Rose to another beautiful dawn. We had breakfast at the Eco retreat restaurant. We have booked a tour of the gorges with Lestok tours. They were meant to pick us up at 8.30am. At 8.40am I inquired at the reception and found out that the bus had broken down on the way from Tom Price. There were three german girls from the Eco retreat who were also on the tour. We took the opportunity to set up our bikes for the ride on the gravel roads out of the Eco retreat tomorrow whilst we waited for the bus. The bus turned up at 9.30am. There were seven peiople on the tour, an english couple from Newark, three german girls, Colin and I. We hammered along the gravel road to our first stop at the Oxer lookout where three gorges meet. 
We looked down to the bottom .. over 130 metres deep..... quite spectacular. The weather was beautiful with a nice cool breeze making it very comfortable. The next gorge we visited was Weano which we climbed down into and walked along the bottom rock hopping to avoid getting out feet wet. The rocks were very slippery when wet so it was important to keep our feet dry. In the Karijini NP they rate the walks from 1 to 6 where 1 is a liesurely stroll and 6 you need rock climbing experience. The walk down the Weano gorge started as a 3 but when we got to a narrow channel to get to "handrail pool" it turned into a 5 !!! The guide warned us and we had the choice to continue or go back. Four of us made it to handrail pool where there were a bunch of young people (mainly girls) cavorting around the pool so it was worth the effort. We had lunch at the Karijini Visitors centre where we checked out the history of the area and Colin managed to leave his credit card at the souvenir shop. Luckily I was still in the exhibition and the assistant came walking through asking for Mr. Bateman. I should have kept the card until Colin wanted to use it again and see the look on his face but I didn't have the heart. After lunch we visited a viewing platform overlooking the circular pool in Dales gorge. Again it was approx. 130 metres down and there were a few people having a swim. Our guide said that the track into the gorge was pretty tough and we weren't gong to do it(thank goodness). The last place we visited was a great swimming location further down Dales gorge called Fern Pool. 
It was a fair hike to get there but it was worth it. There were warm water falls running into the pool. Colin went for swim but I didn't bother. Beside the Fern Pool was the Fortescue falls where the water from Fern pool cascaded over rock shelves down to another pool. 
Then we had to struggle back up to the bus where we collapsed and our guide took us home. The weather closed in and showers were predicted which is unfortunate as we are riding out tomorrow on about 33 kms of dirt which gets a bit slippery when wet.
We looked down to the bottom .. over 130 metres deep..... quite spectacular. The weather was beautiful with a nice cool breeze making it very comfortable. The next gorge we visited was Weano which we climbed down into and walked along the bottom rock hopping to avoid getting out feet wet. The rocks were very slippery when wet so it was important to keep our feet dry. In the Karijini NP they rate the walks from 1 to 6 where 1 is a liesurely stroll and 6 you need rock climbing experience. The walk down the Weano gorge started as a 3 but when we got to a narrow channel to get to "handrail pool" it turned into a 5 !!! The guide warned us and we had the choice to continue or go back. Four of us made it to handrail pool where there were a bunch of young people (mainly girls) cavorting around the pool so it was worth the effort. We had lunch at the Karijini Visitors centre where we checked out the history of the area and Colin managed to leave his credit card at the souvenir shop. Luckily I was still in the exhibition and the assistant came walking through asking for Mr. Bateman. I should have kept the card until Colin wanted to use it again and see the look on his face but I didn't have the heart. After lunch we visited a viewing platform overlooking the circular pool in Dales gorge. Again it was approx. 130 metres down and there were a few people having a swim. Our guide said that the track into the gorge was pretty tough and we weren't gong to do it(thank goodness). The last place we visited was a great swimming location further down Dales gorge called Fern Pool. 
It was a fair hike to get there but it was worth it. There were warm water falls running into the pool. Colin went for swim but I didn't bother. Beside the Fern Pool was the Fortescue falls where the water from Fern pool cascaded over rock shelves down to another pool. 
Then we had to struggle back up to the bus where we collapsed and our guide took us home. The weather closed in and showers were predicted which is unfortunate as we are riding out tomorrow on about 33 kms of dirt which gets a bit slippery when wet. 
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