"Three girls, a man and a caravan".: Exploring the magnificent Dales Gorge & Circular Pool at Karijini NP

Karijini NP is all about gorges and long walks. It wasn't long before the kids woke up to this and dreaded getting into the car. The first real big walk we did was on our 2nd day, a loop walk that covered Dales Gorge and Circular Pool. We knew it was going to be a big day so we packed heaps of snacks the girls were set with their camel backs in place. Although it was a cold, as soon as we set off for the walk it soon warmed up, the sun coming out and thawing us out. Jumpers were off and tied around our waists. The walk took us down past Fortescue Falls and we decided to keep going up the path to Fern Pool, which was surrounded with ferns lining the pool under the falls. Real magical fairyland type of place, there were silly people swimming in the pool to the falls, must be English!

Just hanging around!

Fern Pool

Next step was to scale the rock slate cliff to the stepping stones and get on the path to Circular Pool, hiking thru Dales Gorge. We meandored thru and over small rocks and walked along creeks. It was stunning. The kids even had fun! The small falls cascading from the creek were such a treat. We all felt a little challenged with having to scale the sides of cliffs and step over water on the stones provided conveniantly thru the creeks. We were mesmerized with the rocky cliffs and stone formations, coming across a what seemed like a hole in the cliff when in actual fact it was an eroded stone pillar holding the cliff up!

Watch your step Meg...

Marty wanting to keep Meg's feet
dry seeing start

Ton lending a helping hand!

Jordyn taking a closer look..

Can not believe this is holding the
ledge up!

Another ledge walk along the creek...

Hang on Meg!

So beautiful....

Yet another creek crossing...

Tongue out helps tremendously!

Blue asbestos in the rocks....

Circular Pool was so tranquil filled with sounds of trickling water and lined with wet moss and ferns. So blessed to be surrounded bu this wonderous country.... Around the rock walls surrounding the pool were painted hand prints. The girls couldn't resist and left their mark, or should l say, hands on the wall of history! I was full of excitement trying to capture this place on camera but the kids were making it difficult with playing up and being silly, so with that Ton and l decided we would come back tomorrow without the kids and photograph the shit out of this place!!!

Meg not so happy with the walk now!

Boo still enjoying it though....1 out of 2
aint bad!

The gang...

Magical wonderland...

Painting of the hands!

C'mon Marty, smile...

Jordyn and Meg...queens of the castle!

Marty always helping out....

We trekked back over the creeks and turned to walk up the hill, stopping to marvel at a distance the blue asbestos in the rocks. There were warning signs up everywhere so we knew about it in the area, just weird to see this life devastating fiber in its natural environment. The kids were getting restless so we made sure to keep them moving, all of them whining going up the hill. Must admit it was pretty steep!!! The rest of the walk was pretty easy and we ended up at the Dales Gorge Lookout which was amazing! We were on the home stretch and when we got back to the Fortescue Falls lookout, our starting point, Marty looked at his GPS compass (yes l know, such the Boy Scout) and it said we had just walked a total of 6.48km!!! Pretty big distance, no wonder the kids had had enough, and we completed it all in 3.5 hours!!! Obviously when we got back to camp we put our feet up, thinking the kids would want to rest, but no, they played their made up games running about the campground!