our emergency back-up jerry can of diesel to top us up with enough fuel to make it to Tom Price.

It was a spectacular drive into Tom Price with the huge hills and valleys rolling as far as we could see. We saw a huge iron ore train winding its way around a hill, going for about a kilometre long as is the norm for the huge iron ore mines in that area. We marvelled at the feats humanity has achieved and I pondered how we went about designing and constructing the first ever excavators and loaders as we drove through huge cutaways in the hills. Soon we came to the Coles Express servo in Tom Price and fuelled up the now-empty DMAX as well as the now-empty emergency jerry can. I enjoyed using a flushing toilet and bought some of my beloved vanilla coke, and we stocked up on more drinking water in the form of a 24 pack of 600mL water bottles. With a KitKat to snack on and some soft drink to keep us awake, we made the drive in the dark back to Dales campground. By the time we got back it was quite late, so we quietly set up the tent, I cooked some pasta while Daniel transferred all our footage to the SSD, and we called it a night. Another spectacular day in Karijini, enjoying all that the gorges had to offer.