A GORGEous day

 

Wednesday 30 June 2021 – A GORGEous day

It became quite obvious we are a further south and inland overnight as the temperature dropped much lower than we are used to.  First extra rugs and then tracksuits had to be added to get through the chilly night – all the accompaniment of dingo howls in the distance.  Consequently not the best nights sleep was had.

We warmed ourselves us up with bacon and egg sandwiches and then had to decide what to do for the day.  We eventually decided to head for the attractions at the western end of the park as that contained more lookouts and things to do that didn’t involve getting wet.  We headed off in the Discovery at about 8.45am – probably our latest start so far! – and got to the Visitor Centre just after opening.   We grabbed some more brochures/maps and then wandered around their very interesting and informative displays highlighting the National Park and the traditional owners and their relationship to the land.  Miranda and I tried to memorise the name of the tree with the long yellow wattle type flowers that are in bloom all over the place.  It is an Acacia Hamersley... (something ending in Latin that we just can’t remember!!)

Back in the Disco and we hit the 4WD only section of track and made our way over the Weano and Hancock Gorge area stopping first at the Joffre Falls lookout. The Falls were flowing but not terribly strongly and we stood at the lookout and watched the more energetic people who had climbed down the ladders from the other side of the gorge and were walking along the bottom of the cliff face and then scaling the near vertical cliff (albeit with rock ledges acting as steps) up along the side of the waterfall.  Feeling no desire to exert ourselves to that extreme we hopped back in the car and drove around to the Weano Picnic Area where we had a cuppa and ate the left over cake from last night.

We then spent a while at the Information Board trying to work out the difference between the Upper Weano gorge walk and the Lower Weano Gorge walk which seemed to be different to the walks outlined in the Karijiini map brochure with different walk trail classes and lengths of trip.  Handrail Pool was closed due to a number of recent “incidents” and the walk down to Kermits Pool at the bottom of Hancock Gorge looked too vertical and as a Class 5 walk requires a high level of fitness and agility. We therefore walked out to have a look at the Oxer and Junction Pool lookouts where we could see into the gorges but not as well as we might have if they hadn’t been fenced off with warning signs that due to a large amount of rainfall recently that the ground underneath was unstable with a resultant risk of giving way.  Having read these signs Larry and Hendrik then went and stood on the unstable cliff edges nearby the lookouts thereby giving Miranda mild heart failure!

After the lookouts we returned to the Weano gorge path with seemed to plummet straight downwards into the gorge. We decided this must be the Lower Weano walk to Handrail pool (which is closed) so headed back to the carpark and found the path to the Upper Weano walk which was a much easier, and flatter path along the rim of the gorge.  We got to the point where a sign said it turned into a Class 4 walk and met people coming up the hill who we had seen go down to the Lower Weano walk whilst we were standing there.  We realised then that the Upper and Lower Weano trails were a a loop and obviously nowhere near as long to traverse as the maps and information signs suggested.  Nevertheless, Jenny and Miranda were not keen on a rocky scrabble downhill plus a steep climb back out the other but Larry and Hendrik were keen to explore so we sent them off down the gorge whilst we back tracked back to the car park at a leisurely pace.

We sat and chatted for only a little while before the intrepid travellers returned only slightly puffing from their ascent up the cliff face and we nabbed a nearby picnic table and consumed our curried egg sandwiches and looked at the boys’ photos of their clamber through the gorge.

Back in the car and we back tracked to Knox lookout which, we had overheard a ranger say, is actually only 3km away from the Oxer Lookout just over the hill that runs between Hancock Gorge and Joffre Gorge but about 22km away by car going around the rim of the gorges.  The ranger was talking about hiking over the hill after a good downpour to get a photo of a waterfall that only occasionally flows and that no-one has apparently ever got a good photo of.   He thought the idea of sending a drone over to take the photo instead of slogging over a steep hill in 40 degree heat to be not very exciting.  We thought it made much more sense!!

We then got back on the bitumen and headed south out of the National Park and over to Mt Bruce.  Here all of our phones started pinging as their is Telstra coverage (whereas the NP has Optus coverage only).  We walked up to the first lookout at Mt Bruce which overlooks the ‘Marandoo’ iron ore mine site and admired the view before Jenny rang ben & Kate to make sure they are surviving lockdown.  Both kids sounded like they are more and ready for us to get home so reassured them it’s only another week and a bit.

Back to camp and it was time for a little sit down and some blogging before it was time to put on some warmer clothes and head over to H&M’s van for dinner.  It got very chilly and there was a little delay waiting for the chicken to cook so we actually had to head back to our van to put on extra jumpers and UGG boots and beanies.  It was a very clear and chilly evening and the sky was a rich tapestry of stars descending all the way down to the horizon.  Amazing what a difference no light pollution makes.

The cold night eventually drove us into the vans and we were happy to snuggle in to bed under an extra layer of sleeping bag on top of the doona.