We had a fantastic day in the spectacular gorges of Karijini after very ordinary start. We eagerly waited for our 8.30am tour bus until about 9.00am when we thought something must be up. The Karijini Eco Retreat called our tour operator Lestok Tours and confirmed our booking had been lost. Lestok were very apologetic, refunded our money and offered to pay for a tour if we could get one somewhere else but said there was no way they could do the tour. We were in a right pickle as the other tour operator had already left for the day and if you have no car there is no way to get about the National Park. Fortunately Bec and Brad, the assistant managers at the Retreat really are the epitome of Pilbara hospitality and could not bear to see us stuck. They quickly had a packed lunch made up and offered to drive us to Knox Gorge and Weano and Hancock Gorge in their private vehicle. That involved two trips for Brad, one to Knox where he dropped us for 3 hours and then picked us up and dropped us to the dual gorge of Weano and Hancock. And we ended up having a fantastic day hiking the gorges. We suspected we ended up having a better day being left to our own devices rather than being stuck to a tour operator's timetables. The pictures below tell the story of how amazing the gorges are if you are willing to hike beyond the lookouts and get into the guts of the gorges. It might mean climbing a little and getting wet but it is well worth it.
The pictures below are of Knox Gorge.
The pictures below are Weano Gorge
The pictures below are of Hancock Gorge
Philip the Karijini resident astrologer came highly recommended from all who had been on his evening celestial tour (and even those who hadn't) so we decided to see what the fuss was about. Apart from feeling we may have paid to get hypothermia it reinforced the enormity of our universe and our small part in it. The telescopes show up the rings of Saturn, craters of the moon, star clusters that appear to the naked eye to be a single star and had the zodiac symbols pointed out. The facts about number of stars, size of galaxies and celestial distances are mind blowing.
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