Karijini National Park, part 2

6 April 2012 – It rained last night, mosquitoes love rain… Gees they’re everywhere.

I drive out to the next gorges, take lots of pictures and stop at Harmersley Gorge for a final swim. And damn I should have brought my waterproof bag Celine gave me, as the scenery is just fabulous. Picture this : you walk down a series of steps on a short track, leading down to the bottom of the river. There you start swimming. It’s shallow enough to walk at first but quickly you have to swim through, and you can’t touch bottom. The walls each side of this narrow river are at least 30m tall, the colors vary from dark red and black to amber, yellow and orange. The sun makes it all eery. Further downstream, the canyon narrows and it’s no wider than one meter now, then you climb down a ladder and end up in a massive rock pool, maybe 40m in diameter, with the cliff walls climbing up to 50m at least.

Shit I should have brought the camera. The water is warm, clear, I just want to stay here all day ! Thanks Kwentine for the tip !

It’s time to head out though, as I promised Pete I’d give him back the set of spare keys I forgot (from Rockingham, remember, Andrea and Pete, geez, readers, keep up).
The road goes around the park to the ghost town of Wittenoom, which is no longer on any map, though people still live there. It was declared hazardous zone in 1966 when asbestos was found in high quantities in the miners lungs. The town had been mining for blue asbestos for decades but as the effects of this material were discovered, the town was shut down. The government refuses to recognize its part of responsibilities so they thought it was easier to erase the town from all maps, as if the town had never existed. A handful of people still live there, running a camping and a souvenir shop. Even the town’s name has been scraped from the road signs.

The road from Wittenoom to Karratha is dusty, scorching hot, and straight as an arrow. There is nothing for 300km, except for mining trucks and yet more red dust. Eventually I arrive at Karratha at sunset, of course all campsites are fully booked since the town is also a mining town, so I camp at the Shell Roadhouse parking, between semis and road trains, most of which keep their engine at idle for the aircon. And so they should because the area (Karratha, Port Hedland, Marble Bar) is known to be the hottest in Australia…

On the carpark, I catchup with a bunch of French backpackers, we’ve been tailing each other since Monkey Mia, their three campervans and I. We all seem to follow the same itinerary…

I meet up with Pete on his way back from the gas plant, and we say goodbye for the second time in two weeks. See you in two years mate.

Distance today: 636km, total: 9478km.