Adventures in the Outback

Circular Pool

Excited from our day in Hancock Gorge and Handrail Pool and still suffering from jet lag (note this is day 11 in Oz) we get up early.  It rained all night and is still gray and drizzling.  With all the warning about ways to die in the gorges with flash floods I wonder if we should leave this god forsaken place and go to the beach.  No, we drove a massive amount of time to get here, and we're going to see everything Karijini has.  Off to Dales Gorge. Dales Gorge is all the way back at the entrance to the park, where we came in...45km on the gravel road.  Fine, we load up the car with all of us and the food (to keep it cool) and drive the hour over to Dales.

Dicey but fun

Fern Pool

Dales is a lot more lush than what we saw yesterday.  I believe these pools are spring fed so they have water almost constantly.  The sign at this hike actually doesn't say anything about not hiking if it looks like it might rain; so like any naive tourist, we march right down.  It's raining a little but the walk is beautiful and it's not slippery.  At the bottom of the gorge are these massive Gum trees that shoot up.  In the picture above you can see the trees, but can't appreciate how large they actually are.  The hiking has some dicey parts, but mostly it's an easy walk along the bottom of the gorge.  There are a couple of things to see around here.  Circular pool, Fortescue Falls, and Fern Pool.  Fern Pool is the most idyllic, and is probably shown on every advertisement for Karijini.  Fern pool is sacred to the natives, so Brent was denied a cannonball.  But we did end up going for a swim.  Brent and I got to swim in under the waterfalls.  Gorgeous, placid, warm water.  After Fern pool we leave the canyon and proceed to the Visitors' Center. In the Visitors' Center we ask 3 dumb questions.
 1. Are there any snakes in Karijini (or something to this effect)?  The lady showed us an awesome picture of a python pulling up a kangaroo in...you guessed it Fern Pool.  Nice.
2. If there is anything that we shouldn't miss, what is it?  Hamersley Gorge.  Oh you mean the gorge that is all the way out of the park then another 25km up on another dirt road?  Great.
3. There is a "shortcut" on the map from Tom Price to Nanutarra.  Looks like a dirt road, how bad is it?  Oh it's great, she says.  They're doing construction near there and the road is now paved.  Will probably save you an hour.
Aren't the Australians so helpful.  Actually the Australians are nice...but the ones who work in the tourist industry are...less than ideal.

From there we head back to see some other gorge nicknamed 'Grandma's Gorge.'  A nice easy one.  On the drive there we take advantage of there being a little water on the road and get to grab this awesome picture.

Weeeeee!

Then we get this great picture.

Shit

Great.  Blown tire.  I've never blown a tire before.  Luckily Brent and Monbill were on top of it.  They are unloading everything out of the car.  Monbill's got the jack out and he's lifting up the car, like this is a normal thing.  We're driving an SUV from Broome to Perth, you would think it would come with a full size spare.  Nope.  Donut.  Great.  Monbill and Brent change the tire, and all of Australia gives us advice on how to not blow a tire.  In our time there we heard these theories, Slow and low (let air out), Fast and hard, Slow and Hard.  We load the blown tire back in the car, skip Grandma's gorge and head back to the campsite.  

Here Monbill, Brent and I get into Monbill's car and pray that we can get a replacement tire in Tom Price. I assumed they would have tires for us.  But what if they don't? What if they have to order one? Are we stuck in Karijini for a week?  How much does a tire cost anyway?  Monbill's tires for his car were about $300 for all 4.  Ok....60-80 bucks...we can handle that....maybe a little more cause we're out in the middle of no where?

Now the race against the sunlight starts.  In Monbills's car we book it to Tom Price.  About 45K takes over an hour, much of which is on dirt roads.  Tom Price, knowing the basics of supply and demand have a population of about 100 and 2 tire shops.  We pull up to the first one, after Monbill nearly got us run over by the biggest mining truck I have ever seen (for future reference, if you have a choice to suddenly pull out in front of a 200 ton truck...don't).  We get out of the car and this super friendly dog comes up to us.  He's a little red from the dirt, but so happy to see us.  I pet him, and he wants to get in the car..."No...get out of there...silly dog."  We go to get the tire out of the trunk and the dog is trying to get in the trunk, tail wagging, tongue out.  I gently push him away and say to the guy, "Wow, you've got a friendly dog."  "That's not my fucking dog!" he elegantly states.  "Aaah!"  I throw my hands up, now thinking that I really need to wash after touching this mangy, random wild dog.  The guy goes to change the tire and the dog doesn't stop.  Soon we hear, "Fuck off dog!" emanating from the garage.  But it doesn't sound like an American "Fuck", this guy is real outback Australian with a think accent, so it sounds like "Fook."  This "Fook off" becomes a mantra for the rest of our trip.  Done with the tire and presented with the bill.  Yup, just like we thought. They must have a price chart set up for where you are from and how "Fooked" you are.  Americans in Karijini? $240 for a tire.  Fine whatever.

On the way out of Tom Price we see this impressive train starting.  This train is like what you imagine from the Old West days...carting iron out of Tom Price...we're talking 2 mile long train.  Cool to see.  We find a turn off of a place to take pictures, pull in and take some.  There is a somber memorial to the dead up there and we hope that these are not all miners who have been lost.

Memorial to the dead outside Tom Price

As we drive back to the campsite we notice that we have to cross the train tracks.  Monbill quips, "Hey, look for the train."  I look left and nothing there, but when I look to the right, it is there.  As we cross the tracks the red lights start to flash and the gates come down.  If we had spent 5 more seconds taking pictures we would have had a great view of that train for probably an hour as it slowly chugged by.  Ecstatic that we got a tire, got ahead of the train, and are within a couple easy Ks of home, we stop again for some pictures.

Dan on anthill at Sunset, note the red on the pants that is still there today.

Lazy parkour at Sunset

When we get back we put the tire on in the dark.  Monbill and Brent are tire masters! Off with the donut, on with the new one.  Amazing!  We've never been so happy to be back, eat some stir fry, play some cards, and lay down in our tent (the boys are still sleeping in the cars).  You appreciate the little things when you are out here.

Tomorrow we drive to the coast...or so we think.