Day 26 – 14th June

Day 5 in the national park and our supplies are running low… Dave tried his hand at making some bread in the Weber.  Dave has a long history of making bread...  We own a bread maker at home and EVERY time Dave attempts to make a loaf he produces yet another brick…  So, I think it is fair to say the expectation level was set low…  

It turns out his luck had changed… his bread actually turned out really well… nothing like warm bread with melted butter for lunch.  Dave was pretty chuffed with himself ;) 

Our last full day at Karijini was spent exploring the area in and around Dales Gorge.  We walked along the top of the gorge until we reached Fortescue Falls.  Here, there are some steps down to the falls then a short walk through to Fern Pool. 

Fern Pool is a gorgeous spot… we loved it so much we ended up coming back three times for a swim.  Thankfully the water is not as icy as the other pools so even I managed to jump in each time.  The thing to do is swim over to the waterfall.  We had been given some prior advice about the distance from the platform to the waterfall so we were prepared and took noodles for the kids.  

After our ‘refreshing’ swim we headed back to sun ourselves on the rocks at Fortescue Falls before trekking back along the base of the gorge.  

Another fun fact for the day… I never knew asbestos was actually mined from within the gorges.  After seeing a display in the Visitor Centre we then noticed how prevalent asbestos is… 

For anyone who knows Aiden, they know he is a livewire… he jumps and bounces and jiggles and talks and talks and pings… Karijini can be a dangerous place… there are a million ways to seriously hurt yourself here.  Of course we did the talk at the start about the dangers and the need to go slowly, blah, blah, blah.  Anyhow, I truly expected some blood somewhere along the line… He managed to last until the very last day… First up he stepped onto a super slippery rock at Fortescue Falls and slipped down a couple of levels of the terraced rocks… this could have been a disaster but luckily he only copped a few grazes.  Then, as we were walking along the base he stood up before he had cleared some rocks and cracked his head… again, no blood, just a solid lump… All things considered I think we did pretty well…