Curo had his last ever Tom Price visit this past long weekend... so I had to plan something truly unforgettable! We ventured out to Karijini, braving the below zero nighttime temperatures in a real tent! No delux "eco-tents" this time... (*sob). We headed out on Friday afternoon, just before the sunset and cooked up a storm on the bbq. That night, I was woken at least 5 times to sound of howling dingoes... luckily Curo convinced me that we were safe as "dingoes only eat babies"! This even swayed our wine choice the following night, opting for a bottle of 'howling wolves' to accompany our aussie meat plate... Crocodile is still my favourite!
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| No eco-tent luxury... |
The next day we did my 3 favourite gorges; Weano, Hancok and Joffre, spider walking and all. I remember swimming with Mum and Dad at the same time last year, but I think something has happened to me... maybe I've acclimatised and find anything below 40 degrees cold? I'm sure the water froze my ankle bones, I literally felt teary even having my toes in the water. Any spots of water walking had to be done at an extremely fast pace and swimming was definitely out of the question... I felt quite guilty for teasing Dad about his cold ankles last year!
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| Hancock Gorge - on the way to Kermit's Pool |
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| Showing the world how spider walking is done! |
After another night fending off dingo attacks and making the freezing temperatures bearable with a 'wine blanket', we packed up (EVERYTHING was a dark shade of red) and set off early, intending to do the Hamersley Gorge loop on the way back to town. About 15km before the turn-off onto sealed road, a Britz hire van came flying around the corner and rolled about 300m in front of us! If we had left 30 seconds earlier they would have crashed straight into us! Approaching the accident I was mentally checking off my CPR skills and was truly surprised to see the 2 boys struggle out of the wreck. The driver had his arm out the window as the car rolled so I cleaned his wounds and put his arm in a sling while Curo went to get help. 2 hours later 'help' arrived in the form of the ranger... you wouldn't want anything worse than a broken arm that's for sure! It really gave me another insight into how unprepared tourists are for the isolation of the Australian outback. These Swiss boys didn't have water (but had plenty of beer), had zero experience on dirt tracks and failed to get insurance on unsealed roads... whoops! Bet they bought a lotto ticket later that day!!
Sadly, saving lives prevented us from getting out to Hamersley, but it certainly didn't wreck the rest of our adventure. We had a thai dinner party that night and a scrabble re-match. I won this time... thank god!
It definitely was unforgettable. Every time I head out to the national park I am amazed by how beautiful WA is. In all honesty, I have changed... I know I'll be making time for camping and outback adventures from now on!!
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